Navigating the Cancer Experience @ AONN+ West Coast Regional Meeting
Thanks for joining us at the Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) West Regional Meeting in Seattle earlier this week. And congratulations to RN Navigator, Robin Munoz, from California Cancer Center who won a FitBit in the Equicare prize draw!
AONN+ is the largest professional organization dedicated to navigation and we were pleased to sponsor this event, which gathered more than 150 nurse and patient navigators from west of the Mississippi. Attendees discussed the advancement of the navigation profession in the changing healthcare system, including:
- issues regarding the evolution of the role of navigation in healthcare;
- strategies for navigating diverse patient populations by cancer type and environmental factors;
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methods for providing patient support and guidance in the age of personalized cancer care;
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best practices regarding survivorship and psychosocial care; and
- Commission on Cancer (CoC) pillars.
UCLA-based Jacqueline Casillas, MD, MSHS, contributed to the CoC conversation by focusing on the importance of the survivorship care plan in the continuum of care.
“Survivorship care plans help survivors navigate their healthcare needs by serving as their own health advocates,” said Jacqueline. Drawing upon case studies, she demonstrated how people have successfully developed these plans and addressed the needs of diverse patient populations.
At Equicare Health, we recognize the critical importance of patient navigation for improving patient outcomes. Our ECS comprehensive care coordination solution helps Nurse Navigators care for cancer patients from screening to survivorship—including navigation and psychosocial distress screening tools, survivorship care plans, and a secure, user-friendly patient portal.