Save the Date: Saturday, April 11, 2026

Benefiting the Nurse Navigator Program at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital:

Imagine your child has just been diagnosed with a life-altering illness. Your world feels like it’s been turned upside down.  Suddenly there are so many appointments to make, specialists to find, new medications and side effects consider. There are complicated procedures, a new dietary plan, lifestyle changes that will impact your whole family, insurance complexities and financial burden. You are overwhelmed - unsure how to tackle this new reality while knowing regular life has to continue.

Now envision after the clinical team shares this difficult news and long path ahead, an extra member of the team walks in. This person starts by making sure you understand everything the doctor has shared, answers questions you have and walks you through what needs to happen between now and the next visit. They help you find specialists and make appointments, show you how to administer the new medications, are there to support your family during hospital stays and continue that support once you go home with virtual monitoring, traversing all the everyday questions and being a constant source of support for months or even years.

That extra member of the team is called a Nurse Navigator. Nurse Navigators help families navigate the healthcare system and are a guiding light through the scariest of times. They are a medical support person helping provide guidance during hospital stays, consult on complicated medical decisions and preparing families for what needs to happen once they are home. They are a lifeline, a constant resource throughout the child’s journey to ensure the caregivers have everything they need.

St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital has a need for five additional Nurse Navigators which will double the size of our current team. Currently, our nurse navigators support cardiology, oncology, and our high-risk obstetrics team. The new navigators will support families with aerodigestive needs (think lungs, gastro-intestinal, digestive with illnesses like Crohn’s), neurology needs (think brain, spine, developmental, epilepsy and autism), neonatal needs (think babies in the NICU and with developmental needs), endocrinology and rheumatology (think diabetes).  The role is non-billable yet brings incredible support to families as they move through a stressful care plan for their child. Nurse navigators often feel like a member of the family to the patient, while also helping the hospital build the interdisciplinary and innovative teams of the future.

Your support will make this incredible resource possible to help the families of our littlest heroes so they have the very best chance to grow and thrive.