Medical History Specialist - Medication Administration - Per Diem

About the Role

Penn Medicine is dedicated to our tripartite mission of providing the highest level of care to patients, conducting innovative research, and educating future leaders in the field of medicine. Working for this leading academic medical center means collaboration with top clinical, technical, and business professionals across all disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Collects a list of the patient’s current home medications in anticipation of hospital admission.
• Gathers information from various resources (physician offices, community pharmacy, historical encounter, extended care facility, another acute care facility) to ensure a complete and accurate entry into the hospital’s computer system.
• Effectively communicates with other health care professionals to maintain appropriate patient flow and identify patient-specific needs (e.g., language barriers, educational, financial).
• Accurately enters the home medication list into the hospital’s information system for utilization by the Provider responsible for admitting the patient.
• Completes the computer entry of the home medication list in a timely manner so it can be used as the foundation for the patient’s admission medication orders.
• Directs any unresolved issues to the Pharmacist.
• Administers defined medications (vaccinations).
• Demonstrates competency and accountability in the use of medication safety technology (Pyxis and barcode scanning for patient and medication identification).
• Performs screening assessments for drug and alcohol, suicide, Hep C, pneumococcal, and influenza.
• Places orders (medication, lab, and support services) as a result of the screening tool.

The following duties are considered secondary to the primary duties listed above:

• Serves as a primary training resource for new employee training.
• Performs data analysis with data entry into a hospital-defined database.
• Provides educational opportunities to the health system.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• High school diploma or successful completion of General Educational Development (GED) exam is required.
• LPN or RN licensure; or Pharmacist with vaccine licensure (e.g., immunization certification through an accredited organization such as the American Pharmacists Association (APhA)).
• Must obtain 80% or higher on a department-administered exam on key elements of the medication history process (administered post-employment).
• General computer skills.
• Considerable knowledge of medication names (both trade and generic), their uses, doses, and routes of administration.
• Ability to identify medications based on markings.
• Excellent patient interview skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with patients and other health care professionals.
• Two (2) years of previous hospital healthcare experience.

Skills

• Attention/Concentration: Ability to attend to more than one aspect of a situation simultaneously and handle multiple task demands at the same time.
• New Learning and Memory: Ability to learn new tasks quickly and effectively, understand and carry out detailed instructions, and adapt to frequent changes.
• Problem Solving, Reasoning, and Creative Thinking: Ability to apply principles of reasoning and problem-solving to resolve practical problems in situations with limited standardization.
• Leadership, Control, and Planning: Ability to accept responsibility for leadership, direction, control, planning, organizing, and decision-making.
• Repetitive Work: Ability to continuously perform the same type of work for extended periods.
• Performing Under Stressful Conditions: Ability to perform under stress in emergency, critical, or high-pressure situations.
• Variety and Change: Ability to perform a variety of duties, often changing tasks without loss of efficiency or composure.
• Communication: Ability to exchange information clearly and concisely, present ideas, facts, and technical information.
• Interpersonal Relations: Ability to maintain relationships that facilitate task accomplishment, cooperate, resolve conflicts, and be sensitive to others' needs.

Credentials

• Licensed Practical Nurse (Required)
• Registered Nurse - PA (Required)
• Immunization Approval (Required)

Education or Equivalent Experience: High School Diploma/GED (Required) or Vocational/Trade Diploma (Required).