Real-Life Communication
Cancer registrars are often asked to compile reports from their
data. Sometimes written reports are required. Other times, you might be required
to do a spoken presentation, maybe using charts or PowerPoint presentations
to assist you.
When you are asked to give a report, you must go to
your data to find the information you need, then decide how to present it
so your audience will understand the message.
"Communication is very
important. We do a lot of teaching and by teaching I mean presenting the information,"
says Linda Mulvihill. She's a board member with the National Cancer Registrar's
Association (NCRA).
Today, you are asked to make a spoken presentation
to a group of community agencies. They want you to explain the survival rate
for children diagnosed with cancer in your community. They want to know whether
the rates have been improving over the past 50 years. They want to know whether
advances in prevention and treatment have made a difference.
You start
by looking at this chart of survival rates:
| 1960-1969 | 1970-1979 | 1980-1989 | 1990-1999 | 2000-2009 | 2010-2015 |
| All Sites | 28 | 45 | 55.3 | 61.8 | 65 | 69.7 |
| Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia | 4 | 34 | 53.3 | 68.5 | 70.9 | 75 |
| Acute Myeloid Leukemia | 3 | 5 | 15.8 | 24.5 | 22.3 | 29.4 |
| Bone and Joint | 20 | 30 | 52.6 | 50.0 | 53.0 | 59.4 |
| Brain and Nervous System | 35 | 45 | 54.7 | 56.4 | 56.0 | 62.2 |
| Hodgkin's Disease | 52 | 90 | 80.2 | 84.6 | 91.1 | 89.5 |
| Neuroblastoma | 25 | 40 | 49.1 | 51.2 | 56.9 | 56.4 |
| Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma | 18 | 26 | 43.2 | 49.2 | 58.5 | 72 |
| Wilms' Tumor | 33 | 70 | 74.2 | 80.0 | 83.2 | 87.6 |
You decide to prepare for your talk by making some notes for yourself.
You will follow these notes during your speech. You begin by writing your
answers to possible questions your audience might have:
- What is the overall trend between 1960 and 2015?
- Which type of cancer has the best improvement in survival rate over 50
years?
- Are any types showing a lower survival rate?
- Are any types remaining about the same?
Want to learn more? Check out this URL:
NCRA Center
for Cancer Registry Education
Internet: http://www.cancerregistryeducation.org