About this toolkit

Purpose: To equip newly qualified nurses (NQNs) with easily accessible information that will assist them in their new roles.

Audience: Newly qualified nurses and nurses new to the Edinburgh Cancer Centre.

This handbook had been available as a hard copy and NQNs have found it very useful as a reference point. It has also received positive feedback from the wider nursing team. The abbreviations section will be particularly helpful when nurses are reading handovers to help them better understand them.

Lizi Trafford, Clinical Practice Facilitator for Edinburgh Cancer Centre, NHS Lothian: Lizi.Trafford@nhs.scot

Key author: Lizi Trafford, Clinical Practice Facilitator for Edinburgh Cancer Centre, NHS Lothian.

Reviewer and approver: Jennifer Baxter, Lead SACT nurse within NHS Lothian.

At point of publication this content has been reviewed by the following:

• Jennifer Baxter: Lead SACT nurse, NHS Lothian
• Fionagh Ross: Lead Cancer Care Pharmacist
• Alan Christie: Consultant Medical Oncologist

Review dates will be yearly from 22nd December 2025. Next review date 22nd December 2026.

Most of the toolkit is for reference and details steps on how to perform tasks/functions. Any guidelines that are mentioned, and/or medication has been backed up by links to relevant guidelines and cross referenced to other toolkits on RDS.

The Lead SACT Nurse, Pharmacist and Consultant have signed off the toolkit to go live December 2025.

A further level of sign off will be done by the Cancer Therapeutics Advisory Committee in January 2026. 

Copyright © NHS Lothian 2025.

Where external sources are cited, they have been linked to within the toolkit.

All icons are sourced from Flaticon.com [https://www.flaticon.com/ ], accessed through the licence held by Tactuum Ltd as software provider of the RDS platform.

Risks have been mitigated by providing links to guidelines support information in this toolkit.

It has been made clear that the toolkit is for reference and that when looking at the medication tile, this should not be used in isolation.

Most of this toolkit is for reference and details steps on how to perform tasks/functions. Any guidelines that are mentioned, and/or medication, has been backed up by links to relevant guidelines and cross referenced to other toolkits on RDS.

Feedback and/or complaints can be sent to Lizi Trafford at Lizi.Trafford@nhs.scot. Emails are monitored Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, excluding public holidays. Lizi Trafford will then escalate as appropriate.

Testing of this toolkit has been carried out by a range of stakeholders, including newly qualified nurses and Band 7 nurses. The feedback given was overwhelmingly positive and suggested changes have been made to the toolkit.

Extravasation - ANP Louise Maguire

Medications > Antibiotics> Vancomycin and Gentamicin – Clinical Practice Facilitator Claire Cairns

Documentation on TRACK > Admission guides – DCN Adele Ward

Referrals > Ordering a pressure relieving mattress - Jo Roberston

An accessibility check of the toolkit was done in January 2026 using the RDS standard operating procedure. The accessibility of the RDS platform technology is confirmed in the RDS accessibility statement at the bottom of every website page.