Recovery Navigator Training Handbook

Draft operating handbook for the proposed AfterNest pilot. This document is designed to show the training and role boundaries that would need to exist before any Navigator had patient contact.

1. Navigator role

A Recovery Navigator is a trained, supervised, non-clinical support person assigned to help a participating patient complete practical recovery tasks after hospital discharge. The Navigator works from a Non-Clinical Recovery Support Plan and tracks each approved task until it is resolved, declined, escalated, or formally handed off.

Typical responsibilities

• Transportation coordination and appointment logistics
• Patient-portal and video-visit technology support
• Non-clinical language navigation in the patient’s preferred language when appropriately matched
• Caregiver and family coordination for practical tasks
• Food, household, and community-resource navigation
• Helping the patient organize a question list for the healthcare team
• Tracking practical tasks and documenting only what is necessary for program operations

2. Scope boundary

Navigators must not answer questions about symptoms, diagnoses, medications, treatment decisions, activity restrictions, wound care, or whether a patient should seek medical attention. Any clinical question must be routed to the partner-defined healthcare escalation pathway. Emergency concerns must follow the partner’s emergency protocol.

Use this response pattern

“That sounds like a question for your healthcare team. I can help you reach the approved clinical contact, but I cannot interpret or advise on the medical issue.”

3. Privacy and documentation

AfterNest is designed to minimize unnecessary access to health information. Navigators should document practical tasks and outcomes, not detailed medical conversations. A production program would use partner-approved privacy, consent, security, and record-retention policies reviewed by qualified legal and compliance professionals.

• Do not ask for diagnoses, medication lists, lab results, or clinical notes unless the approved workflow specifically requires information and legal/compliance review supports it.
• Do not copy medical information into free-text task notes.
• Do not photograph or upload discharge papers into the Navigator workspace.
• Use the minimum practical information needed to complete the support task.
• Report accidental disclosure or privacy concerns immediately through the approved escalation process.

4. Transportation support

The Navigator may help identify approved transportation options, assist with scheduling logistics, confirm pickup details, and follow up on whether transportation was successfully arranged. The initial pilot should focus on coordination rather than having ordinary volunteers personally transport patients unless legal, insurance, screening, and operating requirements are formally resolved.

5. Technology support

Navigators may help patients with non-clinical technology tasks such as portal login, password-reset navigation, video-visit setup, basic device orientation, or locating appointment information. Navigators should not use a patient’s credentials without an approved workflow and should not browse medical records merely to make support easier.

6. Language navigation

Bilingual Navigators may provide non-clinical navigation in the patient’s preferred language, including explaining how to contact a resource, helping with scheduling logistics, or navigating technology. They are not automatically qualified medical interpreters. Clinical interpretation remains with the health system’s approved qualified language services.

7. Resource follow-through

Providing a phone number is not the end of the task. The Navigator should determine whether the resource fits the need, help the patient understand the practical next step, and record the outcome as resolved, declined, escalated, or handed off.

8. Communication standards

• Use respectful, plain language.
• Confirm preferred contact method and language.
• Do not make promises about services, eligibility, clinical outcomes, or hospital decisions.
• Document practical next actions clearly and promptly.
• Escalate uncertainty rather than improvising.
• Respect the patient’s right to decline any AfterNest task or stop participating.

9. Training pathway

1. Program mission and patient population
2. Scope of practice and non-clinical boundaries
3. Privacy and data-minimization expectations
4. Transportation and technology workflows
5. Language-navigation standards
6. Community-resource directory use
7. Escalation and emergency protocol
8. Documentation and task-status workflow
9. Role-play scenarios and supervisor review
10. Final readiness sign-off before assignment

10. Supervisor checklist before assignment

• Identity and screening requirements complete
• Training modules complete
• Boundary scenario passed
• Privacy acknowledgment complete
• Escalation pathway understood
• Language capability verified when used for matching
• Availability and caseload confirmed
• Supervisor contact assigned

Academic prototype only. This handbook is not legal, clinical, or regulatory advice and would require partner, legal, insurance, privacy, and operational review before real-world use.