• Education projects
• Biological therapies
• BONE
• Breast cancer care
• BREATHE
• Cancer tales
• Clinical guidelines
• Partnership project
• Skeletal Care Academy
• Speak-up
• target
• TITAN
• Past projects

Training Initiative on Thrombocytopenia, Anaemia and Neutropenia (TITAN)

The EONS TITAN programme is a training and education initiative designed to improve nurses skills and knowledge when working with patients with Thrombocytopenia, Anaemia and Neutropenia. Working with the national societies, the programme has now been delivered across Europe.

The programme is undertaken in three stages:

• Pre-course revision provides a basic level of background information on haematological toxicities and takes about one hour to complete.
• A one or two day courses offers a combination of lectures, case studies and discussion sessions on the specific topics of neutropenia, anaemia and thrombocytopenia, with dedicated sessions on patient education and undertaking the dissemination project.
  >> View example course schedule
• The dissemination project, undertaken individually or in groups, provides a chance to ensure that the knowledge gained from the course is put into practice in the local clinical setting.

Forthcoming courses

TITAN courses have been running across Europe since 2004. Courses currently scheduled are as follows:

• Australia: May 2009 - contact Natalie Cooper at AMGEN Australia.
• Austria: November 2009 - contact Bernhard Glawogger
• Belgium: October 2009 - contact Ingrid Bruyns
• Germany: Leipzig, November 2009 - contact Andrea Maiwald at KOK.
• Italy: May 2009 - contact Associazione Infermieri di Assitenza Oncologica (AIAO)
• Poland: November 2009 - contact Barbara Jobda
• Switzerland: September 2009 - contact Helene Schneck

If there isn’t a course scheduled near you, you can contact your national society TITAN contact (TITANcontacts.pdf) for further information or contact EONS directly using the details at the bottom of this page.

The dissemination project

The dissemination project is an important part of programme, allowing participants to put the skills and knowledge gained in the course into practice in their work setting. However we know that participants can find the project daunting at first, so the examples below may give some ideas and guidance as to the types of projects that are suitable.

• Simple and Successful Dissemination Projects
  >> Find out more
• FN risk assessment tool
  >> Find out more
• Improving the management of febrile neutropenia in paediatric patients with cancer: experience from a shared care system in Ireland Hilary Noonan and Fiona Brady - TITAN prize winner 2006
  >> Find out more
• A visual tool to educate patients Sylvia Verhaeghe - TITAN prize winner 2005
  >> Find out more
• A flow sheet protocol for febrile neutropenia Sally O'Connor and Caitrona Dugan - TITAN prize winner 2005
  >> Find out more
• In the Picture: Supporting your care of the haemato-oncology patient who has neutropenia, anaemia and thrombocytopenia Anne Higgins and Dawn Brewer - TITAN prize winner 2005
  >> Find out more

Running a course

The TITAN programme is designed so that it can be delivered by national oncology nursing societies across Europe and tailored to their own requirements.

If you are interested in running a TITAN course, we have prepared a set of guidelines (TITANCourseGuidelines.pdf new window) to answer any questions you may have.

If you would like to go ahead, the first step is to complete the provisional application form (TITANApplicationForm.pdf), indicating the number of courses that you plan to organise - EONS will then give you feedback and/or approval within two weeks.

The course materials were updated (TITAN2008update.pdf new window) in 2008. These new materials are currently available in Czech, English, French, German, Greek and Italian, with the 2006 materials currently available in Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finish, Greek, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Background materials

The following documents give some of the background information about the TITAN project, and are aimed at readers who are interested in how the project was conceived, designed and completed.

• January 2005 - Cancer World - Haematological toxicities: frontline training for nurses. (Reproduced with kind permission of Cancer World)
  >> Read this article
• Knowledge of haematological toxicities amongst European nurses - a learning needs assessment. Foubert, J et al. European Journal of Oncology Nursing Volume 9, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 239-247
  >> Read this article
• December 05 - Journal of Supportive Oncology - TITAN: Modifying an Innovative American Program for Use With a European Audience TITAN, J Support Oncol - Volume 3, Issue 6 (Suppl.4), November/December 2005, Pages 34-35
  >> Read this article
• Fall 2008 - TITAN update: courses on track. EONS Newsletter Fall 2008
  >> Read this article

 

This educational programme was developed with sponsorship from Amgen.