Communicating the Role of the Breast Cancer Nurse Navigator in a Community Health System.

Background: The creation of oncology nurse navigators (ONNs) was seen as an opportunity to improve patient health outcomes, adherence, and understanding of their diagnoses as they moved through treatment toward survivorship care. Objective: To understand the role of the ONNs across multiple sites of a community health system and identify discrepancies and barriers that ONNs experience because of unclear job descriptions. Setting: A community health system with 4 acute care hospitals in a large suburban region. Methods: This was a qualitative evaluation conducted for the purpose of informing a quality improvement initiative. A list of nurse navigators, physicians specializing in cancer-related care, and administrative leadership was provided by the "cancer line" leadership. Results: Findings from the study showed incomplete or conflicting job descriptions for ONNs across the hospitals, different care pathways for the integration of ONNs, and different organizational structures to support care delivery provided by ONNs. Conclusion: In multisite community health systems that struggle with variations in care because of philosophical differences, employment structures, or access to external funding sources, standardization becomes increasingly important in positions that require health professionals to follow patients longitudinally through their care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]