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Duke Health
Durham, North Carolina

Nurse Navigator - Oral Surgery

Registered NurseIncludes callFull-Time

Compensation

Pay not disclosed

Listing transparency1 of 6 stated

Ask the employer about the pay range, the work setting and weekend coverage.

Employment & setting
Full-Time
Call expectations
Includes call
Weekends
Not specified
Posted 1mo ago

Job Description

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together.

About Duke University Hospital

Pursue your passion for caring with Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, which is consistently ranked among the best in the United States. The largest of the four Duke Healthhospitals with 1062 patient beds, it features comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, including a regional emergency/trauma center, an endo-surgery center, and more.

Duke Oral Surgery Clinic, 1F is seeking Nurse Navigator who will embrace our mission of Advancing Health Together.

Clinic Summary

Craniomaxillofacal Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery is a Duke Health system-wide service which provides treatment of Duke Health System and Life Point affiliated hospital patients and those who are either physician or self-referred for evaluation and treatment of facial trauma and reconstructive surgery. Additionally, the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery subsection of this unit provides treatment of soft and hard tissue lesions requiring further evaluation and/or biopsy, obstructive sleep apnea and chronic snoring surgical care, cleft palate reconstruction, operative TMJ issues or orthognathic surgery evaluation.

Job Summary

The Nurse Navigator (NN) is a professional RN with service line specific clinical knowledge who offers individualized assistance across the care continuum to patients, families, and caregivers to expedite and coordinate care, and address health system barriers. The NN assumes responsibility for the coordination of patient care through interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaboration to achieve optimal patient outcomes with a focus on high-risk patients or those with complex care needs (including multidisciplinary care). The NN has a particular focus on improving transitions in care and adherence to care. Additionally, the NN functions as a clinical advocate and educator for patients. The NN assists to build and maintain community relationships to provide expedient and reliable access to quality care. The NN identifies and alleviates stressors during transitions and barriers to care with the aim to deliver a seamless model of care that benefits patients, family members, providers, and the healthcare team.

  • Work Performed
  • Assess and facilitate coordination of multidisciplinary care across the care continuum.
  • Provide communication, advocacy, and education in a culturally competent manner.
  • Ability to clinically triage new patient referrals efficiently, to ensure timely access to care.

Collaborate with multidisciplinary care team and expedite sequence of patient's workup, active treatment, survivorship, and end of life care.

Provide communication and reinforcement of clinical information and serve as a conduit between patient and providers/clinicians to address needs of patients.

  • Targeted symptom assessment and management for identified patient population.
  • Assess health literacy and educational needs of patient.
  • Provide clinical education about diagnosis, treatment, side effects, and post- treatment care.

Assess and document patient's needs, goals, and preferences and work to ensure such are integrated into treatment and care delivery.

  • Bridge gaps in care, and assess/troubleshoot care transitions and barriers to care.
  • Facilitate advanced care planning and transition of active treatment to palliative or end-of-life care.
  • Document all patient encounters in EPIC.

Enhance access to therapeutic clinical trials and optimize communication with patients, families and investigators regarding therapeutic clinical trials, including patient-specific education about clinical trials.

Encourage and empower patients to actively participate in decision- making about their treatment and care. Possess leadership skills including staff education, preceptorship, patient education, and participate in process improvement initiatives.

  • Practice according to professional and legal standards.
  • Maintain navigation services documentation according to program standards.
  • Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
  • Excellent written, oral, and conversational communication skills to effectively work with diverse groups.

Ability to analyze, evaluate multiple solutions and solve complex problems using well developed critical & analytical thinking skills.

Excellent time management skills needed to prioritize among many competing priorities. Attention to detail needed to operate accurately and effectively.

Mastery of Microsoft Office, especially Word and Excel, and use of health record for documentation and/or reporting.

Ability to promote programs and services to community Extensive understanding of patient care Proficient in review of medical records and other patient care information.

  • Demonstrated skills in verbal and written communication.
  • Ability to maintain strict confidentiality.
  • Ability to promote and build teamwork and multidisciplinary care concept.

Minimum Qualifications

  • Education
  • BSN required.
  • Specialty certification and/or MSN preferred.

Experience

  • Three years of experience of in Oncology
  • Experience in nurse navigation preferred.
  • Completion of national nurse navigation training preferred
  • Metric tracking skills
  • Degrees, Licensures, Certifications

Must have current or compact RN licensure in the state of North Carolina. BLS required.

Duke is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy related conditions), sexual orientation or military status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas—an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.

Essential Physical Job Functions

Certain jobs at Duke University and Duke University Health System may include essential job functions that require specific physical and/or mental abilities. Additional information and provision for requests for reasonable accommodation will be provided by each hiring department.

Qualifications

Education
Master's degree (postgraduate degree)
Experience
2+ years of experience

Key Skills

Patient NavigationClinical TriageCare CoordinationSymptom ManagementInterdisciplinary CollaborationCase ManagementCritical ThinkingPatient AdvocacyClinical AssessmentHealth Literacy Assessment

Surgery — Registered Nurse Career Context

In North Carolina, the Registered Nurse weighted monthly median benchmark on WeekdayDoc is ~$92k (28 salary observations; 95 listings), vs ~$93k nationally (1,568 salary observations; 3,922 listings). Monthly aggregates cover 2026-01-01 through 2026-09-01; these are not the modal's selected comparable-job medians.

Of the 50 active Registered Nurse listings this role was benchmarked against, 18% are remote, 60% have no call, 86% require no weekends.

Registered Nurse pay on WeekdayDoc is up 2.9% vs. the prior quarter (through Aug 2026).

The cost-of-living index for North Carolina is 94.3 (US average = 100; BEA Regional Price Parities (2024)). 59.2% of North Carolina clinicians report burnout symptoms in WeekdayDoc's Burnout Index (2026-01 data).

Top Registered Nurse Jobs

38 matches · ranked by pay

Salary Distribution37 jobs · 31 employers

13
<$100k
7
$100k-120k
7
$120k-140k
7
$140k-160k
3
$160k+

Annual compensation range

Benefits & Perks32 jobs · 31 employers

401k / retirement match
88%
Sign-on bonus
31%
CME allowance
25%
Loan repayment
3%
Relocation assistance
3%

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Work-life snapshot

1.5/ 10
Listing-based score
  • Includes call

Living in Durham

Typical 3-bedroom home value
$363k
Typical market rent
$1,659/mo
Residents’ average commute
22 min
Metro price indexU.S. average = 100
97.6
State income tax
Up to 4.8%
Sources & methodology

Sources: Zillow home values (Aug 2026), Zillow market rents (Aug 2026), U.S. Census ACS 2024 five-year.

BEA 2024 · Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metro prices. Housing figures are city-level.

City-level figures. Not a cost-of-living guarantee.