Guidance for Lung Cancer Treatment

Baptist Health Lexington: Guidance for Lung Cancer Treatment

Oncology nurse navigator Sara Barker explains her role in educating, coordinating care, and providing support for patients undergoing lung cancer treatment at Baptist Health Lexington.

Guidance for Lung Cancer Treatment Health Talks Transcript

Sara Barker, RN, BSN, OCN, Lung Nurse Navigator
Whenever patients first find out that they have cancer, they are in shock, and they have a lot of questions, and they don’t know where to turn and what to do and what path to take next. The navigator steps in nicely there to help answer questions, to help educate, to help be a confidant for them, to be a common ground between the different doctors, to be an extra set of ears for them, and to just really help hold their hand along the way. I navigate lung diagnosis, so patients that come in to the Emergency Department or into the inpatient with a lung nodule, I can intercept their care at that point. Also with low-dose CTs, I keep a close eye on those patients and help to make sure they are getting the follow-up that they need and seeing the physicians that they need to see. Oncology is a calling, and I have been in oncology for nearly 12 years. This role came open, and it was just a God thing that the door opened, and it was a way that I could really make a difference not only for the patients that I’m seeing right now, but help see what the need is to help make a difference for patients in the future to come.