Treatment Nurse Navigator - Melanoma & Skin Center

Make a Life-Changing Impact as a Treatment Nurse Navigator

At the Ben Love/El Paso Corporation Melanoma and Skin Center, you’ll be the guiding force for patients battling skin cancer. As part of MD Anderson’s world-class team, you’ll help coordinate care, educate patients, and support them through advanced treatments like cutting-edge immunotherapies. Your expertise ensures every patient receives personalized, compassionate care while benefiting from the latest innovations in cancer treatment.

MD Anderson Cancer Center has Treatment Nurse Navigator opportunities in the Melanoma & Skin Center department. The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor's degree in Nursing and five years professional oncology nursing or oncology nurse navigation experience.  

Shift:  Monday - Friday day shift 

Salary:  $101,000 - minimum - $126,500 midpoint - $152,000 maximum 

What's in it for You:

Join a World-Class Institution: Become part of MD Anderson’s nationally recognized team, where your work directly impacts lives and contributes to groundbreaking cancer care.

Make a Life-Changing Impact: Serve as the guiding force for patients battling melanoma and skin cancers, helping them navigate advanced treatments like immunotherapy.

Competitive Compensation & Growth: Earn a highly competitive salary ($101K–$152K) while accessing professional development, education, and opportunities to grow within a leading cancer center.

SUMMARY      

The primary purpose of the Treatment Nurse Navigator position is to provide individualized assistance to patients, families, and caregivers, offering education and resources to help promote informed decision making and access to quality medical and supportive care services, helping circumvent barriers to care in the healthcare system from their first visit to and through all phases of the disease-state experience and beyond to survivorship. The Treatment Nurse Navigator works closely with Service Line physicians, care team and across the organization in all specialty areas to coordinate the patient’s plan of care, communicating with all members of the Service Line team on behalf of the patient.

KEY FUNCTIONS

Care Coordination and Communication

•    Develop relationship with patient after first appointment to establish a consistent point of contact for the patient throughout the treatment phase of their cancer journey.
•    Assess patient, family and caregiver needs post 1st visit and upon initial encounter to treatment and periodically throughout the full continuum of care, including assessing changes in psychosocial, financial and emotional occurring due to treatment.  Perform distress screening and making referrals to appropriate disciplines and documenting accordingly
•    Follow patient transitions between ambulatory care and inpatient services, collaborating with care management resources in both settings.
•    Coordinate appointments for consults with support services within established service standards, including social workers, dieticians, genetic counselors, therapists, and others as appropriate throughout the treatment journey.
•    Assist the patient with any matters related to treatment goals, advance directives, palliative care, and end-of-life concerns using an ethical framework.
•    Apply knowledge of payer requirements and insurance processes and their impact on referrals and patient care decisions to establish appropriate referrals, as requested or needed
•    Promote collaboration and communication among healthcare team members, other colleagues, and organizations to promote and protect the best interests of patients.
•    Other duties as assigned.  

Education

•    Provide education related to oncology diagnosis, treatment, support services and local or national resources.
•    Educate patient, family and caregiver to clinical trials, coordinating with the clinical care team and cancer research team.

Communication

•    Communicate any concerns and perform patient follow-up about timely coordination of appointments, tests and procedures to the appropriate scheduling or care team members.
•    Perform outreach efforts across MD Anderson to establish and maintain positive working relationships with key ambulatory and inpatient care team “customers”—faculty, departments, APPs, nursing, case managers, social services, and others.

Documentation 

•    Develop concise patient summaries for use by the care team and document recommendations made utilizing standardized care protocols in accordance with nationally recognized care guidelines.
•    Utilize navigation evidence-based tools developed to assess patient, family and caregiver needs such as pain, fatigue, and performance status.

Professional Development and Performance

•    Participate in multidisciplinary tumor conferences and monitor recommendations for appropriateness with NCCN or other national guidelines.
•    Participate in performance improvement activities to enhance the patient, family and/or caregiver experience across the continuum. 
•    Complete mandatory training, education and annual core competencies programs as outlined by MD Anderson.
•    Develop knowledge of available local and national resources for patients and families.
•    Adhere to established productivity benchmarks/caseload expectations and documentation requirements that inform navigation program performance.