Specialty Care - Outpatient Registered Nurse

Position: Specialty Care - Outpatient Staff Registered Nurse
The Surgical Specialty Care RN is responsible and accountable for individual nursing practice and determines the appropriate delegation of tasks consistent with the nurse's obligation to provide optimal specialty care. The focus is on individual growth and development in practice with increased levels of self direction. This nurse provides patient care, care coordination, health promotion, health education and coaching on wellness, disease prevention, and chronic care management.

The Surgical Specialty Care Outpatient Staff RN assumes the following major duties and responsibilities:

1. Demonstrates sound clinical judgment and leadership in improving patient care using the nursing process for patients requiring specialized or complex care in an outpatient surgical clinic setting.

2. Demonstrates clinical competence in providing direct patient care. Provides direct patient care as required.

3. Is a subject-matter expert for their Specialty Service(s) and acts as a resource for staff and patients.

4. Participates with RN Care Coordinators (RNCC) to navigate Veterans through the pre-op process, including necessary appointments, testing, education, to optimize surgical care.

5. Maintains mandatory and clinical competencies required for the position.

6. Provides clinical guidance to LVNs and Health Technicians.

7. Functions as a liaison between all members of the Surgical Specialty team (administration, attending, residents, etc.), clinic staff, the Ambulatory Service Unit (ASU), Operating Room (OR), in-patient nursing units, sterile processing services (SPS) and other departments involved in veteran care, internal and external customer service.

8. Provides excellent customer service as a liaison between patients and families to provide education, emotional support, care coordination within the medical facility or non-VA contract facilities.

9. Triages and addressed phone messages, secure messages and consults as dictated per Service.

10. Collaborate with Health Administrative Service (HAS) personnel to coordinate scheduling of patients as needed.

11. Participates in scrubbing clinics to ensure orders for clinic are present per Nursing Standard Procedure Protocols. Assures all diagnostic tests are completed and resulted prior to clinic visits.

12. Addresses psychological needs of surgical patients as needed.

13. Provides education to staff and families regarding the plan of care during clinic visit.

14. Collaborates with multiple disciplines/departments to improve clinic efficiency and delivery of patient care.

15. Assists with hospital admissions and refers patients to the ED when appropriate.

16. Assists with arranging transportation, home-care needs, lodging as needed.

17. Participates or Initiates performance improvement activities to include, at a minimum, customer satisfaction, chart reviews, and audits.

18. Serves as a mentor/preceptor for new staff.

19. Performs RME updates, develops protocols and unit policies as needed.

20. Collaborates with an interprofessional team to improve clinic efficiency and delivery of patient care.

21. Coordinates follow-up appointments prior to discharge.

22. Maintains BLS Certification.

23. Demonstrates strong interpersonal skills for effective information exchange and problem solving with all levels of management and staff, consultants, and outside agencies.

24. Demonstrates strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with ability to quickly analyze problems, determine appropriate level of intervention, and develop and apply effective solutions, recognizing his/her scope of practice.

25. Responds to changing priorities and resources with optimism, encouraging staff to respond positively and proactively.

26. Performs other duties as assigned.

Preferred Experience:

* Qualifications for Registered Nurse Surgical Specialty Care Clinics (Outpatient)

* Minimum of 2 years of recent experience in Ambulatory Care or Specialty Care, with a focus on Surgical Specialties.

* Additional experience in Emergency Room or Inpatient Medical-Surgical settings preferred.

* Preferred prior experience as a Clinic Care Coordinator and/or Charge Nurse.

* Current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification…