Nurse Navigator

Registered Nurse Navigator - Cancer Center Exams - 10 Hour Days

Do you have a passion for the highest clinical quality and patient happiness? Would you like to use your expert clinical competencies with an organization known nationally for excellence in cancer treatment, research and education? We would be happy to hear from you! Please consider the following exciting opportunity with one of the most outstanding and dynamic places to work in California as your next career move.

The Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report, treats more than 60 types of cancer. Its team of experts works to create a treatment plan to meet each patient's specific needs. The center's outpatient infusion center offers chemotherapy and supportive services, including 18 private rooms for treatment sessions six hours or longer.

Summary of Essential Duties:

Responsible for the coordination of care for patients throughout the continuum of treatment; from initial referral to follow-up care, serving as a consistent contact, or point person for the high-risk patient. Collaborates and operates as a member of the interdisciplinary team, serving as a patient advocate throughout the patient care process. Provides necessary education and information on available options, the informed decision-making process, and realistic goal setting in order to empower the patient/caregiver to actively participate in their plan of care. Establish and coordinate a supportive care plan with goals and interventions based upon treatment and individual patient/caregiver needs, preferences, beliefs and values. Keeps patient/caregiver involved in plan and moving toward self-directed care. Review, evaluate and revise the plan of care for appropriateness on an ongoing and timely basis. Be an advocate for the patient/caregiver. Participates in the development of guidelines, protocols, pathways, and other performance improvement activities as it relates to patient care. Works in concert with the Patient Advisory Council to coordinate, implement, and evaluate educational programs/projects for patients and the community at large.

Reporting to the Executive Director, the nurse navigator will be responsible for the growth of the programs associated with areas of responsibility and assurance of excellent patient and family centered care as well as continuity of care.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

• Establishes and revises the plan of care for appropriateness on an on-going and timely basis as directed by the patient's care team. Assists in the development of a comprehensive diagnostic/treatment plan related to the patient's needs, through interdisciplinary input and attendance at weekly meetings.
• Coordinates patient care activities and management of clinical data throughout all phases of patient care from initial referral to follow-up. Arranges for clinical services, evaluates clinical data, participates in clinical/patient rounds, and triages clinical questions/concerns to the appropriate members of the interdisciplinary team.
• Develops, coordinates, implements and evaluates educational programs/projects for patients/caregivers, nursing staff and assigned members of the support staff. Serves as a preceptor for other coordinators. Provides educational sessions for patients/caregivers and other clinical staff throughout the Medical Center as appropriate.
• Demonstrates clinical competence in the assessment and intervention for patient, family, or significant other requiring emotional support, coping support and care for significant life changes. Coordinates support services within the health system and community to meet patient/family needs.
• Provides leadership in developing standards of care for patients undergoing new therapies, demonstrates knowledge and follows the approved protocol for specialized nursing care.
• Tracks volume of referrals and transports, measures outcomes. Actively works to increase in the number of outpatient and inpatient referrals, procedures, and patient participation in various clinical and research programs and outreach activities.
• Consults with physicians and other health care professionals as indicated regarding patient care issues and quality of care issues related to patients. Supports the leadership and clinical teams by providing progress reports on patient care, local partnerships, and other quality measures. Actively participates in quality improvement measures and projects as requested and directed. Recommends, develops, and implements policy/protocol revisions and performance improvement activities based on current standards.
• Utilizes a systematic approach to assess educational needs in collaboration with all levels of nursing and medical personnel and evaluates the effectiveness and efficiency of educational programs. Collaborates throughout the Cedars-Sinai Health system (CSHS) in initiating and implementing educational programs.
• Independently coordinates patient programs, projects and events with Nursing, medical center departments and communities across the health care continuum. Serves as a resource and consultant for educational programs throughout the Cedars-Sinai Health System.
• Establishes, coordinates and continuously evaluates supportive care plan with goals and interventions based upon treatment and individual patient/caregiver needs, preferences, beliefs and values.
• Promotes/facilitates research by facilitating inter and intra-departmental research, promoting collaborative research and utilizing education and clinical research findings to design/revise education programs throughout the Cedars-Sinai Health System.
• Actively works to create new transfer agreements with local hospitals, works to build new referral relationships with key physician groups and hospitals in Southern California.
• Coordinates and collaborates with other Nurse Navigators in various divisions and departments to effectively coordinate care of all identified patients.
• May represent the Medical Center at regional and national meetings/conferences.
• Performs all other duties as assigned.

Department Duties and Responsibilities:

• Breast Center: Call new patients in advance, meet them at consult and provide education in regards to surgery. The "point persons" to call for patient questions pre and post-op surgery. The NN's see patients at their first post-op visit and not beyond unless the patient has complex needs. Attend multidisciplinary breast tumor board.
• Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT): Schedule all pre-testing for BMT patients prior to their transplant. Provide extensive education and see them prior to their admission for transplant. They do not follow these patients inpatient or post discharge after transplant.
• Cancer Center: Call new patients in advance of their consult, see them at consult, provide support, education, ensure referrals are done (i.e. radiation), see patient on first day of their chemo and call them 24-48 hours after their first chemo. Hand-off to the practice RN who follows them throughout their continuum of care. Provide referrals to nutrition, social work and attend weekly interdisciplinary meetings.
• OBGYN and Pediatrics: Work collaboratively with departments' administrative staff to develop, manage, and produce all paper and electronic mailings, additional marketing collateral material and newsletters (where applicable) for the departments. This includes creating easy-to understand and informative patient brochure/pamphlets and webpages about OBGYN and Pediatrics and their cutting edge technology, programs and research studies, electronic communication.
• Perinatal: Maintain the operations of the Maternal Transport Programs, and weekly perinatal interdisciplinary meeting. Oversee service agreements between CSMC and transportation vendors for proper communication of billing and revenue for CSMC and potential hospital partners. Coordinate enrollment to OBGYN and Pediatric research studies available to patients being transferred to CSMC. Transition current transfer agreements to transport agreements as appropriate. Cultivate existing relationships with hospitals with existing transfer agreements with CSMC by assessing educational needs and scheduling regular visits (with or without faculty). Provide timely patient follow-up reports for referring hospitals and providers. Ensure all necessary and required information and documentation is available for hospital transport partners (collaborate with clinical teams as needed). Ensure and report out on a system/process to measure success and growth of programs (visits, procedures, surgeries etc.). Develop and implement strategies that will maximize synergies, and thus, referrals among hospital partners. Manage the Telemedicine service agreements currently in place between CSMC and Telemedicine vendors and ensure revenue stream for CSMC to telemedicine activities. Facilitate with the Transfer Center the referral and transfer of patients requiring higher level of care into CSMC. Coordinate and participate in teaching opportunities for clinical staff of referring hospitals.
• Teamwork/Customer Relations Responsibilities: Collaborates to problem solve and make decisions to achieve desired outcomes. Establishes effective working relationships with cross-functional team(s). Shares knowledge, time and expertise to assist other members of the team. Ensures practices and procedures are inclusive of interpersonal and cultural diversity. Identifies and responds appropriately to both internal and external customer needs utilizing available resources.

Qualifications

Qualifications: Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing required

License/Certification:

• Current, unrestricted California RN license required
• Professional Certification in area of specialty required within one (1) year of hire

Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years of nursing experience in an acute care setting (transplant, cancer)
• Experience with program development and implementation of navigator programs preferred

Cedars-Sinai is an EEO employer. Cedars-Sinai does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of the race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, physical or mental disability, legally protected medical condition (cancer-related