Cancer patient navigation is all the rage right now. More organizations and health care professionals than ever are embracing cancer patient navigation as a key component of patient-centered care.
Unfortunately, there are few curricula for training cancer patient navigators. In Hawaii, `Imi Hale Native Hawaiian Cancer Network (a program of Papa Ola Lokahi, funded by the National Cancer Institute) is collaborating with Maui Community College to offer a course in cancer patient navigation. This fall it is being offered as an elective in both the Nursing and the Human Services departments.
The course is derived from a 48-hour community training curriculum developed by `Imi Hale to train community health workers so they could better support their clients who developed cancer. As in other states, Hawaii’s medical care system is fractured, and accessing cancer care is extremely complex. In addition, the island geography of the state and the health disparities found in many of its populations, especially Hawaiians, create numerous barriers to care.
`Imi Hale’s community training curriculum, called Ho`okele i ke Ola (Navigate to Health), was created in 2006 after numerous meetings with local cancer care providers and Native Hawaiian cancer patients and family members, and analysis of cancer patient navigation programs and curricula. The result was a 6-day, 48-hour training comprised of lectures, interactive activities, and site visits. Cancer care providers served as faculty and hosted tours of their hospitals and program sites. Trainees not only learned about cancer care, but built a network of contacts who could help them help clients.
The first training took place in August 2006. It has now been offered a total of six times on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii, and is supported in part with funds from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Maui Community College’s Nursing Department was the first to offer the community college version of the training in the fall of 2007 as a 3-credit online independent study course. In the fall 2008, faculty from Maui Community College’s Human Services Department will co-teach with Nursing.
“This patient navigation course provides a wonderful opportunity for instructional collaboration across two academic fields, nursing and human services. The course is a perfect fit for both,” said Lee Stein of the Maui Community College Human Services department. “I am very excited that our programs will be working together to offer our community an empowering, powerful and hopeful approach to health care crises.”
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| Trainees tour The Queen Emma Clinics in Honolulu |
Other community colleges in the University of Hawaii system have shown interest in offering this course in the future. The Queen’s Medical Center, where over 40 percent of cancer patients in the state are treated, already employs cancer patient navigators trained by `Imi Hale. They work well with former “classmates” providing cancer patient navigation in community settings. Other hospital systems and cancer treatment facilities may add navigators, too. Beyond the work that currently exists for cancer patient navigators, `Imi Hale and The Queen’s Medical Center are exploring the next steps for patient navigation in Hawaii, including the possibility of a certification program and third-party payer reimbursement for navigation services.
By Amanda L. Allison, MA, 'Imi Hale Native Hawaiian Cancer Awareness Network, aallison@papaolalokahi.org.