Hannah Sonerholm’s role in her patient’s lives is more than just a nurse.
Figuring out health care is not easy, for yourself or your loved ones. Especially if you have a complicated or scary diagnosis like cancer. Enter the nurse navigator.
Nurse navigators help patients through a healthcare journey every step of the way by following up on appointments, referrals, explaining complex information, and providing emotional support. A nurse navigator can be a friend you can talk to about your fears, brainstorm solutions, address barriers you face, and connect you with resources in the community. The role is a dedicated guide to help navigate the complexities of the healthcare system through diagnosis, treatment, and follow up care.
Sky Lakes has had nurse navigators for some time to help address many common problems patients face when receiving care.
We connected with Hannah Sonerholm, Sky Lakes’ Breast Health Nurse Navigator to talk about her supportive role in her patients’ lives.
Breast Health Nurse Navigators at Sky Lakes
Sonerholm has been a Sky Lakes employee for nearly 10 years. She was in a post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) and day surgery nurse before moving to the breast health nurse navigator role. She was specifically referred for the role by the director of surgical services because of her experience with helping family navigate complex health challenges. “It’s really frustrating what patients have to navigate through” shared Sonerholm. She also met her fair share of breast health patients in her previous role with similar experiences.
“I was caring for a lot of patients who were coming in for breast cancer and mastectomies. There were a lot of frustrated women, terrified women, who felt like they weren’t prepared well for the surgery. Over time we recognized we needed to do better preparing them mentally and emotionally for this process,” said Sonerholm. “We need to do better, and I want to be part of that picture and that dream.”
According to Sonerholm, many patients in our community don’t have a good support system or guidance. Nurse navigators fill that position in the patient’s life by coordinating appointments, following up on referrals and orders, and advocating for them to make sure things happen in a timely manner. Sonerholm doesn’t help patients strictly with breast cancer either; cancer is part of the journey for many of her patients, but there is more that patients need help with when it comes to their breast health.
An additional motivation behind creating this role at Sky Lakes is eliminating the need to travel outside of Klamath Falls for care. Traveling can add additional stress on top of a cancer diagnosis, especially for patients with limited access to transportation. Klamath Falls has the resources to provide a wide variety of excellent care, especially for the patient diagnosed with cancer. The nurse navigator can make sure the patient’s care is coordinated through all of the departments they receive care in.
The impact of navigators
There are four departments with their own providers and processes that a patient, at minimum, has to navigate (Primary care, diagnostic imaging, surgery services, and the Cancer Treatment Center). A nurse navigator brings all of these places and steps together to make the process more seamless for the patient.
Sonerholm creates teamwork between each department her patients receive care at so everyone involved can provide excellent, personalized care without starting over from scratch for every patient.
Sonerholm’s final comment: “We want people to feel seen, heard, and supported during this journey. We recognize how lifechanging a cancer diagnosis is, and we don’t want them to feel alone. We want them to know that as a community we are here for them. We want a patient to begin their journey and end with survivorship knowing they had support throughout the process. That’s the heart of this. We want the patient to have a really great experience.”
