QCHF-JOB DESCRIPTION
Contact
Please send your resumé (CV) to: info@qchfoundation.org

Job title

  • Patient navigator (Patient support for English speakers travelling to Quebec City for health services)

Job summary

  • The “patient navigator” will provide in-person support to English-speaking patients travelling to Quebec City for specialized health care services, assisting them in navigating the different steps in the care pathway as well as the informational, emotional, logistical challenges the experience presents. This person will also link patients to existing services, as needed, facilitating access for patients and communications with health care staff.

Place of work

  • Quebec City, Quebec 

Immediate supervisor

  • Jennifer Johnson, Executive Director, Quebec Community Health and Social Services Foundation (QCHF)

Terms of employment: 

  • Starting date: February 12, 2018
  • Equivalent of 3 days a week (21 hours/week)
  • Flexible schedule to accommodate the needs of patients (may include some evenings or weekend hours)
  • Salary: $21-25/hour
  • Expenses related to car use will be refunded

Work activities

  1. Provide information to patients and their loved ones (family, friends, community organizations) via website and toolkits (www.travel4health.ca and other) 
  2. Provide information to health care providers, via website and toolkits (www.travel4health.ca and other)
  3. Assist with logistics, as needed, for example: arrival, orientation in the city and in the hospital, lodging (for patients and /or caregivers), visits, and possibly translation
  4. Facilitate service provision, for example by ensuring good communication between health care providers and patients, by supporting the translation of documents, by providing cultural context for care providers, by flagging issues that arise in the different institutions, and more
  5. Provide support as needed to help deal with loneliness, fear and other feelings raised by health care situations (active listening and refer elsewhere, if needed)
  6. Stand in for family escorts before they arrive so that vulnerable patients and unilingual persons are not left alone (unaccompanied)
  7. Update website regularly, and maintain publicity regarding services available
  8. Develop and support a group of volunteers to assist with these tasks

Working environment

  • The employee will work in partnership with staff from the CHSSN who support a network of English-speaking community organizations in facilitating access to health and social services across the province.

Education and work experience

  • DEC or higher, preference for a background in health-related or social service
  • Experience with the health care system

Required skills and knowledge

  • High degree of English-French bilingualism (equivalent to mother tongue in both languages)
  • Knowledge of health care vocabulary in both languages
  • Familiarity with Quebec City, its hospitals and the Quebec health care system more generally
  • Organizational skills, ability to multi-task
  • Computer skills and literacy: knowledge of Office suite and ability to learn skills for website management
  • Driver’s license and car
  • Knowledge of eastern Quebec regions (Gaspé Coast, Magdalen Islands, North Shore, Lower North Shore, Lower Saint-Lawrence) would be an advantage

Required personal qualities

  • Resourceful: ability to find information and solutions quickly and effectively
  • Excellent interpersonal skills: ability to communicate clearly, effectively and compassionately with patients, loved ones, health care providers and project partners
  • Emotional intelligence: ability to provide non-professional emotional support to others (through active listening in a helping relationship), and also to deal with one’s own emotions in difficult situations (illness, diagnosis, etc.)
  • Adaptable: ability to adapt to the needs and capacities of a broad range of individuals (age, gender, literacy, handicaps, etc.)