At the 2025 Academy of Oncology Nurse & Patient Navigators (AONN+) Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, Andrea (Andi) Dwyer, MPH, University of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, Colorado, shares insights into improving sustainability of patient navigation programs in order to accurately measure program impact, integrate new policies, and improve workforce development. 

She also highlights tools for advanced practice providers (APPs) such as the Patient Navigation Sustainability Assessment Tool (PNSAT). 

Transcript:

Hi, my name is Andrea Dwyer, I go by Andi. I'm very excited to attend and present at the AONN+ Annual Conference happening in New Orleans. I’m very excited as we get ready to focus on the navigation sustainability.

My presentation and the work that I'm doing with my colleagues, also co-presenters, is really focusing on the idea of sustainability. Of course, sustainability can mean a lot of things. It can be a big word, it can seem intimidating, but a lot of the work that we're going to be focusing on our presentation is talking about the outcomes, evidence, and what are we using to show the outcomes and impact of our work. 

Ultimately [we’re discussing] understanding that there's a cascade effect in terms of thinking about workforce development, clinical champions, external champions, as well as patient community, community at large. Are we integrating things like policy? How are we thinking about workflow integration and workforce development? How are we looking at reimbursement? All of those things have to come to bear to make impact and show outcomes and effectiveness and be part of the sustainability wheel.

We're going to be taking time and a went in to talk a little bit about how we do this work together, how we show our value, show opportunities for sustainability, talk about things that we should measure, maybe ways that we should collaborate.

[The idea is] to continue to show that navigation does make impact in terms of providing access to care, for all of the teams to be able to work at the top of their licensure—but moreover, to make impact for patients in our community as it relates to cancer health, cancer prevention, cancer control, and again, [contributing to] healthier communities and the tools for navigators and community health workers to elevate this work moving forward.

Source:

Dwyer A. I Navigation Sustainability: PNSAT Implementation. Presented at AONN+ Annual Conference; November 6-9, 2025. New Orleans, LA.