REQUIRED EDUCATION / EXPERIENCE:
RN with Bachelor’s in Nursing, four years of clinical RN experience and approved specialty certification. Must possess and maintain a current RN license or valid temporary permit to practice in Texas. Current BLS required.
JOB SUMMARY:
Proficient Clinician. Possesses knowledge and skill to meet standards for proficient professional nursing practice as specified in the Texas Nurse Practice Act. Practice is characterized by a balance of interdependent/independent decision-making and a consistent holistic approach to patient care. Proficiently functions with the interdisciplinary team; initiates team action to address patient care problems. Serves as a strong clinical leader on the unit. Directs others in responding to emergent or unusual situations. Takes the lead in developing, implementing and evaluating evidence-based standards of practice for specialty area. Provides patient care through nursing practices based upon the American Nurses Association Standards of Professional Practice and Professional Performance. Values specialty unit, nursing, and institutional strategic initiatives and health system goals.
ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:
Nursing Process
- Using specialized knowledge and skills, proficiently assesses patients and identifies actual and potential nursing diagnoses/patient care needs.
- Proficiently identifies patient care needs, formulates appropriate nursing diagnoses, develops and individualizes care plan, and revises plan of care as needed.
- Proficiently plans and prioritizes culturally congruent and specialty appropriate care for identified patient group.
- Proficiently executes healthcare provider orders for all assigned patients. Administers medications and treatments and delivers culturally congruent and specialty appropriate proficient nursing care in accordance with UTMB's policies, procedures, and standards in a caring and compassionate manner.
- Proficiently performs routine and complex technical procedures/skills in assigned specialty area.
Patient/Family Teaching & Health Promotion
- Provides complex patient/family instruction and healthcare teaching based on identified learning needs (patient values, beliefs, barriers, and readiness to learn).
- Identifies potential impact of family dynamics on the teaching plan.
- Utilizes evidence-based resources to provide patient/family education, adhering to patient/family education policy 09.03.04.
- Proficiently uses Teach-Back or other strategies to determine effectiveness and modifies strategies as needed.
- Analyzes, selects, and utilizes individualized educational support material for patients and families (i.e. Elsevier).
- Coaches others in strategies for patient/family inclusion and serves as a resource to others for patients/families with complex learning needs.
Care Coordination & Delegation
- Proficiently and independently plans, coordinates, and prioritizes patient care activities according to skill level and work complexity.
- Maintains safety and continuity of care using methods such as bedside shift report, hand-off tools/processes, inter-professional rounding, etc.; Role models and coaches others to utilize these methods.
- Evaluates processes and outcomes of specialty area practices/methods.
- Demonstrates flexibility in time management to manage changing patient priorities; coaches and supports others to plan, coordinate and prioritize care.
- Proactively initiates local efforts to improve planning, coordination, and prioritization of patient care.
- Delegates appropriately; may seek guidance or clarification of non-routinely delegated tasks; Coaches others to optimize safe & effective delegation.
- Demonstrates proficient use of technology in the delivery of patient care and serves as a resource and provides trouble-shooting support to others; Participates in educating others in implementation of new technology/processes.
Ethics (legal/regulatory), Advocacy & Culturally Congruent Care
- Identifies ethical situations and initiates appropriate communication/consultation to address; recognizes situations in which personal bias may influence actions; facilitates communication with and provides support to team members to address.
- Delivers culturally sensitive care using available resources to meet the needs of patient/family; recognizes situations in which personal bias may influence; Role models culturally sensitive care to less experienced clinicians.
- Actively serves as a patient/family advocate, consistently focuses on patient/family rights and meeting their individual needs; serves as a role model/coach to other staff who may need assistance with patient advocacy.
Communication & Collaboration
- Supports healthy work environment by demonstrating respectful verbal and non-verbal communication with all members of the healthcare team; may seek support with challenging communication issues; addresses behavior that does not support respectful environment; provides feedback to supervisor/manager related to colleague practice changes, disrespectful behaviors, etc.
- Recognizes colleagues when they go above and beyond in demonstrating UTMB’s core values.
- Proficiently plans, coordinates, and prioritizes patient care activities in collaboration/communication with inter-professional team, including consult.
Leadership
- Actively facilitates communication with informal and formal unit/hospital leaders and can educate colleagues regarding unit/hospital leadership.
