Nurse navigators lead the way for cancer patients
Cancer care is a disjointed world. After patients are given the news that they have cancer, they are often in shock and suddenly dealing with multiple health care providers: medical oncologists, radiologists, pharmacists, surgeons, sometimes plastic surgeons, nutritionists and psychologists.
ItÂ’s a difficult world to wade through even when thinking clearly, and for those reeling from a cancer diagnosis, it can seem daunting.
Enter nurse navigators: One part medical guidance, one part support group, these professionals walk patients and their families through the cancer treatment process.
In Fort Worth, hospitals and cancer treatment centers have hired nurse navigators to guide local patients through their illnesses. Nurse navigators are still fairly new in the medical world, but some have been helping patients locally for years and some are joining the ranks as more attention is focused on womenÂ’s health.
Nurse navigators, as their name implies, have nursing backgrounds and have usually taken extended education courses and seminars about navigation. Most nurse navigators seem to be focused on breast cancer patients, but there are some navigators who work with patients who have other cancers, like prostate or brain cancers. Some medical fields are even borrowing some of the principles of navigation to help their own patients.
Some nurse navigators have an edge even on other navigators; some are cancer survivors, and so have personal experiences to bolster the medical knowledge they share with patients.
Dorothy Head was diagnosed with breast cancer nine years ago, and she said she remembered the fear of the unknown that came with facing the disease. As a nurse, she sought out as much information about the disease as she could, and became a resource for others in the support group she was a member of.
She became a nurse navigator at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in 2005, and she said her background as a patient helped her even though she had to learn more about the world of oncology. Now, she works with Dr. Robyn Young, the breast cancer specialist at the Center, and she counsels patients before they meet with Young so they understand what theyÂ’ll be walking in to.
“I hate for them to just go in there cold,” she said.
Head also answers phone calls and e-mails of all sorts from patients looking for everything from reassurance to a person to vent frustration to. Some patients will only call for help once or twice, and some will call their navigator repeatedly for months looking for input, said Sherree Bennett, nurse navigator for the Joan Katz Breast Center, which will open at Baylor All Saints Medical Center.
“With the world of navigation, there really is no black and white because it’s whatever you need,” Bennett said.
Bennett, a seven-year cancer survivor, worked with other Fort Worth navigators to organize an informal group of the professionals in the Metroplex. They met for the first time in June, and will meet again in August, and she said it was an opportunity to learn about each other and local resources that can offer help to patients.
“It’s a fascinating group of people, and we all learned we knew something that others didn’t,” she said. “This is not about competition; this is about what’s best for our patients.”
In the cancer care world, oncology nurses have been performing many navigator functions for a long time, said Gayle Wilkins, coordinator of the Prostate Cancer Resource Center at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital.
Dana McGuirk, also at Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital, is the navigator for breast cancer patients and a two-year survivor. SheÂ’s only been on the job about 12 weeks, she said, but already has seen about 75 patients. She said physicians she talks to say they can tell a difference in patients who have worked with navigators.
“I think they find people do better when they go through with a navigator because they’re better educated and they have someone to talk to,” McGuirk said.
The field does face some obstacles as it grows, however. Bennett said from what sheÂ’s seen on online forums, nurse navigators may have to continually justify their positions to administrations, since their position technically brings in zero money for an institution. (Long-term savings havenÂ’t been studied, she said, but are probably there.) Additionally, there are not enough navigators to go around and serve all the patients who are being diagnosed and treated with cancer, she said.
However, as patient demand increases and health care professionals realize what a reassuring role navigators can play, their numbers will probably increase, said Wilkins.
“It’s the buzzword in oncology right now,” Wilkins said.
Contact Bassett at ebassett@bizpress.net
