Oncology Nurse Navigator

Description:

The Oncology Nurse Navigator is a licensed clinical professional who applies the nursing process to guide patients, families, and caregivers through the cancer continuum from diagnosis through treatment, survivorship, or end of life care. This role provides individualized, patient-centered support by assessing for clinical, psychosocial, financial, and logistical barriers to care and implementing interventions to reduce or eliminate those barriers.

The Oncology Nurse Navigator coordinates care across multidisciplinary teams and care settings to promote timely access to diagnosis and treatment, enhance continuity of care, including effective handoff communication during care transitions, and support adherence to evidence-based treatment plans. Through proactive communication, education, and advocacy, the navigator serves as a consistent point of contact, ensuring patients and families understand their care plan and can navigate complex healthcare systems.

This role partners closely with physicians, nursing, and ancillary services to improve care quality, patient experience, and clinical outcomes, while also identifying opportunities to enhance care delivery processes and reduce delays across the cancer care continuum.

The Clinical RN Navigator uses clinical processes in decision-making, patient assessment, data analysis, development and implementation of methods and systems to improve the overall quality and efficiency of patient care. The Clinical RN Navigator offers individualized support across the continuum of care to patients, families, and caregivers to expedite care delivery and alleviate barriers. The Oncology Clinical RN Navigator (OCN) is responsible for the coordination of care through interdisciplinary collaboration with a goal of delivering efficient care with optimal outcomes. The OCN will ensure ease of transition through various health settings during the patient's cancer journey.
 

• Coordinates care through interdisciplinary collaboration with a goal of delivering efficient care with optimal outcomes.
• Ensures ease of transition through various health settings during the patient's journey.
• Organizes, formulates and coordinates a multi-disciplinary approach to the patient population for achievement of optimum outcomes.
• Collaborates with clinical team to triage new patient referrals efficiently to ensure timely access to care.
• Assesses, implements, and coordinates patient care plans.
• Screens referrals to ensure appropriate patient placement in programs.
• Ensures patients and family members understand the plan of care and responds to patient needs and concerns.
• Collaborates with multidisciplinary care team and expedite sequence of patient’s workup, active treatment, survivorship, and end of life care.
• Provides communication, advocacy, and education.
• Assesses and documents patient needs, goals, and preferences to ensure integrated into treatment and care delivery.
• Researches access to therapeutic clinical trials and communicates with patients, families and investigators regarding therapeutic clinical trials, including patient-specific education about clinical trials.
• Plans, implements and coordinates strategies through evidence-based practices to support quality patient care; and improve outcomes.
• Evaluates barriers to care and collaborate with community resources to eliminate barriers.
• Coordinate patient education and provide resources for financial, legal and social support.
• Serves as a liaison between department staff, patients and families, physicians, external vendors/partners to ensure a collaborative approach to care for patients and families.
• Interacts with staff, patients, families, visitors, members of the health care team and external partners to develop, coordinate, and manage the plan of patient care.
• Encourages and empower patients to actively participate in decision-making about their treatment and care.
• Serves as advocate for patient, protector of patient’s rights, and provider of psychological/social/cultural support.
• Facilitates daily coordination of patient care.
   

What We Require

Education: Bachelor's degree from an accredited program in area of clinical specialty strongly preferred.

Experience: 3 years of experience in a healthcare setting.