Role of the Nurse Navigator: integrative review.

OBJECTIVE: To identify scientific literature on oncology nurses who provide patient navigation services as nurse navigators.

METHODS: Integrative review of literature searches in the databases LILACS, MEDLINE/PubMed, SCOPUS, SciELO, Web of Science and Science Direct based on the descriptors patient; navigation; nurse; professional; cancer; oncology; navigator; and navigators.

RESULTS: Seventeen articles were identified and grouped according to the following thematic approach: Care Processes; Patients; and Health Workers. It was observed that scientific literature on nurse navigators mostly comes from the United States, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Demark, where the first nurse navigator programmes were introduced. No studies were found in local journals or populations.

CONCLUSIONS: The nurse navigator offer a unique service for the provision of quality care. Although international research is recent, further studies on the role of these professionals are clearly needed.