Rebeca Pelaez
How oncology nurse navigators can help smooth a patient's cancer journey
In June 2024, Rebeca Pelaez of Wasilla received a call from her oncology surgeon’s physician assistant with the results of some extensive testing for breast cancer she’d had done the week before. She listened carefully to the long, unfamiliar words and hung up the phone, relieved. It didn’t sound so bad. Kelly Whitworth, the Sarah Cannon breast and gynecologic oncology nurse navigator at Alaska Regional Hospital called to check in, but realized Rebeca needed clarification. She immediately scheduled an appointment for Rebeca with her radiation oncologist, who explained Rebeca’s diagnosis in detail. It was stage IV triple-negative inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of cancer that required urgent treatment.
The 47-year-old mother of a six- and seven-year-old and her husband, Tom, were stunned. Just a few weeks earlier, the word cancer hadn’t entered their minds.
“In early April I felt a lump on my right breast,” Rebeca says. “I thought it was a side effect or complication from a breast lift and augmentation I’d had in 2022. My doctor did an ultrasound and biopsy. That’s when she referred me to the oncology surgeon and I had more testing.”
Aside from her stepmom, who had had breast cancer but didn’t live nearby, Rebeca knew next to nothing about the disease.
“Getting a cancer diagnosis is scary,” says Rebeca. “I didn’t realize how scary. And everything happened so fast. I wish we had been connected with Kelly sooner because I don’t think it would have been as scary.”
What is a nurse navigator?
A nurse navigator’s duties, while similar for each patient, can also vary widely depending on each individual’s needs and preferences.
“My friend calls Kelly my cancer doula,” Rebeca says. “She handles every single thing to do with my cancer, from making appointments to providing resources to scheduling testing and even checking to make sure I stay hydrated. She’s assisted in getting physician and therapy referrals and my wig. She comes to my appointments whenever she can and often stops by my chemo treatments to say hi. When I had to fly to Houston for treatment, she contacted the American Cancer Society and they paid for my ticket. She does it all and it’s impressive.”
The oncology nurse navigator program at Alaska Regional Hospital is a part of the Sarah Cannon Cancer Network of HCA Healthcare. As patients go through one of the most challenging times of their lives, Sarah Cannon has created a process for nurse navigators to comprehensively manage their patients’ experience with cancer. From diagnosis through treatment and survivorship, nurse navigators are with their patients every step of the way.
“Kelly has been the one constant throughout this whole thing,” says Rebeca. “She’s eased our anxiety and tension and calmed our fears.”
One of the first things Kelly shared with the couple was a Sarah Cannon book outlining all the different variations and stages of breast cancer. She gave them books to help explain things to the kids and connected them with the Pickles Group, which offers free peer-to-peer support and resources for kids and teens impacted by a parent’s or guardian’s cancer.
“The program is amazing,” Rebeca says. “While support groups are great, they often bring up more questions than answers. Kelly can dumb it all down for us. We write everything down that the doctors tell us and then tell Kelly what they said and she explains it. She also helps us form questions for the doctors, because I would have been oblivious about what to ask.”
Rebeca is sharing her story to bring awareness to oncology nurse navigation at Alaska Regional Hospital and is grateful that her medical oncologist referred her to the program. As a suicide prevention social worker at the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs for the state of Alaska, she’s very much aware of the mental health impact of receiving a cancer diagnosis.
“It would be nice if all doctors knew about the program so they can refer their patients to the nurse navigators,” she says. “The sooner the better. It gives them somebody to walk them through this very scary thing.”
As Rebeca continues treatment, Kelly will be right beside her. As a cancer survivor who worked with an earlier form of nurse navigator, a non-clinical social worker, she knows how much her patients depend on her to support them and help remove barriers to their care.
“I’ll be with Rebeca through her entire cancer journey,” says Kelly. “She is getting the very best care possible and I’m here to passionately support her well-being.”