Welcome spring 2014! This issue of the Journal of Oncology Navigation & Survivorship (JONS) is full of information for you to apply within your own work setting, share with fellow navigators and your supervisor, and hopefully will inspire you to personally begin collecting measurement outcomes!
We begin with having you “meet” Pam Goetz, BA, one of our Leadership Council members, who is active on the Quality, Outcomes, and Performance Improvement Committee of the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+), and who serves as an oncology survivorship coordinator at Sibley Memorial Hospital. She will give you a bird’s-eye view into how she has personally been touched by cancer and what her experiences personally and professionally have been.
Next, an article from the George Washington University Cancer Institute team describes best practices in patient navigation and survivorship care focusing on quality patient-centered care being the key to a successful navigation and survivorship program. There are many valuable measurements contained within this article, and I am confident you will find them useful to you in your daily practice. These include specific patient navigation measures! The Commission on Cancer standards for 2015, which are just months away from going into effect, are described, as well as how they are directly tied to navigation and survivorship care. Continuum of Care Services standards are discussed in detail, focusing on navigation, distress measurement requirements, and survivor care planning.
Lisa Raedler authors 2 articles for this issue. The first is about complementary medicine, something we know our patients express interest in and want to learn more about and partake in; the second article, on thoracic cancer navigation, includes information directed to lung cancer screening with the hope of having lung cancers diagnosed earlier, which should result in saving more lives.
The last article in this issue of JONS is a meta-analysis of 14 research studies associated with the various types of navigators and what the outcome measures have been for each.
We are working diligently to finalize the details of our September 2014 AONN+ Conference. It is going to be amazing! You will leave the conference energized and anxious to return home and begin implementing all of the new things you will have learned.
With kind regards,
Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS
Editor-in-Chief