JOB SUMMARY:
Performs a wide range of nursing clinical, consultative, educational and research activities with established expertise. Serves as a mentor and leader in the development of standards and in the training and monitoring of practice to achieve and maintain those standards.


KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Acts as an internal and external consultant and liaison to promote agreed upon clinical enterprise or Patient Care Center goals.
• reviews nursing care plans for selected patients and serves as a resource to the nursing staff
• teaches and models new skills/care modalities for the health care team
• serves as a mentor to nursing staff on clinical, professional and research practices that support high quality, satisfying and cost beneficial care across the continuum.
• Fosters individual and corporate staff development in the area of specialty
• directs and/or conducts needs assessments for individuals or groups
• develops, coordinates, implements and evaluates orientation and continuing education systems
• Participates in scholarly and/or research activities in area of expertise.
• maintains current knowledge of professional literature
• conducts, coordinates or participates in research studies
• writes for publication
• teaches, precepts or mentors nursing students
• participates in community projects
• Assists in designing tools and systems to facilitate and optimize nursing care.
• uses continuous improvement techniques (Plan, Do, Study, Act) to select or target areas/processes for improvement
• mentors others in the continuous improvement cycle
• shares results of process improvement with others on a timely basis either through verbal or written presentations
• Provides expert nursing care to selected patients in area of specialty.
• plans and manages patient care
• provides patient and family education
• prepares patient for the next level of care
• addresses problems
• communicates/collaborates effectively to meet patient and team goals
• Under the direction of the PCC Administrative Director, participates in program development.
• coordinates or directs program development
• implements program(s)
• evaluates program results and processes

Department/Unit Summary:

The SICU unit specializes in caring for a critically ill patient population that may include liver, kidney, or pancreas transplants; as well as head, neck, thoracic, urologic, and GI surgical patients. Our primary focus is to provide our diverse patient population with excellent care related to any elective, urgent, or emergent major surgical intervention, as well as procedures that negatively impact normal hemodynamic stability. This is typically the immediate post-operative phase, but may also include the diagnostic, pre-operative, and extended post-operative phases of care. Our nurses work closely with the SICU physicians and nurse practitioners to provide care for patients with multiple system organ dysfunctions, ventilators, vasoactive drips and other therapies to ensure optimal sedation, analgesia, cardiac, and hemodynamic function. Our nursing team assists in coordinating the care between the multiple disciplines and physician teams to provide optimal outcomes for our critically ill patients. We pride ourselves on providing excellent patient care, with a focus on reducing the number of hospital-acquired infections from ventilators, central venous catheters, and urinary catheters.

Position Shift:

• Full-time, Day Shift (Requires 2 - 12 hour shifts and 2 - 8 hour shifts with 1-2 weekend shifts in a 6 week period.)

View how Vanderbilt Health employees celebrate the difference they make every day:

As a Vanderbilt University Medical Center employee, you make a difference to our patients and their families by bringing compassion and care to those in need of hope and healing. Please see our current employee benefits offered:

• Affordable High Quality Health Plan Options
• Dental and /or vision plan
• 403 (b) retirement plan
• Paid Time off (flex PTO)
• Tuition Reimbursement and adoption assistance (maximums applied)
• Short-Long term disability
• Subsidized backup childcare
• And many more... Ask us about our current inpatient nursing supplemental Pay Program!!

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. It is a place where your diversity -- of culture, thinking, learning and leading -- is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt's mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Our Nursing Philosophy:

We believe highly skilled and specialized nursing care is essential to Vanderbilt University Medical Center's mission of quality in patient care, education and research. We believe nursing is an applied art and science focused on helping people, families and communities reach excellent health and well-being.

Achieve the Remarkable:

Learn more about VUMC Nursing:

• Nursing Careers: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/index.html
• Benefits: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/benefits.html
• Our Nursing Philosophy: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/philosophy.html
• Our Nursing Leadership: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/leadership.html
• Shared Governance: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/shared-governance.html
• Education & Professional Development: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/professional-development.html
• Life In Nashville: http://www.vumcnursingcareers.com/nashville.html
• VUMC Nursing: http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=vanderbilt-nursing

Master's Degree (or equivalent experience) and 2 years experience

Position Qualifications:

• Registered Nurse Required
• Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Within 3 months
• National Specialty Board Certification in Age-Specific Specialty Patient Population Within 3 months

Physical Requirements/Strengths needed & Physical Demands:

• Heavy Work category requiring exertion of 50 to 100 lbs. of force occasionally and/or up to 20 to 50 lbs. of force frequently and/or up to 10 to 20 lbs. of force continually to move objects.

Movement

• Occasional: Sitting: Remaining in seated position
• Occasional: Lifting over 35 lbs: Raising and lowering objects from one level to another, includes upward pulling over 35 lbs, with help of coworkers or assistive device
• Occasional: Carrying under 35 lbs: Transporting an object holding in hands, arms or shoulders, with help of coworkers or assistive device.
• Occasional: Bending/Stooping: Trunk bending downward and forward by bending spine at waist requiring full use of lower extremities and back muscles
• Occasional: Climbing: Ascending or descending stairs/ramps using feet and legs and/or hands and arms.
• Occasional: Kneeling:Bending legs at knees to come to rest on knee or knees.
• Occasional: Crouching/Squatting: Bending body downward and forward by bending legs and spine.Reaching above shoulders: Extending arms in any direction above shoulders.
• Occasional: Reaching above shoulders: Extending arms in any direction above shoulders.
• Frequent: Standing: Remaining on one's feet without moving.
• Frequent: Walking: Moving about on foot.
• Frequent: Lifting under 35 lbs: Raising and lowering objects under 35 lbs from one level to another
• Frequent: Push/Pull: Exerting force to move objects away from or toward.
• Frequent: Balancing: Maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling when walking, standing, crouching or maneuvering self, patient and equipment simultaneously while working in large and small spaces
• Frequent: Reaching below shoulders: Extending arms in any direction below shoulders.
• Frequent: Handling: Seizing, holding, grasping, turning or otherwise working with hand or hands.
• Frequent: Fingering: Picking, pinching, gripping, working primarily with fingers requiring fine manipulation.
• Frequent: Bimanual Dexterity: Requiring the use of both hands.

Sensory

• Frequent: Communication: Expressing or exchanging written/verbal/electronic information.
• Continuous: Auditory: Perceiving the variances of sounds, tones and pitches and able to focus on single source of auditory information
• Continuous: Vision: Clarity of near vision at 20 inches or less and far vision at 20 feet or more with depth perception, peripheral vision, color vision.
• Continuous: Smell: Ability to detect and identify odors.
• Continuous: Feeling: Ability to perceive size, shape, temperature, texture by touch with fingertips.

Environmental Conditions

• Occasional: Chemicals and Gasses: Medications, cleaning chemicals, oxygen, other medical gases used in work area.
• Frequent: Pathogens: Risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens and other contagious illnesses.

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