Coordinated, Culturally-sensitive, Standardized Patient Navigation Training for Patient Navigators in Appalachia

The project will address the importance of 1) community-clinical linkages and 2) targeted service delivery and quality assurance. In addition, the project will address three cancer focus areas: 1) breast; 2) cervical; and 3) colorectal. Through coordination of patient navigation services in breast, cervical, and colorectal screening sites across Appalachia, the project will address community-clinical linkages and facilitate targeted delivery of breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening and quality assurance. This project is directly relevant to the areas of primary prevention and screening and promotion. For breast cancer, the project addresses the delivery of screening and promotion. The project will solicit input from communities, health care settings, and academic institutes within Appalachia to develop standardized, culturally appropriate patient navigation training curriculum. The project will use the developed curriculum to provide leadership and technical assistance in the area of patient navigation for breast, cervical, and colorectal screening sites (state and local health departments) within Appalachia. The project’s long-term goal is to build patient navigation infrastructure within Appalachia to facilitate delivery and use of quality clinical cancer services and to facilitate access to quality community resources for those at high risk for and living with cancer. The overall goals of this project are to; (1) improve coordination of PN programs within breast, cervical, and colorectal screening sites across Appalachia, and (2) improve standardization of PN training for Appalachian populations. These goals will be achieved through development and implementation of a patient navigation curriculum that is sensitive to the unique culture of Appalachia. The project objectives are as follows: collect information on available infrastructure in the 13 Appalachian states and identify up to 5 states for the study population for this project; in partnership with the Freeman Institute, use formative evaluation to develop a patient navigation training curriculum that is sensitive to the unique culture of Appalachia; pilot test the curriculum and prepare it for training patient navigations; in partnership with state Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Programs (NBCCEDP) and their affiliates, provide patient navigation trainings in the study population and assess efficacy by conducting measurements at baseline, end of training and follow up; and complete a comprehensive summative evaluation of the project.