Transforming cancer care with expertise and compassion: World Cancer Day (4 February)

• This World Cancer Day (4 February) consumer Kosta Socratous shares how Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC) Katrina Wragg RN has made a world of difference during his treatment.
• Stem Cell Transplant CNC, Ms Wragg assists patients and their families to navigate the transplant path.
• Eastern Health has tumor specific Nurse Consultants across Haematology and Oncology, based at Box Hill and Maroondah campuses. 

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PHOTOS: Available for download here.
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In 2022, Kosta Socratous was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma. After finding the disease had recurred after treatment, Mr Socratous and his family moved to Melbourne from Sydney, to begin his new course of care. 

“After about three or four different treatment cycles, it was decided that I needed a stem cell transplant, which should fix the issue of the reoccurring and aggressive cancer. After doing a bout of immunotherapy and chemotherapy I was put through to the stem cell transplant, and part of that was having Katrina there as another avenue for information,” Mr Socratous said. 

Clinical Nurse Consultants (CNC) like Katrina Wragg RN , assists patients and their families to navigate the transplant path. Ms Wragg ensures the transition through various aspects of cancer care is smooth; providing expert education and support to improve consumer experience and provide high quality healthcare.  

“She answers any questions we have, or any late-night issues that may come up. It’s a lot more convenient having someone in her role to help navigate us through everything that is going on. Having her there to be able to explain it in layman’s terms has been a great help,” Mr Socratous said. 

For 20 years, Ms Wragg has been captured by the world of oncology. In her current role, she has had the opportunity to challenge herself in many ways, including presenting at professional conferences, developing guidelines and patient education material, and completing service improvement projects.  

“I still feel like I have so much to learn and new skills to develop, but also a wealth of knowledge to pass on to our more junior workforce. There is always something new to learn. Cancer care has changed a lot over my 20-year career, and we still have much to learn and improve,” she said. 

Eastern Health has tumor specific Nurse Consultants across Haematology and Oncology, based at Box Hill and Maroondah campuses. 

“A big part of our role is identifying gaps in our service and developing improvement measures to address these. This often involves engaging teams across various aspects of Cancer Services and working together to implement changes. It is challenging, but also hugely rewarding when this improves the consumer’s experience of cancer care,” Ms Wragg said. 

The care Ms Wragg provides is holistic. She goes above and beyond, providing consumers with information, often going out of her way to check how consumers and their families are feeling throughout the process. 

“Katrina was readily available. She would give the Emergency Department a heads up that we were coming. Knowing that she was there if we needed her was also a relief in terms of managing everything that's going on,” Mr Socratous said.

“We have a lot of respect and love for Katrina for all her support for both myself, but also to my wife. She was there to answer some of those harder questions that my wife had. I was out of it for a lot of the time, so it was incredible knowing my wife had someone there around the hospital to see how she's going, even if it had nothing to do with the treatment plan directly.”