Patient Care Navigators

When you receive a cancer diagnosis, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by your options. A UNC Health Rex Cancer Care patient care navigator can help you understand your choices and provide more information about your specific cancer diagnosis. Each cancer treatment plan should be individualized to meet your needs and our patient care navigators help explain the big picture while keeping track of the small details.

Patient care navigators offer a variety of care management services, including:

Serving as a liaison between patient and provider
Serving as an educator to teach patients and families about their cancer and treatment options
Serving as a troubleshooter to mitigate any delays or obstacles to patient care
Serving as a resource coordinator to direct patients to support groups and services, including referrals to social workers and dietitians

At UNC Health Rex Cancer Care, our patient care navigators have over 100 years of combined nursing experience and additional training for the role. In addition, we have navigators specifically trained for the following cancers:

Breast Cancer
Gastrointestinal Cancer
Thoracic Cancer

How do I access a patient care navigator?

During your first visit with your cancer treatment team, you get a lot of information - so much so, that it may be easy to miss details, and you may have questions. It is this initial visit where you will meet with a patient care navigator; they can help you figure out the best resource for any questions as well as arrange follow-up appointments and other required next steps.

UNC Health Rex Cancer Care patient care navigators are with you during the entire cancer journey. You may not have a lot of knowledge about your specific type of cancer or what happens after treatment. Long-term surveillance is a big part of cancer survivorship, as well as monitoring risk of cancer recurrence. Helping you understand what to report and the support that is available at the end of treatment is a rewarding part of the role.

Contact Us

UNC Health Rex patient care navigators are highly-trained care providers and their services are free to our patients. If you need additional information, please contact one of our cancer-specific patient care navigators: