Advanced Practice Fellow - Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) operates at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care. VUMC is a community where expertise is valued, knowledge is expanded, and abilities are challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and uniqueness is celebrated.

About the Role

The Advanced Practice Fellow works in collaboration with and is an integral member of an interdisciplinary healthcare team. The fellow should have a basic foundation in evidence-based practice and demonstrate adequate medical and nursing knowledge, clinical/technical competence, sound clinical judgment, professional communication skills, and timely, compliant documentation.

The Advanced Practice Fellow may function in a variety of inpatient and outpatient care settings throughout the fellowship to optimize learning experiences. Focused learning experiences will develop and refine specialty-specific clinical and critical thinking skills, promoting top-of-license practice. Immersion into collaborative interdisciplinary care ensures cost-effective, quality, patient-centered care. The fellow will also incorporate evidence-based practice into care and utilize improvement processes by completing a specialty-relevant project.

During the Neonatal APP Fellowship, the Advanced Practice Provider will complete courses through the Neonatal Program at the Vanderbilt School of Nursing while completing clinical hours in the NICU at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. This 13-month fellowship begins on January 1, 2027.

Department Summary

The NICU at Monroe Carell Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt is committed to providing the highest standard of care to newborns and their families. The state-of-the-art NICU is equipped with advanced technology and staffed by a compassionate team of experts. As the largest unit within the Vanderbilt University Hospital system, it has 116 beds (expanding to 131 in Summer 2025) and is a Level IV tertiary care NICU, attending to the complex care needs of over 1,400 fragile newborns annually.

Responsibilities

• Assessment of Health Status:
  • Performs and documents a complete history and physical examination in the medical record.
  • Orders and collects data using appropriate assessment techniques, relevant supporting diagnostic information, and diagnostic procedures.
  • Assesses risks associated with care, including medication side effects, immobility, impaired nutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, immunocompetence, invasive interventions, and diagnostic procedures.
  • Participates in daily huddles or rounds with the interdisciplinary team and actively collaborates in formulating and evaluating the ongoing plan of care across the continuum.
• Diagnosis:
  • Collaborates with the interdisciplinary healthcare team in making accurate diagnoses of acute and complex chronic conditions.
  • Manages diagnostic tests through ordering, interpretation, performance, and supervision.
  • Formulates differential diagnoses by priority.
  • Diagnoses complications and identifies appropriate interventions.
• Formulates Plan of Care:
  • Identifies expected outcomes from diagnosis and formulates a plan of care to address acute and complex, chronic healthcare needs.
  • Utilizes evidence-based practice guidelines or protocols in an individualized, dynamic plan of care applicable across the continuum.
• Implements and Modifies Plan of Care:
  • Prescribes diagnostic strategies and therapeutic interventions (pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic, and surgical as needed) to achieve expected outcomes.
  • Manages further diagnostic tests through ordering, performance, and interpretation.
  • May perform advanced procedures consistent with privileges and competency validation.
• Communication and Collaboration:
  • Maintains ongoing communication and collaboration with interdisciplinary healthcare team members.
  • Facilitates communication with patients, families, and staff to promote continuity of care across the inpatient and outpatient continuum.
• Documentation:
  • Documents key components of patient progress via daily progress notes, transfer and discharge summaries, and/or clinic notes where applicable.
  • Ensures documentation is timely, meets compliance standards, and accurately captures patient acuity and/or complexity.
• Professional Practice:
  • Provides preceptor/mentoring, education, and instruction to students and nursing staff as needed.
  • Seeks opportunities for active engagement in research and analysis of evidence-based practice.
  • Attends Grand Rounds, AP Council meetings, faculty and unit meetings, MM & I presentations, and other educational opportunities as available.
  • Maintains continuing education to meet licensure and certification requirements.
  • Actively participates in the required professional development fellowship curriculum.

Requirements

• Master's degree in a relevant field.
• Less than 1 year of relevant work experience.
• Certification as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) or Physician Assistant (PA).

Core Accountabilities

• Organizational Impact: Delivers job responsibilities that impact own job area/team with some guidance.
• Problem Solving/Complexity of Work: Uses existing procedures, research, and analysis to solve standard job-related problems that may require some judgment.
• Breadth of Knowledge: Requires subject matter knowledge within a professional area to meet job requirements.
• Team Interaction: Individually contributes to project/work teams.

Core Capabilities

• Supporting Colleagues:
  • Develops Self and Others: Continuously improves own skills by identifying development opportunities.
  • Builds and Maintains Relationships: Seeks to understand colleagues' priorities and working styles, and develops relationships across areas.
  • Communicates Effectively: Openly shares information with others and communicates in a clear and courteous manner.
• Delivering Excellent Services:
  • Serves Others with Compassion: Invests time to understand the problems and needs of others and provides excellent service.
  • Solves Complex Problems: Seeks to understand issues, solves routine problems, and raises proper concerns to supervisors in a timely manner.
  • Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Listens carefully to understand issues and provides accurate information and support.
• Ensuring High Quality:
  • Performs Excellent Work: Checks work quality before delivery and asks relevant questions to meet quality standards.
  • Ensures Continuous Improvement: Shows eagerness to learn new knowledge, technologies, tools, or systems and displays willingness to go above and beyond.
  • Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Demonstrates basic knowledge of conditions affecting safety and reports unsafe conditions to the appropriate person or department.
• Managing Resources Effectively:
  • Demonstrates Accountability: Takes responsibility for completing assigned activities and thinks beyond standard approaches to provide high-quality work/service.
  • Stewards Organizational Resources: Displays understanding of how personal actions impact departmental resources.
  • Makes Data-Driven Decisions: Uses accurate information and good decision-making to consistently achieve results on time and without error.
• Fostering Innovation:
  • Generates New Ideas: Willingly proposes/accepts ideas or initiatives that will impact day-to-day operations by offering suggestions to enhance them.
  • Applies Technology: Absorbs new technology quickly; understands when to utilize appropriate tools and procedures to ensure proper course of action.
  • Adapts to Change: Embraces changes by keeping an open mind to changing plans and incorporates change instructions into own area of work.

Benefits

• Affordable, high-quality health plan options.
• Dental and/or vision plans.
• 403(b) retirement plan.
• Paid Time Off (flex PTO).
• Tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance (maximums applied).
• Short- and long-term disability coverage.
• Subsidized backup childcare.
• Inpatient nursing supplemental pay program.