Dear Navigators, Social Workers, Administrators, and Clinical Staff,
Navigators are champions for patients. Our work has the potential to keep patients engaged, educated, empowered, as well as safe from infections during chemotherapy. Which is certainly something to be proud of. Your work matters. It makes a difference.
As a patient champion, it’s important to continue sharpening your skills by taking advantage of the resources available to you. I want to call your attention to one such resource from the CDC Foundation. In our Interview with the Expert this month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Lisa C. Richardson, MD, MPH, of the CDC about the 10th anniversary of their initiative Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients (PICP). PICP is an evidence-based program designed to provide information, action steps, and tools for healthcare providers as well as patients and caregivers, with the goal of reducing the risk of infections during chemotherapy.
One of the innovative components of this program is TINA, a virtual provider available on PreventCancerInfections.org, as well as a free mobile app.
For navigators, TINA stands for Training for Infection and Neutropenia Awareness. She offers providers a realistic training environment to practice meaningful and appropriate conversations with patients about neutropenia.
For your patients, TINA stands for Talking about Infection and Neutropenia Awareness. She is introduced as a virtual provider and answers patients’ questions about infection risk and the steps they can take to protect themselves.
I hope you and your patients take advantage of this resource in our quest to keep patients safe from infections. On behalf of all of us at JONS, thank you for being a patient champion.
Sincerely,
Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, HON-ONN-CG
Editor-in-Chief, JONS
University Distinguished Service Professor of Breast Cancer; Professor of Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Co-Developer of Work Stride: Managing Cancer at Work, Johns Hopkins Healthcare Solutions; Program Director and Co-Founder of AONN+.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.