Positive relationships lead to positive outcomes. Multidisciplinary care teams must develop, nurture, and sustain a positive working relationship to provide optimal care to their patients. In this episode, Kendra Barber, MHA, BSN, RN, OCN, and Mary Buffington, MSN, RN, OCN, ONN-CG, discuss navigation leadership, teamwork, and the importance of collaboration.
Here are the top 3 takeaways from this episode:
- If an oncology nurse or patient navigator sees a problem with their program, the navigator needs to present a solution instead of making a complaint to the team leader. Oncology navigators have a firsthand view of what’s going on with their patients and within the care team, and often have the best solutions.
- Leaders can consult the TRUST guidelines when working with their team of nurse navigators and patient navigators. TRUST stands for transparency, respect, unity, show, and trust-building activities:
- Transparency: a leader values the navigators’ feedback and constructive criticism
- Respect: a leader needs to be a good listener
- Unity: the team struggles and succeeds together
- Show: leaders need to find ways to show they care about navigators
- Trust-building activities: they make people happier and more productive at work
- A team leader should encourage and support the professional growth of navigators. Growth could mean different things to different people, so leaders need to communicate with their teams to determine what growth means to a nurse or patient navigator at that time of his or her career and how the leader can support it and provide opportunities for navigators to shine.
To learn more about the Heart and Soul of Oncology Navigation podcast and to view our series schedule,
please visit our podcasts page.
Stay tuned for the next episode: Emotional Responses to Cancer
Wednesday, November 24, 2021, at 7:00 PM ET
Additional Resources:
Mary Buffington
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www.burnoutward.com
