Private Oncology Care Navigator

The Care Navigator will help the client and family:

• Navigate the cancer-care journey including diagnostic testing specialist consultations treatment planning surgery systemic therapies radiation recovery follow-up and survivorship as applicable.
• Prepare for medical appointments by organizing relevant information and developing concise prioritized questions for oncologists surgeons cardiologists and other specialists.
• Follow up after appointments by organizing physician recommendations identifying unresolved questions and translating agreed-upon plans into clear next steps.
• Coordinate information across providers including oncology breast surgery cardiology/cardio-oncology primary care nutrition and other specialists with appropriate client authorization.
• Maintain an organized care plan tracking appointments testing physician recommendations medications pending decisions questions and follow-up actions.
• Support informed decision-making by helping the client understand general medical terminology and treatment pathways and identify questions that should be addressed by the appropriate physician.
• Facilitate second opinions and additional specialist consultations when requested including helping organize the records and questions needed for those consultations.
• Provide patient advocacy helping ensure that the clients priorities concerns and questions are effectively communicated to the healthcare team.
• Support execution and accountability around physician-approved priorities involving nutrition hydration medication adherence sleep appropriate movement recovery stress management and other health behaviors.
• Provide calm compassionate support throughout the care journey while recognizing when medical nutritional or psychological issues should be referred to the appropriate licensed professional.

Preferred Oncology Experience

Strong preference will be given to candidates with substantial direct experience supporting individuals with breast cancer.

Candidates should be familiar with breast-cancer care and terminology including:

• Pathology tumor grade and staging
  ER PR and HER2 status
• Breast imaging and lymph-node evaluation
• Lumpectomy mastectomy and sentinel lymph-node procedures
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy and other systemic therapies
• Endocrine therapy
• Treatment sequencing
• Second opinions and multidisciplinary cancer care
• Recovery surveillance and survivorship

Experience with invasive lobular carcinoma is a plus.

The successful candidate should be capable of explaining general concepts in understandable language while appropriately referring individualized interpretation prognosis and treatment decisions to the clients physicians.

Complex Care Nutrition & Overall Health

Experience supporting medically complex oncology patients is strongly preferred. Familiarity with cardio-oncology and coordinating cancer care with cardiologists and other specialists would be particularly valuable.

The Care Navigator should also understand the importance of maintaining adequate nutrition healthy weight physical strength and muscle mass during cancer treatment.

The role may include helping the client implement recommendations established by physicians and/or a registered dietitian related to:

• Adequate calories and protein
• Healthy weight maintenance or weight restoration
• Muscle preservation
• Hydration
• Managing barriers to eating
• Appropriate physical activity
• Sleep recovery and stress management

Individualized medical nutrition therapy should remain under the direction of the appropriate licensed healthcare professionals.

The strongest candidate will combine:

Oncology expertise breast-cancer experience care navigation patient advocacy exceptional organization accountability excellent communication emotional intelligence sound judgment.

The individual should be proactive compassionate highly organized discreet trustworthy and comfortable working collaboratively with the clients physicians and family.

Most importantly the Care Navigator should know when to help when to ask questions and when an issue needs to be referred back to a physician or other licensed healthcare professional.

This role is intended to complementnot replacelicensed medical care.

The Care Navigator will not independently diagnose medical conditions determine prognosis prescribe treatment select cancer therapies recommend starting or stopping prescribed medications override physician recommendations or provide individualized interpretations of pathology imaging laboratory results or other diagnostic findings outside the scope of their professional license.

The Care Navigator will not recommend unproven therapies as substitutes for evidence-based cancer treatment or advise the client to delay or discontinue conventional medical care.

When medical judgment is required the Care Navigator should help identify the issue formulate the appropriate questions and obtain guidance from the relevant licensed healthcare provider.

This is intended to be a high-touch part-time engagement rather than a traditional fixed-hour administrative position.

The engagement may include regular scheduled sessions preparation before important medical appointments follow-up after specialist consultations care-plan organization tracking outstanding actions and decisions and reasonable communication between sessions when significant care-navigation needs arise.

Occasional participation in or support surrounding important medical appointments may also be appropriate when requested and authorized.

Because the role may involve access to sensitive personal and medical information the Care Navigator must demonstrate exceptional discretion and maintain confidentiality in accordance with applicable professional legal and contractual obligations.

Specific scheduling availability communication expectations compensation and scope of engagement will be discussed during the interview process.