Pamela Goetz, BA, OPN-CG

Patient satisfaction. Provider satisfaction. Treatment adherence. Care coordination. Learn about these other positive results of a successful nonclinical navigator.

The Assistance for Quality Improvement and Research (AQUIRE) Committee is dedicated to empowering all AONN+ members to conduct impactful research projects and publishing the results.

We are pleased to present a chapter from the recently published book Team-Based Oncology Care: The Pivotal Role of Oncology Navigation.

Patient and nurse navigators play an important role in the care of patients from screening through treatment and into survivorship.

A case study demonstrating the role of the navigator in improving efficiency in the clinic which positively impacts the utilization of resources, patient satisfaction, and timeliness of treatment.

The authors present a case demonstrating the responsibilities of the navigator on the multidisciplinary team to include ensuring timeliness of care, care coordination, addressing barriers to care, program evaluation, and process improvement.

The authors present a case study in resourceful navigation in a rural setting.

The authors discuss how nurse navigators, patient navigators, and social workers can collaborate to fill vital roles in direct patient psychosocial care and develop processes and procedures that improve delivery of that care.

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) was founded in 1986 to make cancer patients view themselves as survivors, not victims, and to address the many issues that patients encounter during and beyond cancer.

Within the multidisciplinary team, the navigator works as an advocate, care provider, educator, counselor, and facilitator to ensure that every patient receives comprehensive, timely, and quality healthcare services.

The authors present a case study highlighting the importance of patients’ physical and mental preparedness for the recommended medical treatments.

The role of the navigator along the continuum of care is bidimensional in nature with a patient-centered (empowerment with education and knowledge) and health system (multidisciplinary) orientation to deliver timely, seamless care.

In 1990, Harold P. Freeman, MD, noticed that African American women in the Harlem community had a higher incidence of breast cancer mortality.

In this community outreach example, the daunting challenges of treatment, and the impact on quality of life, drive the questions, “How can we better serve these patients?” and “Is there anything we can do to prevent or detect head and neck cancers earlier?”

Seven AONN+ members want you to know about a membership benefit that you might have overlooked. Did you know that there is a committee whose business is to help you do quality improvement projects and other forms of research, regardless of your level of experience in these areas?

My introduction to the world of cancer came when I was in college, via a phone call from my mother who was 3000 miles away. For weeks she had delayed calling my siblings and me to tell each of us that she had ovarian cancer, until she was having a good day when the chemotherapy was not wreaking havoc. Not wanting to worry us, she made a joke about the quickest way to lose weight was to have a hysterectomy. Then 20 years later, she told us she had early-stage breast cancer. I had matured enough and learned enough to insist that I visit to see how I could support her and my dad as they managed this second cancer. Remarkably, 10 years later at 84, my mom is still leading an engaged, vital life. And I am working in cancer advocacy as a lay navigator.

I’ve never met MMA, but I can tell one very important thing about her from the blog she wrote about adherence to therapy at home.