The NCI’s Cancer Information Service staff training program: A foundation for excellence

Abstract

The philosophy of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Cancer Information Service (CIS) staff training program is based on the premise that a solid relationship exists between staff performance and training. As a leading edge organization and the premiere cancer information service in the world, the CIS provides more training to its staff than many organizations. This factor is in part responsible for the program's success over the past 30 years, during which time the staff training program was revised to reflect a more comprehensive, performance-based approach. This paper describes the development of the curricula and the standards that are the foundation of the CIS program.

Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: The Role of the NCI’s Cancer Information Service

“…The role of the IS in these interactions is to translate emerging and complex scientific information into information that cancer patients and family members can then apply to decision making regarding their own situation [24]. As shown in Table 2, the nature of these exchanges is wide ranging and covers a variety of cancer topics.…”

How the Comprehensive Cancer Control National Partnership shapes the public health workforce

“…As its focus on developing strategic partnerships became clearer, the NCI recognized the need to develop a staff training program based on core competencies for public health professionals [19]. The performance-based staff training program, anchored in communication science and cancer public health core competencies, is described in detail elsewhere [20].…”

Partnership as a means for reaching special populations: Evaluating te NCI’s CIS Partnership Program

“…Toward this goal, in 2006, CIS implemented a new public health core competency based national training program. 9 Through expanded cancer control training and technical assistance, CIS will seek to build the capacity of partner organizations to identify and/or adapt evidence-based programs and to focus on projects with measurable outcomes. In addition, through its Research Program, CIS will explore partnership projects that are amenable to research and evaluation.…”