- Actively leads area professional governance, unit meetings, or a unit initiative. AND
- Actively participates in hospital-level professional governance, groups, or initiatives, and encourages colleague participation.
- Completes one Professional Leadership Activity annually.
- Monitors unit, nursing, and institutional strategic initiatives and health system goals.
- Recognizes the importance of financial responsibility to promote fiscal health for the patient, unit and organization.
- Demonstrates openness to change by actively seeking knowledge and needed information; uses positive role modeling to promote understanding of change to colleagues; actively addresses colleagues demonstrating resistance to change by positive communication, education or other appropriate method.
- Incorporates methods/strategies to facilitate change behaviors with colleagues.
- Exemplifies appropriate level of engagement when advocating and influencing patients, families, colleagues, other members of the healthcare team.
- Actively supports implementation and dissemination of processes/standards at the unit level.
- Functions as a skilled leader, providing direction and assistance to team members.
- Assumes the charge nurse role, coordinating the daily activities and patient care assignments of the unit as needed.
- Identifies development needs of self and others; sets challenging and realistic goals and assists others with the development of challenging and realistic goals.
Education, Evidence-Based Practice & Research
- Actively participates in unit meetings/activities and supports the philosophy and goals of the unit/department and UTMB.
- Actively participates in presentations, professional development activities; encourages attendance/participation of colleagues.
- Shares educational findings, experiences, and ideas with colleagues through professional governance meetings, presentations, professional development activities.
- Serves as a role model; coaches colleagues to utilize evidence-based resources; identifies needs for additional resources.
- Demonstrates commitment to lifelong learning, as evidenced by advanced degree, certification in specialty care area, utilization/dissemination of evidence-based resources, etc.
- Demonstrates knowledge and utilization of evidence-based resources to guide patient care; serves as a role model and coaches colleagues to utilize evidence-based resources and identifies need for additional resources.
- Participates in one journal club annually.
- Incorporates evidence-based resources into provision of care; provides feedback to others and uses findings to assess unit/department trends.
Quality, Resources & Safety
- Actively participates in unit-based quality improvement activities; encourages colleague participation.
- Identifies patient safety concerns, and reports appropriately; addresses immediate safety concerns appropriately; serves as a resource to assist colleagues to safely and effectively address patient or unit safety concerns.
- Coaches others in understanding unit and hospital quality metrics/outcomes data and improvement activities; actively engages in discussion, activities related to unit goals; participates in systematic processes to achieve quality outcomes.
- Identifies area safety trends and leads problem-solving activities.
- Actively participates in the development and/or promotion of mechanisms/processes for unit or hospital related improvement initiatives.
- Partners with unit leaders to implement safety solutions.
- Demonstrates self-care through practices that support personal well-being, personal safety and injury prevention.
- Serves as a resource to colleagues regarding the Electronic Health Record; identifies opportunities for system improvements and communicates ideas via appropriate channels; identifies practice gaps at the local level of practice.
General Requirements:
- Completes required specialty specific Competency Based Orientation (CBO) tools by the initial performance evaluation due date for placement in employee file.
- Actively participates in the initial and ongoing evaluation of competency using competency based orientation (CBO) tools and e-performance nursing evaluation.
- Completes the annual self-evaluation on time for competency and performance evaluation.
- Performs and reports point of care testing (POCT).
- Prioritizes and organizes work so that required assignments are completed within a specified time frame.
- Provides and maintains a clean, safe environment and performs and/or assists others to perform proper aseptic technique, isolation procedures and infection control measures.
- Promotes and demonstrates acceptable productivity and practices cost containment for nursing practice and patient care.
- Competently and consistently completes accurate, concise and legible documentation on all patient, unit and hospital records (including care delivery and telephone patient related interactions).
- Competently utilizes electronic forms of communication and documentation.
- Participates in the development and implementation of mechanisms/processes that promote optimal use of documentation systems.
- Meets periodic UTMB and unit specific compliance requirements for health screening, training, attendance, safety and CPR.
- Adheres to internal controls and reporting structure.
Equal Employment Opportunity
UTMB Health strives to provide equal opportunity employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetic information, disability, veteran status, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state or local laws unless such distinction is required by law. As a VEVRAA Federal Contractor, UTMB Health takes affirmative action to hire and advance women, minorities, protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.
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