The 2024 Spot on Award for Trailblazing Australia’s National Cancer

26 November 2024
Tamara Dawson

2 min read

The 2024 Spot on Award for Trailblazing Australia’s National Cancer

The Melanoma & Skin Cancer Nurses Organisation (MSCNO) was established in 2020. They have developed accredited nurse education modules and built an incredible network of nurses across Australia. The MSCNO is now like a steering committee and the organisation has recently opened up to membership.

The MSCNO Steering Committee will determine the award winners in future years. But it gives me great pleasure to announce the Inaugural award winners.

In 2017, two of Australia’s leading melanoma clinical nurse consultants could see the incredible impact that immunotherapy and targeted therapies were having on the patient community. But they could also see that there were side effects to manage, new and emerging issues around survivorship for their patients and much, much more. They could see the crucial role of nurses and expert nursing care was only going to grow, particularly as there became more patients on these revolutionary new treatments.

They could see the need to build and share knowledge, particularly for nurses in rural and regional communities.

Building a community of practice became a focus and they established the MSCNO in 2020 with oncology nurses based in Australia’s leading hospitals.

The community of practice has now grown, with nurses in GP clinics, skin cancer clinics, dermatology practices and hospitals all around Australia.

The 2024 Nurses award is for two terrific trailblazers tackling Australia’s national cancer. The two nurses that had the original idea and the skill, commitment, passion and drive to develop the Melanoma & Skin Cancer Nurses Organisation – Donna Milne and Hayley Burridge.