Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care by Alene Nitzky, Ph.D., RN, OCN ®
“If you ask me what I do now, I can say several things. I am the cleanup person — I clean up the mess left after cancer treatment…
On our way to curing cancer or putting it in remission, we often do extensive psychological, emotional, social and functional damage to the patient…When the disease is gone we are left with a patient.”
— Alene Nitzky, Ph.D., RN, OCN ®
In her book, Navigating the C: A Nurse Charts the Course for Cancer Survivorship Care, Author Alene Nitzky, Ph.D., RN, OCN ®, bridges the worlds of conventional oncology training with integrative cancer wellness. She offers an ideal skill set for Cancer Survivorship Care, covering the bases of both conventional and integrative cancer care, and shares critical information on how to “navigate the C” with skills for improving health on all levels of mind, body and spirit.
As Dr. Nitzky says in the book:
After cancer treatment is done, patients should be told honestly, “You might be done with treatment, but it’s not done with you. There is much more work to do before you are truly finished.” It must be emphasized that this part of care is predominantly under the patient’s control.
The Pitfalls and Perils of the Oncology Health Care System
As an oncology nurse, Dr. Nitzky has seen firsthand the toxicity of the often militaristic health care system. Nitzky has seen how it treats both its patients and its providers, often damaging them to the core— and she offers real solutions for both. The acronym that she uses for CARE is creative, authentic, resourceful and empathetic.
As a former healthcare administrator, I once bristled at the portrayal of my administrative colleagues in the media as uncaring and unsupportive of patients and/or staff. However, having worked in many health care systems, I know that while sometimes this portrayal is untrue or unfair, there are many cases in which it is true. Sadly, many times, those in the administrative roles who are acting less than virtuously are or were also clinicians themselves. There is a great need to rework the system to be more supportive of practitioners and patients. While Dr. Nitzky provides an overview of the many pitfalls of the health care system at large, and oncology in particular, but she doesn’t leave it at that. She provides many solutions and information on organizations that can support oncology patients and their health care practitioners in dealing with the side effects of both cancer treatment and the oncology care delivery system.
Recovering Health and Quality of Life after Cancer Treatment
As an elite athlete herself, as well as a fitness and wellness coach with a doctorate in recreation resources, Dr. Nitzky knows what it takes, not only to “survive” — but to thrive. She has created two empowerment programs for cancer survivors — one called FIERCE: Functional and Fit, Independent, Energized, Restored, Confident and Empowered; and the other called Cancer Harbors™, a guide and resource during the early transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor, helping with recovery from the effects of treatment, as well as restoring quality of life. She uses a three prong educational framework for educating the public and patients, using the steps Prevent, Prepare and Prehab, and describes the elements of each step. She describes the material included in the Cancer Harbors programs. She lists and describes twelve key exercises that are called The Lemonade Routine (which can also be found on YouTube here) to improve health while lying in bed. Like many of the items of information in the book, these are simple and practical ways to regain and/or maintain health after cancer treatment.
To hear an interview with Dr. Nitzky and to read a full article on her work with Cancer Harbors, see https://integrativecancer.org/cancer-harbors-filling-the-gap-in-survivorship-plans-after-cancer-treatment/.
