157917 A community-provider partnership to train cancer patient navigators for Native Hawaiians: Lessons learned

Wednesday, November 7, 2007: 12:30 PM

Kathryn Braun, DrPH , University of Hawaii, and Papa Ola Lokahi, Honolulu, HI
Kaohimanu Dang, BS, BA , Papa Ola Lokahi, Honolulu, HI
JoAnn Tsark, MPH , Papa Ola Lokahi, Honolulu, HI
Cancer mortality continues to be higher in Native Hawaiians than Whites, and research has identified numerous barriers to good cancer care. Cancer navigator programs provide individualized assistance to patients and family members to overcome barriers, promoting early diagnosis and timely and complete treatment. Our purpose was to design and test a curriculum to enhance cancer patient navigator skills of Community Health Workers (CHW) serving Native Hawaiians. The 64-hour curriculum was informed by qualitative research with patients, families, and providers. It includes lectures (on all aspects of cancer, support programs, financial aid, etc), facility tours, networking lunches, web-searching, discussions with patients and providers, role-play, communication exercises, and opportunities for reflection. Provider-partners serve as faculty and host site visits. To date, 30 CHW statewide have been trained. Data gathered from a 3-month follow-up indicate increased knowledge, skills, and feelings of competence among the navigators. Trainees have requested continuing education sessions and opportunities to share cases as they actively navigate patients. We learned our curriculum is best offered as a supplement to basic CHW training in assessment and case management, which are essential to cancer care. The complexity of cancer care lent to the time-intensive nature of the training. Still, trainees could not learn everything about cancer, so we facilitated skills in finding answers through the Web and through contacts they made during the training. Provider partners are critical to navigation training programs because hospital contacts are essential to community-based workers in getting their patients into and through care.

Learning Objectives:
1) Identify 2 benefits of the cancer patient navigation concept. 2) Describe Hawaii’s cancer navigation training program and the importance of provider partnerships to the program. 3) Discuss 3 lessons learned in developing this navigator training program.

Keywords: Cancer, Community-Based Partnership

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.