"GI Cancer Patient Partner"

Overview

The GI Cancer Patient Partner provides compassionate, relationship-based support to patients and families navigating gastrointestinal cancer care, with a focus on evening and weekend coverage to enhance continuity of care and communication.

Key Functions

• New Patient Support: Welcome new GI cancer patients within 48 hours, orient them to care pathways, confirm records, and link them to resources.
• Decision-Making Research: Enroll eligible patients in decision-quality studies and maintain research registries.
• Post-Discharge Follow-Up: Call patients after discharge-especially those with drains, TPN, or IV antibiotics-and coordinate with home health and social work.
• Trauma-Informed Care: Use trauma-aware communication and participate in ongoing training.
• Coordination & Metrics: Track patient needs, SDoH screenings, escalations, and program outcomes.

Schedule

Tues-Fri 3-10 PM; Sat 10 AM-3 PM

Collaborators

Nurse Navigators, APPs, Social Work, Research Teams, and Yale Child Study Center.

Ideal Background

Experience in patient-facing healthcare roles, strong communication skills, comfort with sensitive situations, and interest in trauma-informed care and research.

Program Goals

Improve patient experience, strengthen decision-making support, reduce readmissions, and integrate trauma-informed practices across GI oncology care.

Required Skills and Abilities

1. Ability to engage with patients and families using clear, compassionate, and trauma-informed communication strategies.
2. Skilled in coordinating care across multiple disciplines, including nursing, advanced practice providers, social work, and research teams.
3. Strong ability to manage multiple priorities, track patient needs, and maintain accurate documentation and registries.
4. Ability to identify patient needs, escalate concerns appropriately, and problem-solve in complex clinical situations.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Demonstrate and apply knowledge of the philosophy/principles of comprehensive, community based, patient-centered, developmentally appropriate, culturally sensitive care coordination services.
2. Engage patients, families and caregivers in understanding, setting and monitoring patient self-management care plans in a manner that is culturally and linguistically appropriate to the patient and caregiver.
3. Provide care coordination, case management, referral and follow-up to individuals and families who are members of a vulnerable population and/or high-risk groups. Evaluate outcomes, effectiveness of plan, and makes changes as necessary on micro and macro levels.
4. Proactively manage patients during transitions of care, including patients’ transitions from the Emergency department, hospital, or skilled nursing facility to home
5. Engage individuals and families in a plan of care that addresses their identified health deficits and issues. Provide education and counseling to individuals, family members and caregivers.
6. Collaborate in development and delivery of programs and activities for individuals, families and population groups that promote health and prevent disease, including identifying and addressing gaps in preventative care.
7. Collaborate in the development of and contribute to individual, team, and department quality improvement and evaluation activities that support the medical home.
8. Prepare for (pre-visit planning), attend and actively participate in team huddles, the disease registries and payer-supplied data, participate in the analysis of data to identify trends, health problems, environmental health hazards, and social and economic conditions that adversely affect patients’ health.
9. Perform general RN duties as required by the practice, including, but not limited to the following:
10. Demonstrate expert practice skills that include flexibility, priority setting, problems- solving, conflict resolution, negotiating and networking skills, decision-making, work delegation and organization, and verbal/written communication skills.
11. Maintain confidentiality of patient, personnel, and institutional information.
12. Demonstrate sound knowledge bases and actions in the decision-making process for designated patient populations.
13. Work independently to assess and evaluate understanding of disease process, treatment plan and/or lifestyle changes.
14. Apply professional nursing skills in the provision of preventive health maintenance and/or treatment of illness.
15. Facilitate interdisciplinary communication among all providers and staff.
16. Accurately and legibly document all patient interactions in the patient record.
17. Demonstrate self-directed learning needs and seeks ways to meet own professional development.
18. Assess learning needs of patient and significant other to support the patient through the care continuum.
19. Provide general patient assessments.
20. May perform other duties assigned.

Required Education and Experience

Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing and three years of experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Salary Range: $68,000.00 - $120,500.00

Location: 310 Cedar Street, New Haven, Connecticut

Posted: 07-Jan-26

Categories: Staff/Administrative