Nursing department

Our rol

The mission of the Institut Bordet Department of Nursing is to provide comprehensive care for patients affected by cancer and to deliver high-quality, adapted and personalised nursing care as part of a multidisciplinary team. The Department also seeks to promote the skills, motivation and empowerment of its nursing staff and carers.

Nursing care is delivered according to a model based on comprehensive care of the patient and their relatives. It relies on an individual care plan for each patient which is recorded in the “nursing file” in the patient’s records.

Nursing care is delivered with constant concern for the physical, psychological and social well-being of the patient and their relatives. It promotes the continued independence of individuals and, insofar as their state of health allows, their socioprofessional and domestic reintegration.

Specialities

Nurses are present in all departments of the Institut Bordet. They have developed specific skills to respond to the particular needs of patients.

The Department of Nursing is essentially composed of graduate nurses (male and female), specialising in oncology.

A large number of nurses also have additional training offering specific skills to certain patients: stomatherapy, wound care, advice and wellness nursing, ergomotricity, podology, enteral and paraenteral nutrition, oncogeriatrics, ICCN (Intensive and Critical Care Nursing), smoking cessation, palliative care, etc.

The teams operate in a multidisciplinary spirit. They are managed by senior nurses trained in team management (for example, via a master’s degree in public health).

Focus

Thanks to the support of the National Cancer Plan, the Institut Bordet has put in place a team of cancer care nurse coordinators (ICSOs). The ICSOs are all nursing care graduates specialising in oncology and trained in health communication and coaching.

Providing a vital link for the patient, the ICSO is present throughout the care path, from diagnostic consultation to post-treatment follow-up.

The ICSO is available to answer questions from patients and their families. They are the point of contact between the patient and the different specialist doctors and other care professionals both inside and outside the Institut during the different phases of treatment. The ICSO helps guide the patient, supports them, keeps them informed and ensures that they have a good understanding of the information they are given.

Patients with less traditional training can also give patients the benefit of their knowledge in areas such as sociology, clinical medical anthropology, hypnosis, relaxation and massage methods, aromatherapy, reiki, yoga, psychotherapy, sexology, musicology, etc.

Teaching

For many years, the Institut Bordet Department of Nursing has maintained close ties with nurse training establishments in Belgium and abroad.
Each year, the Department welcomes hundreds of students training for a degree in nursing or specialising in cancer care.
Our foreign students come mainly from France but also from Quebec, Germany, Switzerland, etc.
Their teachers recognise the quality of welcome and supervision provided to students by the Department of Nursing by entrusting their students to us.

Our team

Composition

The Department of Nursing has a staff of around 365.
It is subdivided into 3 “sub-departments”:

hospitalisation
medical-technical section
“other” specialist units.

Update 10/04/2026