Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a low-middle income country (LMIC) of 10.5 million people in the western South Pacific and Australia’s nearest neighbour. Despite increasing cancer incidence, cancer nursing is not recognized as a specialty. Within a resource-limited health system there is limited patient access to scarce cancer treatments, and the majority of patients become palliative. Across the country, however, there are many nurses who use ‘nursing as therapy’, providing care, hope, spiritual and personal interaction as nursing interventions. They often have to overcome ancient traditions and culturett, sorcery, the widespread use of traditional medicines and practices, often limited literacy, and patients’ fears of western medicine.
There had been no cancer nursing education across PNG beyond the undergraduate level. Nurses providing chemotherapy were self-taught. In 2021 we commenced weekly tutorials via ZOOM on cancer nursing to a small group of nurses at Port Moresby General Hospital (POMGEN) in preparation for a new comprehensive cancer centre to include radiation oncology services.
A range of colleagues have become involved with PNG cancer nurses: in 2022 ISNCC provided scholarships to 5 RNs to attend the virtual conference, supported by Suzanne Bishaw: this was their first exposure to the global cancer nursing community, and it ignited a literal ‘fire’ to become engaged. All five RNs wrote a blog on their experience for the ISNCC Newsletter. In June 2023 the Cancer Nurses Society of Australia (CNSA) provided scholarships for 5 RNs to attend the winter congress in Adelaide, followed by 4 RNs travelling to Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to spend one month at Canberra Hospital, supported by the ACT Nursing Directorate and Canberra Hospital. CNSA also supported 2 RNs to attend the Winter Congress in 2024. In 2023 the Papua New Guinea Oncology Nurses Association (PaNGONA) was created by RN Peter Fore to bring together nurses across the country for the first time with the support of ISNCC. In 2023 the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) provided a week-long workshop on paediatric oncology to nurses across PNG. Since then, SIOP nurses, mainly CNC Jayne Harrison, deliver a monthly session in the tutorials; they also provided a second workshop in 2024.
In September 2024 I met with the Deans of the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) Medical School about the introduction of a post-graduate diploma in oncology nursing in 2025. A further meeting with key stakeholders, sponsored by Merilyn Nicholas, Director of Nursing (DON) POMGEN, created a core group I lead in writing the curriculum with Jayne Harrison (SIOP) and Ben Felmingham (SIOP Pharmacist), supported by Andrew Dimech, DON, Peter MacCallum Institute, Melbourne Australia. This will provide career pathways in clinical expertise, management, education and research. The creation of Nurse Navigator roles across the country within a ‘hub and spoke’ model has the prospect of improving cancer care across PNG. Oncology nursing is now a specialty in PNG!
The next focus is to present a session highlighting the remarkable work of 5 PNG cancer nurses at the next ISNCC/CNSA congress in Adelaide in 2025.
Author: Pauline Rose RN, BN, M(Onc),PhD, Remote volunteer Port Moresby General Hospital, Papua New Guinea
Email: prose@cheerful.com
