Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care

Navigating the C provides the insights you’ll need to understand that cancer does not have to mean the end of health or a poor quality of life. The knowledge and skills you’ll gain will help you recover more completely from treatment, and lead you to the understanding that a cancer diagnosis is something that everyone can be prepared for, without taking extraordinary steps.

In three, easy to understand, skill-based education programs aimed at closing gaps in information and understanding about cancer and survivors’ needs, the author calls for active prevention and preparation to reduce the trauma of a cancer diagnosis through C.A.R.E.: creativity, authenticity, resourcefulness, and empathy. The book will walk you through the steps you need to take to get your needs met in a system that so often fails cancer patients in finding the way back to themselves, and the possibility of emerging better than ever.

Working as an ICU and oncology nurse in the hospital, Nitzky soon realized her skills and knowledge, as well as her co-workers’, were profoundly underutilized to meet the needs of patients undergoing cancer treatment. Afterward, patients were left to their own devices to recover, with little support or guidance, and few skills to help them restore their quality of life.

Instead of taking a distant, clinical, big data approach, Nitzky describes meeting patients where they were, in their homes, communities, and support groups, where she could listen to their everyday concerns- the ones they never had time to discuss in short medical appointments. Given time and active listening, they articulated their needs for practical skills in understanding health information, self-advocacy, and self-care that accommodates their lifestyles, and matches their values and preferences around quality of life.

Navigating the C is about the stakeholders in cancer care: patients, families, caregivers, complementary service providers, nurses, physicians, healthcare administrators, policymakers, charitable organizations, and citizens, including people who have never had cancer. It addresses problems that contribute to gaps in care for cancer survivors and for those in ongoing treatment for metastatic cancer, and offers numerous solutions for each of these stakeholders to improve healthcare and self-care around cancer. Nitzky appeals for the importance of reducing the trauma of a cancer diagnosis, the intrinsic value of community programs, and smaller, individual approaches to cancer survivorship care, where big healthcare and big business miss the mark.

All stakeholders can expect to become empowered by reading this book by a passionate advocate for patients and healthcare workers: Patients, caregivers, and survivors will gain self-advocacy and self-care skills to have more control over their follow-up care experiences, and become more active and confident participants in their own healthcare. Ordinary citizens and those who have never had cancer will learn the simple steps they can take to reduce the trauma around an initial cancer diagnosis for themselves, or support their loved ones. Healthcare professionals will examine their own values around providing cancer treatment and survivorship care. Finally, those on the fringes of clinical care- the decision-makers and administrators- will gain insight into what really happens to the end-users of cancer services and how their lives are impacted by their experiences in healthcare.