Patient navigation in the cancer care setting refers to individualized assistance offered to patients, families, and caregivers to help overcome healthcare system barriers and facilitate timely access to quality health and psychosocial care from pre-diagnosis through all phases of the cancer experience.¹

Principles of Patient Navigation²

1. Patient navigation is a patient-centric healthcare service delivery model.
2. Patient navigation serves to virtually integrate a fragmented healthcare system for the individual patient.
3. The core function of patient navigation is the elimination of barriers to timely care across all segments of the healthcare continuum.
4. Patient navigation should be defined with a clear scope of practice that distinguishes the role and responsibilities of the navigator from that of all other providers.
5. Delivery of patient navigation services should be cost-effective and commensurate with the training and skills necessary to navigate an individual through a particular phase of the care continuum.
6. The determination of who should navigate should be determined by the level of skills required at a given phase of navigation.
7. In a given system of care there is the need to define the point at which navigation begins and the point at which navigation ends.
8. There is a need to navigate patients across disconnected systems of care, such as primary care sites and tertiary care sites.
9. Patient Navigation systems require coordination.

References: 

1. Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW), & National Association of Social Workers (NASW). (March 2010).  Joint Position on the Role of Oncology Nursing and Oncology Social Work in Patient Navigation.

2. Freeman HP, Rodriguez RL. History and principles of patient navigation. Cancer. 2011 Aug;117(15 Suppl):3539-42.