A walk in the garden is a welcome pause for Paula Bard and her nurse navigator Rosie Honse. Since she felt a lump in her breast 8 months ago, Paula's been through a whirlwind of appointments.
"Trips back and forth to labs, radiologists, to oncologists," says Bard.
Honse's job at the Goldschmidt Cancer Center in Jefferson City is to navigate patients through those appointments, listening and answering questions along the way. She speaks passionately about her work, "So when the doctor gets the initial pathology report I'm listening to it and listening to the patient's questions, and what the doctor is saying. They (patients) frequently call me and they say there's something I missed, or something I didn't hear. I reinforce it for them."
Honse is a veteran nurse, working the past two years with chemotherapy patients. A grant from the Mid-Missouri Chapter of the Susan G. Komen organization funded her position and special training to work exclusively with breast cancer.
Her goal is to follow her patients through every appointment from diagnosis, through treatment to survival. She offers a referral to the center's many services when she sees a need.
"Oh we have so many services that are all right here under this roof," says Rosie. "Social worker, mental wellness, genetic counselor, dietitian."
To patients like Bard, Honse has become not just an advisor and educator, but a close friend.
"It's like O-K, she' handling it for me, I just have to go through it. Which I mean, that helps because going through it is a real big deal and it just makes it easier to know someone like Rosie is in my corner.," says Bard.
St. Mary's Health Center in Jefferson City and the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia also have nurses dedicated to navigate a breast cancer patient through treatment and beyond.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKRCG