By Jessica Suarez, BSN, RN, OCN
When people think of oncology nurse navigation, they often imagine a nurse walking alongside a patient through a cancer center, helping coordinate appointments, and answer questions along the way.
While that remains an important part of the role, oncology navigation has evolved significantly in recent years. As cancer care becomes more complex and patients receive care across multiple settings, nurse navigators are increasingly supporting patients virtually, extending guidance, education, and advocacy beyond the walls of the clinic.
Technology has changed how we connect with patients. It has not changed why we do it.
At its core, oncology nurse navigation is about helping patients navigate uncertainty and ensuring they have the support they need throughout cancer care. Whether that support happens in a clinic, over the phone, or virtually, the purpose remains the same: listening, educating, advocating, and helping patients overcome barriers to care.
Cancer Happens Between Appointments
Some of the most meaningful interactions I have as a nurse navigator happen between scheduled oncology visits.
A patient develops a new symptom and isn’t sure whether it warrants a call to their oncologist. A caregiver is overwhelmed by the responsibilities of supporting a loved one through treatment. A patient returns home after an appointment and finally has time to process what they were told.
These moments rarely happen on a schedule.
Nurse navigators provide a consistent point of contact when patients need support the most. Sometimes that means helping a patient understand what their care team discussed. Other times, it means recognizing a barrier that may not have been obvious during a clinical visit and helping connect the patient with the right resource.
That is where navigation becomes more than simply coordinating appointments.
More Than Care Coordination
One of the biggest misconceptions about nurse navigation is that it focuses primarily on logistics. In reality, navigation sits at the intersection of clinical care and whole-person support.
What begins as a conversation about treatment side effects may uncover nutritional concerns, anxiety, transportation challenges, financial hardship, or caregiver strain. Identifying those barriers early can create opportunities to connect patients with appropriate support before those challenges become more difficult to manage.
Research continues to demonstrate the value of patient navigation. A 2024 systematic review found that patient navigation improved treatment initiation in 70% of studies, treatment adherence in 71%, patient satisfaction in 87%, and quality care measures in 81% of studies reviewed. ¹
These findings reinforce what many oncology nurses see every day: when barriers are identified early and patients are connected to appropriate support, navigation can help patients remain engaged in their care and manage challenges that arise along the way.
Why Virtual Navigation Matters
Some worry that virtual care creates distance between patients and clinicians. My experience has often been the opposite.
Virtual navigation allows nurses to meet patients where they are, whether that’s at home, at work, in an infusion center, or recovering after a hospitalization. It creates opportunities for more frequent touchpoints and gives patients easier access to a trusted clinical resource when questions or concerns arise.
The value isn’t the technology itself. The value is the connection it enables.
Virtual navigation can extend support beyond traditional healthcare encounters, helping patients feel less alone as they navigate a complex and often overwhelming experience.
The goal isn’t to replace the human connection at the center of oncology care. It’s to make that connection possible in more places and at more points throughout the cancer experience.
An Opportunity to Improve Access
One of the greatest opportunities for virtual navigation is its potential to reduce geographic barriers to supportive care.
The National Cancer Institute recognizes geographic location as an important contributor to cancer disparities, with differences observed in cancer outcomes, survivorship, and quality of life across populations.² For patients living in rural communities, access to oncology specialists and supportive care services can be especially challenging.
Approximately 57 million Americans live in rural areas, and research has identified barriers to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and supportive services that can contribute to differences in cancer outcomes.³
As nurse navigators, we cannot eliminate every barrier. We cannot shorten every drive to a cancer center or solve every workforce shortage. What we can do is help ensure patients are not navigating those challenges alone.
Virtual navigation allows oncology nurses to reach patients regardless of location, identify barriers earlier, connect individuals with resources, and help reduce gaps in care. It creates opportunities to deliver high-quality supportive care based on patient need rather than geography.
Of course, virtual care is not a solution to every access challenge. Patients may face barriers related to technology, connectivity, language, accessibility, or personal preference. The opportunity is to use virtual navigation as another way to expand access while keeping the patient’s needs at the center.
What This Means for Health Plans
For health plans, the evolution of oncology navigation creates an opportunity to think differently about how supportive care is delivered.
Rather than relying solely on in-person encounters, virtual clinical support can help extend navigation across the spaces between appointments, giving members access to clinical guidance and resources when and where they need them.
As oncology becomes more complex and care continues to extend across settings, the question is not simply whether navigation should be available. It is how navigation can be delivered in ways that are accessible, clinically meaningful, and responsive to where patients actually are.
That requires looking beyond the traditional boundaries of healthcare delivery and considering how clinical expertise can follow the patient throughout the cancer experience.
The Future of Navigation
The future of oncology nurse navigation is not about technology. It is about relationships.
Technology may help us communicate more efficiently and reach patients more consistently, but the heart of navigation remains unchanged: listening, educating, advocating, and supporting patients through one of the most difficult experiences of their lives.
The nurse navigator of today may no longer be confined to a clinic hallway or hospital office, but the purpose of the role has never been clearer. In an increasingly complex healthcare environment, patients need someone who can help connect the dots.
For many patients facing cancer, that person is a virtual nurse navigator.
The future of oncology navigation will be shaped not by technology alone, but by how effectively we use it to extend clinical expertise, strengthen connections, and meet patients where they are.
For health plans, that creates an important opportunity: to think beyond where care happens and also focus on how patients can be supported across the spaces in between.
References:
- Chen M, Wu VS, Falk D, et al. Patient Navigation in Cancer Treatment: A Systematic Review (2024). europepmc.org
- National Cancer Institute. Cancer Disparities. cancer.gov
- Bhatia S, Landier W, Paskett ED, et al. Rural-Urban Disparities in Cancer Outcomes: Opportunities for Future Research. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. academic.oup.com
This edition first appeared in Oncology Management Insights, OncoHealth’s newsletter on LinkedIn. Subscribe on LinkedIn to get each new edition.
