Comparing clinical and nonclinical cancer patient navigators: A national study in the United States

Abstract

BACKGROUND:A nationwide survey was conducted to examine differences between clinical and nonclinical oncology navigators in their service provision, engagement in the cancer care continuum, personal characteristics, and program characteristics. METHODS: Using convenience sampling, 527 oncology navigators participated and completed an online survey. Descriptive statistics, χ 2 statistics, and t tests were used to compare nonclinical (eg, community health worker) and clinical (eg, nurse navigators) navigators on the provision of various navigation services, personal characteristics, engagement in the cancer care continuum, and program characteristics. RESULTS: Most participants were clinical navigators (76.1%). Compared to nonclinical navigators, clinical navigators were more likely to have a bachelor's degree or higher (88.6% vs 69.6%, P < .001), be funded by operational budgets (84.4% vs 35.7%, P < .001), and less likely to work at a community-based organization or nonprofit (2.0% vs 36.5%, P < .001). Clinical navigators were more likely to perform basic navigation (P < .001), care coordination (P < .001), treatment support (P < .001), and clinical trial/peer support (P = .005). Clinical navigators were more likely to engage in treatment (P < .001), end-of-life (P < .001), and palliative care (P = .001) navigation. CONCLUSIONS: There is growing indication that clinical and nonclinical oncology navigators perform different functions and work in different settings. Nonclinical navigators may be more likely to face job insecurity because they work in nonprofit organizations and are primarily funded by grants.

Patient navigation across the cancer care continuum: An overview of systematic reviews and emerging literature

“…It is vital that the public has confidence in accessing a workforce that has a level of consistency in their service provision and outcomes. Wells and colleagues advocated for a consensus approach to determine core competencies of patient navigators 147 in which such competencies would be able to inform subsequent training curriculum and approaches.…”

Flexibility, adaptation, and roles of patient navigators in oncology during COVID‐19

“…Finally, we did not survey respondents on their navigation activities before the COVID‐19 pandemic. The 2019 NNRT national survey reported extensively on cancer navigation activities, drawing from a list of 38 navigation tasks, as reported elsewhere 35 . The current survey was administered using the same recruitment channels and likely surveyed many of the same cancer navigators.…”

Training cancer caregiver navigators: experiences from implementing the eSNAP and caregiver navigator intervention

“…Though national basic training programs exist (e.g., Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute; Colorado Patient Navigator Training), access to these centralized in-person trainings may be difficult for some navigators due to time and/or cost. Further, while research has demonstrated core tasks that many patient navigators perform, there is less agreement in the field on the core competencies of navigators [ 10 , 13 , 30 ]. Additional specialty training is likely required to acknowledge the variation and wide scope of needs to be addressed by different navigation programs in oncology or other settings [ 10 ].…”

“…There are a growing number of nationwide studies describing common activities of oncology and other PN [ 10 – 13 ], but there is no consensus yet in the field regarding expectations for the PN role. Thus, it is not surprising that oncology navigator training practices vary widely, and are not well documented [ 6 ], and may depend on the professional certification of navigators [ 14 ].…”