Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care

Do you want to take control of restoring your well-being and quality of life after cancer treatment? Would you like to feel more confident in helping someone you love through a cancer diagnosis, treatment, and beyond? Do you want to make the thought of a cancer diagnosis less traumatic and terrifying?

Navigating the C provides the insights you’ll need to understand that cancer does not have to mean the end of health or a poor quality of life. The knowledge and skills you’ll gain will help you recover more completely from treatment, and lead you to the understanding that a cancer diagnosis is something that everyone can be prepared for, without taking extraordinary steps.

In three, easy to understand, skill-based education programs aimed at closing gaps in information and understanding about cancer and survivors’ needs, the author calls for active prevention and preparation to reduce the trauma of a cancer diagnosis through C.A.R.E.: creativity, authenticity, resourcefulness, and empathy. The book will walk you through the steps you need to take to get your needs met in a system that so often fails cancer patients in finding the way back to themselves, and the possibility of emerging better than ever.

Working as an ICU and oncology nurse in the hospital, Nitzky soon realized her skills and knowledge, as well as her co-workers’, were profoundly underutilized to meet the needs of patients undergoing cancer treatment. Afterward, patients were left to their own devices to recover, with little support or guidance, and few skills to help them restore their quality of life.

Instead of taking a distant, clinical, big data approach, Nitzky describes meeting patients where they were, in their homes, communities, and support groups, where she could listen to their everyday concerns- the ones they never had time to discuss in short medical appointments. Given time and active listening, they articulated their needs for practical skills in understanding health information, self-advocacy, and self-care that accommodates their lifestyles, and matches their values and preferences around quality of life.

Navigating the C is about the stakeholders in cancer care: patients, families, caregivers, complementary service providers, nurses, physicians, healthcare administrators, policymakers, charitable organizations, and citizens, including people who have never had cancer. It addresses problems that contribute to gaps in care for cancer survivors and for those in ongoing treatment for metastatic cancer, and offers numerous solutions for each of these stakeholders to improve healthcare and self-care around cancer. Nitzky appeals for the importance of reducing the trauma of a cancer diagnosis, the intrinsic value of community programs, and smaller, individual approaches to cancer survivorship care, where big healthcare and big business miss the mark.

All stakeholders can expect to become empowered by reading this book by a passionate advocate for patients and healthcare workers: Patients, caregivers, and survivors will gain self-advocacy and self-care skills to have more control over their follow-up care experiences, and become more active and confident participants in their own healthcare. Ordinary citizens and those who have never had cancer will learn the simple steps they can take to reduce the trauma around an initial cancer diagnosis for themselves, or support their loved ones. Healthcare professionals will examine their own values around providing cancer treatment and survivorship care. Finally, those on the fringes of clinical care- the decision-makers and administrators- will gain insight into what really happens to the end-users of cancer services and how their lives are impacted by their experiences in healthcare.

Alene Nitzky, Ph.D., is a registered nurse certified in oncology, health coach, cancer exercise trainer, and CEO/Founder of Cancer Harbors®. When her clients with chronic health conditions expressed difficulty in getting help to improve the quality of their lives, she discovered the importance of communicating with patients in a way that can be understood, while teaching skills that could be applied to their lifestyles. As an athlete diagnosed with thyroid disease, Nitzky struggled to get back to the high level of performance and function she once had. She only got relief when she found a doctor who treated her as a person, not a disease.

As an oncology nurse, she recognized the disruption to her patients’ lives that cancer treatment caused, including their families’ routines and needs. Unprepared for the lingering effects after treatment was complete, patients felt abandoned by their treatment team and fearful the cancer might come back, without knowing how to cope with the ongoing fatigue and other symptoms they had. After attending support groups, and listening to patients and cancer survivors in her own family, her community, and on social media, Nitzky developed Cancer Harbors to address the gaps in survivorship care, to assist people in gaining more control over restoring their health, and to build skills in self-advocacy and self-care.

Prior to nursing, Nitzky earned a doctorate in recreation resources from Colorado State University, studying health benefits of leisure. She has taught kinesiology, wellness, and fitness at the college level, and coached collegiate athletes and recreational runners of all ages.

A Nightingale Award nominee for advocacy in nursing, she speaks and writes about running, fitness, and health care, and her work has appeared in guest blogposts, book chapters, Kevin MD, Ultrarunning Magazine, Runners’ World, Barefoot Running U.K., and other print and online publications. She has been a columnist on running for The Coloradoan, Fort Collins, Colorado’s local paper, and a blogger on cancer survivorship for Oncology Nursing Society and Oncology Nursing News. A pastel artist and accomplished ultra-endurance runner, she lives in Fort Collins, Colorado with her husband and their two Australian Shepherds.