Nurses dominate when mole ‘mapping’ melanographers gather for their annual conference.
Only two of the 30-plus health professionals who carry out the service for the New Zealand company MoleMap are not nurses (they are radiographers).
Clinical manager for the New Zealand service Gill Rolfe, a UK-trained dermatology nurse specialist, has been in the role for the past three years.
Her role is to train and support the melanographers who carry out the risk assessment, total body photography, skin examination and digital dermoscopic screening of moles before sending the data to the company’s dermatologists for assessing.
The company, set up to offer the private melanoma surveillance programme 11 years ago, offers its own in-house qualification and assessment for its melanographers.
Rolfe said the training included distance theory learning, orientation at head office in Auckland and further clinical training by either herself in Auckland or by one of the three area coordinators in other parts of the country in using a dermoscope and other technology.
She said they drew most of their staff from primary health care nurses as they needed to be able to work autonomously and be used to making people feel comfortable about being in a state of undress. The melanographers also had a health education role in informing clients about the different skin cancers, warning signs, and being sun smart.
Rolfe said the melanographers also ran public education sessions with groups ranging from Brownies to law firms, with her most unusual audiences being at a nudist camp and a crematorium.
The company carries out over 15,000 consultations a year and detects about 200 invasive or in situ melanoma a year.
This year’s conference held in December will include a dermatologist update, reports on a Waikato DHB trial of using teledermatology, plus updates on Vitamin D requirements, melanoma on the nails and new technology developments in advanced dermoscopy.
