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The Royal Marsden School

Martin Galligan FHEA, RN, MSc, PGCLTHE, PgCert Clin Res, NMP

Lecturer Practitioner
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Martin Galligan

I joined the Royal Marsden School in 2019 and prior to this, I had a varied background across the acute sector but with a particular focus on cancer nursing. My background has largely been focused on pain management and I have worked as both a clinical nurse specialist and lead nurse across acute, chronic, and complex cancer pain settings.  I have a passion for cancer pain, pain education, and the development of pain services. In my previous role as Lead Nurse for Acute Pain services, I was able to lead the team to win Acute Pain Team of the Year at the UK National Acute Pain Symposium 2018. My passion for high-quality education and the development of professionals extends beyond my role in the School and I am also the current chair of the Royal College of Nursing Pain & Palliative Care Forum as well as the past chair and co-founder of the Pain Nurse Network. I also hold positions with a European Pain Federation as a board member of the Pain Education Academy and member of the nursing task force. I have also held positions with British Pain Society Pain Education special interest group and the Association of Advanced Practice Educators. 

My research interests are focused on supporting and developing advanced practice roles in cancer nursing and the knowledge and attitudes of healthcare professionals in relation to pain management. I have been awarded a pre-clinical academic fellowship awarded by the Royal Marsden Charity and a Florence Nightingale Travel Scholarship. This has allowed me to complete pre-doctoral research work into the needs of health care professionals when managing complex cancer pain and I am now undertaking doctoral studies in this field at Kings College London. 

My current roles within the Royal Marsden School include academic lead for e-learning and programme lead for the MSc Advanced Clinical Practice in Cancer Care. 
 

Module Involvement:

  • Physical Assessment and Clinical Reasoning in Cancer Care
  • Advanced Clinical Assessment in Cancer Care
  • Independent and supplementary Prescribing 
  • Palliative and End of Life Care
  • Advancing and Exploring your Practice in Cancer Care: Portfolio
  • Exploring the Complexity of Cancer-related Pain
  • Service Improvement Project (Dissertation module)

Committee Involvement: 

  • Chair RCN Pain & Palliative Care Forum 
  • Trustee Pain Nurse Network 
  • European Pain Federation Nursing Education Task Force
  • European Pain Federation Covid 19 Task Force 
  • European Pain Federation Academy Board member 

Publications:

Galligan M (2018) Chapter 3 Cancer pain assessment and management in Dougherty L, Lister S, McNamara L (2019) The Royal Marsden Manual of Cancer Nursing Procedures. Wiley Blackwell Oxford.

Galligan M (2018) Applying clinical audit to support educational package to improve compliance of performing observations for patient-controlled analgesia and epidural analgesia. Pain News 16 (2) 71-76

Galligan M, Enriquez B, Shookhye R (2019) Evaluating the effectiveness of Essential Pain Management programme as a method for improving health care professionals knowledge of pain assessment and management in a District General Hospital. Pain News 17 (4) 213 – 218. 

Galligan M. (2020) Uncovering the use and misuse of opioid analgesia in a pregnant and non-pregnant female population. Evidence Based Nursing 10.1136/ebnurs-2019-103176 available from http://ebn.bmj.com/

Galligan M. (2020) Prescribing for persistent cancer pain: focus on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Journal of Prescribing Practice 2 (4) 176 – 180

Galligan M, Wilson C (2020) Using targeted education to improve acute hospital nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding pain assessment and management. Cancer Nursing Practice 10.7748/cnp.2020.e1715

Galligan, M. (2020) Assessment and Management of Epidural analgesia in the Post-Operative Setting. Nursing Standard 35 (12) 

Comford, D., Galligan, M. (2021) Reducing the risk of medication errors in cancer setting. Cancer Nursing Practice, published online DOI: 10.7748/cnp.2021.e1750

Galligan M (2021) Conducting holistic pain assessments in patients with cancer-related pain. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2021.e1802
 

Galligan M (2023) Exploring the prevalence, characteristics and nursing assessment of neuropathic pain. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2023.e12138

 

Other Activities:

Nursing Standard Podcast: Pain: What is it and how can nurses support patients?

Royal College of Nursing UK Career Framework for Pain Nurses

Royal College of Nursing Blogs

Video Journal of Oncology: Monitoring pain management in postoperative patients