Member's Memo

It was refreshing and “good for the soul” to see all the networking in New Orleans at theAONN+East Coast Regional meeting (ECRM).

Members of AONN+ have had the privilege of participating on The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) new education initiative, Achieving Excellence in Patient-Centered Care.

The Houston Area Local Navigator Network (LNN) has demonstrated that navigators from different healthcare institutions can truly put the “patient” in patient centered care!

Kudos for the great work of the Central Indiana Local Navigator Network (LNN)! They are moving forward with their vision, goals, and objectives to strengthen the navigation services in their area.

Do the following quotes sound familiar? “Aging population with multiple comorbidities”, “Shortage of oncologists and nurses”, “Growth in the number of cancer survivors”, “Family members are expected to provide more care”, “Cost of cancer care is rising”, “Economics decreasing hospital reimbursement”

I hope everyone is taking advantage of all the CE hours available through the AONN website! The AONN+ West Coast Regional Virtual Symposium was released on September 30, 2015 and will be functional until September 30, 2016.

Congratulations to the AONN+ Southeast Michigan Chapter on forming a chapter and bravely meeting in the throes of winter!

At a recent conference, I heard a new term that might interest navigators: food insecurity. The US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service defines food insecurity as “a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.”

The prevalence of herbal medication use among cancer patients is greater than 35% in the United States. A lot has been published discussing the interaction between herbal products and conventional medications in oncology care.

I hope each member is off to a Happy New Year for 2016! The new year is often a time of reflection as well as a visualization of things to come. As navigators, the characteristics of proactivity, as well as flexibility, are vital to our job as well as an asset for patient interaction. As we look forward to the East Coast Regional Conference in May, a topic of interest and discussion will be palliative care.