Navigation & Survivorship News
Marketing campaigns that use navigation as a lure: I’ve heard ads on the radio and even seen a few on TV that are using nurse navigators as their lure to bring new cancer patients to their cancer center.
Patient navigation programs have evolved over the past 2 decades as oncology care has become a complex network of prevention, early detection, genomic and proteomic treatment pathways, and survivorship promotion.
Last week was Young Adult Cancer Awareness Week. Although cancer is a disease of the aging, 70,000 young adults are diagnosed with cancer each year.
This is a very important subject that needs to be discussed more often. Of all of the tasks of a navigator, patient advocacy must always be part of our process.
As Spring teases us with warmer weather, the intention to move more is a little easier after a long day at work! Navigators have shown they are interested in keeping their patient on the move. The abstracts from 2014 reflect this theme.
Although their role is distinct, patient navigators do not work in silos but in collaboration with other health professionals.
If you are working as a navigator and haven’t begun to capture data that accurately depicts what you do, how you do it, and why it is important, then you are placing yourself at risk for a lot of questions when it is time for your performance review (or for when next year’s fiscal budget is being determined).
Studies have shown that nonclinically licensed oncology patient navigators play a huge role in eliminating health disparities.
Professional development should be a major focus for patient navigators. Setting learning and improvement goals and participating in skill development and networking activities can address one’s gaps in knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities.
The need for research regarding long term cancer survivorship: For decades pediatric oncology professionals have followed their patients long term.
