In honor of Sean Gallagher
Sean Gallagher has always been on the front lines of health care, first as an emergency mental health clinician and now as a nurse navigator at UNC.
Sean makes sure patients with head and neck cancers are guided through their entire process of treatment, from start to finish, without a hitch. He’s their primary contact person. If they need to know about the next appointment, what to expect in their treatment, or how to deal with symptoms or side effects, they call him.
“I just try to make their entire process as a patient go as smoothly as possible,” he says.
When Sean was in college, he majored in Psychology and earned his master’s in Counseling Psychology. He worked as an emergency mental health clinician before getting interested in nursing and heading to UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Nursing. Now, he is happy to have found a role in which he can teach patients, coordinate their care, and help them access necessary resources.
“I like to problem-solve for the patient,” he says. “I want people to know they can call me when they need help in their care.”