A Guide to Implementing Best Practices in Person ... - cancerview.ca

Navigation: A Guide to Implementing Person-Centred Care September 2012• For navigators based in a rural setting or within the community, a significant focusis outreach in order to establish a referral base. Nurses do not necessarily have theskills to engage the community and develop such referral relationships. However,navigators in the community need such skills. Training in outreach must be incorporatedin navigator training, and an ongoing outreach strategy should be a keycomponent of program implementation and sustainability.• Using peer/lay volunteers in Navigation programs creates a new role and enhancedcapacity for volunteers in health care organizations.Patient Engagement• The three project sites spent considerable time developing communication strategiesand supporting documents (e.g., pamphlets, brochures and informationguides) to inform patients about Navigation services. A significant effort was madeto collaborate with physicians, nurse practitioners and other health care providersin a position to refer patients to the service. These providers were expected toprovide the information to patients and families. In certain instances, navigatorsattended community events to distribute information and tell the public aboutNavigation services. Newspapers and other forms of media were also used to informthe public.• Patients and families and the community are eager for a volunteer navigator role,so organizations need to be prepared for requests from all cancer populations.Monitoring, Evaluating, Reporting, Disseminating• Successful implementation requires coordination and communication with all keystakeholders.• In the field preparation phase of implementation, itis essential to establish methods to log and extractprogram data. It is beneficial to have an expert indata management on the management team, as wellas an expert in evaluation, to mitigate the challengesof data capture and extraction.See the Cancer PatientNavigation Evaluation Reportfrom Care Nova Scotia forexamples of evaluation tools.• It is critical to collect relevant baseline data. Many institutions have access tosome measures of patient satisfaction and experience with care, such as Pickersurveys, but sometimes these measures are not specific enough to know if anychanges in patient outcomes can be attributable to Navigation.• Evaluation of Navigation relies on good documentation. The management team mayneed targeted strategies focused on improving and enhancing documentation ofNavigation, since the quality and consistency of data relies on this documentation.• It is important to have realistic expectations about when changes in practice or inpatient outcomes are perceptible. Change in practice and in patient outcomestakes a lot of time, and thus its effects will take some time to detect as well.40