Original Research
Patient navigation in cancer care refers to the individualized care provided to breast cancer patients, families, and caregivers to ease multiple barriers and facilitate timely access to qualified medical and psychosocial care.
Current literature suggest that patients with cancer experience distress.
Nurse navigation and distress monitoring will go hand in hand as the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer institutes its Cancer Program Standards 2012: Ensuring Patient-Centered Care as part of its accreditation standards beginning January 1, 2012.
Sharon Olsen, PhD, RN, AOCN, Deborah Stewart, BSN, RN, CBCN, BPNC-IC, Mary Paterno, MSN, RN, Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, HON-ONN-CG
Breast cancer accounts for 1 in every 3 cancers diagnosed in American women today. About 155,000 women are living with metastatic breast cancer in the United States, and this number is expected to increase to 162,000 in 2011.
A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a convenience sample of cancer survivors (N = 237) attending an annual cancer survivors’ day organized by a community cancer center.
With 11.7 million cancer survivors in the United
States, the role of navigation in survivorship is
growing. As our population ages, navigators will
need to focus on the specific needs of the older
and elderly patients they navigate through survivorship
care.
