Good morning,
We will soon be getting a second breast navigator at our facility. I would like to know if there are other facilities with 2 navigators and if so, how they divide the patient load. I've thought about several different ways to divide the patients and I'm not sure how it would work best. I would like to see what others have done and how it works for them.
There used to be an NCBC exchange to post questions and view others answers. I don't see that anymore?
Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Expert Response: There are many examples of facilities with two navigators. The duties are dependent on:
1. the type of navigator (RN, RT, advocates, etc…) and FTE as full or part time
2. the numbers of patients that are seen or cases that will be followed
3. the type of department that the navigation is based (surgery office, medical oncology, imaging…)

The quickest answer is to look at the workload and number of patients and decide if the cases should be divided by number (example: half and half) with both navigators performing the same duties spread over a number of patients. The other option is to divide the cases based on the spectrum of care the patient will receive (example: diagnostics navigator transferred to treatment navigator).

Most facilities will set up the latter option of supporting the patients separated by the phase of their care, with some overlap in care and cross training of the tasks. In my particular facility this is how we divide the cases between imaging/diagnostics and treatment and it works very well for patients needs and our particular circumstances.

Tool tip: make a patient care flow chart, include barriers to care, and then look for weight in the duties and then divide equitably. If there is too a low number of cases to separate by timeline, then look at the flow chart as a means to see needed tasks and divide by tasks or by patient count. I hope this helps.