Dear Colleague,
As summer winds down, our AONN conference in September draws even closer. I am very excited about the agenda that is planned for you and hope that you can join me in learning more about navigation and survivorship care from experts who will share their wisdom with us!
At Johns Hopkins, we recently had our triennial survey from the American College of Surgeons, representing the Commission on Cancer, which accredits cancer centers, like our own, as NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers. In 2012, for the first time, they requested information regarding our oncology navigation program and our cancer survivorship care processes. And as you probably know, in 2015, all cancer centers will need to demonstrate that these programs and services are fully up and running for cancer patients being treated within your various facilities and settings. This really made the new standards of care “feel real,” and I am actually pleased to see that such standards are now part of the accreditation process. This also should help to support your own position as patient navigators, given that this will become not an optional service but a required role with specific functions to be performed on behalf of your cancer patients. It does require, however, careful documentation of what you do, how you do it, and how it correlates to measurable results.
I am confident that this year’s conference will provide insight into how to make navigation and survivorship work even better at your institutions. The conference will provide great speakers and poster presentations on various subjects associated with navigation and survivorship that will give you valuable ideas to replicate “back home.” Some of the abstracts that will be presented at the conference can be found within this issue of the journal; these abstracts will give you an idea of what information will be covered in poster presentations this year. I look forward to seeing you September 14-16, 2012, in Phoenix!
We also want to see more manuscript submissions for consideration in this journal. Even if you have never published before, please consider writing an article for publication.
With best regards,
Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS
Editor-in-Chief
