Effects of nurse navigators on health outcomes of cancer patients.
BACKGROUND
Care coordination has received increased attention in recent years because it critically affects patient safety and care quality across services and settings.


OBJECTIVE
The effectiveness of systematically developed nurse navigator interventions for newly diagnosed cancer patients was evaluated.


METHODS
Seventy-eight patients participated in a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design study. The study design spanned a 3-month period for all participants. Patient outcome measures included quality of life, satisfaction with care, and length of hospital stay.


RESULTS
Participants in the experimental program reported significant increases in several components of quality of life and with satisfaction with care and experienced fewer hospital stay days compared with the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that standardized nurse navigator programs can improve patient outcomes in cancer care.


CONCLUSIONS
Positive outcomes of the reduced length of stay and improved quality of life and patient satisfaction may help transform the cancer care delivery model toward more nurse-initiated cost-effective model.
Nursing Policy Research Institute, Yonsei University College of Nursing, Seoul, Korea. twlee5@yuhs.ac
Taewha
T
Lee
Ilsun
I
Ko
Insook
I
Lee
Eunhyun
E
Kim
Mikyong
M
Shin
Sunghoon
S
Roh
Dongsup
D
Yoon
Seungho
S
Choi
Hangseok
H
Chang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009859:Oncology Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D011788:Quality of Life