Volunteers provide an essential complement to the professional healthcare team by tending to the non-medical needs of patients, thereby enhancing the patient experience. By better understanding the role and resulting benefits of involving volunteers in cancer care, healthcare professionals and volunteers can work synergistically to improve the quality of care for patients.

Across Canada, individuals diagnosed with cancer have identified concerns about access to services before, during, and following treatment, highlighting a very real uncertainty that exists about where to turn for information and assistance. Cancer patient navigation programs are emerging as effective interventions, well-equipped to meet these patients' diverse needs. While many provinces have initiated professionally led navigation services, little is known about the potential for volunteer-led navigation. This article highlights pilot programs in British Columbia, Ontario, and Newfoundland, where volunteers are engaged as lay or peer providers of cancer patient navigation services. By describing the recruitment, training, and role of the navigators within each program, the paper underscores the capacity for unique programs to work within current care frameworks across distinct communities. These programs provide an innovative approach to overcoming barriers and augmenting access to supportive care for cancer patients and their family members.

By incorporating the lessons we have learned from this study, we believe that the lay navigation competency framework serves as a useful model for selecting, training, and supporting competent navigators.

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