The study is a program evaluation of a cancer-specific patient navigation service. The agency posed concerns regarding navigator's effectiveness on the telephone, and questioned if navigators might be engaged in helping at a level beyond the scope of their defined roles. The patient navigator's verbal helping skills were identified with a hope that the agency could be informed about which specific helping skills were being utilized. Efficacy of patient navigation has been anecdotally reported in the literature, but more research is needed to determine the future direction of patient navigation. A recent increase in funding for patient navigation programs has brought urgency to the questions around the role and future functions of patient navigation.

The sample for the study comprised 13 female employees of the agency, all providing patient navigation services to individuals affected by cancer. The navigators provided consent to have a simulated phone call recorded, transcribed and coded to identify which helping skills were being utilized. Hill's Helping Skills System was used to code the navigator's responses. The findings of the study demonstrated that information responses were the most frequent verbal helping skill accounting for 38.5% of all responses provided. Responses coded as other were the next most frequent (24.3%), followed by closed question responses (15.6%) and approval/reassurance responses (10.6%). Open-ended questions accounted for 3.6% of responses while restatements were used 2.2% of the time. Direct guidance and disclosure accounted for 1.9% and 2.9% of the responses. When navigators were directly asked if they had ever had cancer, they responded with disclosure responses most frequently.

Limitations of the study include the methodology of simulated phone calls and the small sample size. The helping skills utilized by navigators have been identified, and it is hoped that the findings can be incorporated by the agency into future training programs for patient navigators.