Nurse Navigator - Interventional Pulmonology, Highlands Ranch

About the role

The Nurse Navigator (NN) will be a member of the care team focused on providing personalized one-on-one patient care. The NN assesses and evaluates patient conditions, plans, implements, provides, and documents patient care in a manner that follows professional nursing standards and outlined practices.

Responsibilities

• Patient Care (50%)
  • Facilitates patient intake by phone, email, or online through Epic MHC.
  • Provides high-touch and high-quality personalized patient navigation.
  • Works closely with patients and families throughout the full continuum of care.
  • Trairs, coordinates care, and orders appropriate patient testing under University of Colorado School of Medicine protocols and guidance.
  • Acts as Liaison between patient and clinical staff, administration, physicians, managed care companies, community/external resources to address the health needs of patients.
  • Demonstrates effective communication with patients, families, peers, members of the multidisciplinary healthcare team, and community organizations and resources.
  • Collaborates directly with primary physician and care team to help educate/reinforce specific disease processes, treatments, and recommendations.
  • Facilitates resolution to patient care gaps and follows up by both proactively reaching out to patients/families and continuously addressing direct phone calls and messages from patients.
  • Questions and prevents duplicative, fragmented, or unnecessary use of resources/services.
  • Follows up on patient progress relative to subsequent testing, ED visits, hospitalizations, and ensures post-acute plan when needed.
  • Makes sure to monitor and report on outcome measures.
  • Participates in clinical operations with patients, rooming patients, taking vitals, and supporting patient needs as assigned.
  • Assists the physician and other providers with procedures as necessary.
  • Reports all test results to the patient as directed by the physician.
• Clinic Operations (25%)
  • Participates in relevant quality workgroups to assist in the development of patient education materials, clinical pathways, and workflows to improve patient and provider compliance with meeting health measures and meeting the needs of the patients/families.
  • Responsible for managing routine correspondence and medical records to referring agencies and providers per policy.
  • Works creatively to facilitate prompt service to accommodate referring agencies/providers to meet their referral needs.
  • Cleans and stocks all patient examination rooms; cleans and prepares instruments for procedures; keeps a list of medical supplies needed.
  • Cleans and sterilizes equipment; checks and restocks medication cabinets as necessary.
  • Utilizes current nursing practices to provide patient care while focusing on the needs of the patient and exemplifying service excellence, care, concern, respect, and cooperation.
  • Functions in the role of patient advocate by being in the position of initial contact for patient-related issues.
• Procedural Nurse (25%)
  • Plans, implements, and evaluates patient care plans based on patient assessment to optimize outcomes and maximize available resources.
  • Makes sure to monitor and record patient condition as appropriate.
  • Collaborates as needed across disciplines to coordinate patient care, including patient transfer, discharge, referral, and attends to all age-related physical, spiritual, and psychosocial needs.
  • Evaluates learning needs of patient and/or family and provides patient/family education appropriate to age, culture, condition, and circumstances.
  • Effectively delegates patient care to ancillary personnel.
  • May precept student nurses and new hires.
  • Performs circulating functions before procedures, including preparing the procedural environment, orienting and assessing the patient, and reviewing the patient’s medical record and surgeon’s notes to ensure all prerequisites and preferences are met.
  • Ensures safety checklists and procedures are implemented and documented at all times.
  • Performs circulating functions during procedures, including monitoring and communicating patient condition, documenting interventions and activities, monitoring the sterile field, and controlling traffic into, out of, and around the room.
  • Performs scrub functions as needed, including the preparation, selection, and handling of instruments and supplies used during the surgical procedure, and performs equipment counts with colleagues.
  • Provides nursing care to a complex, moderate acuity procedural patient population in a technically complex environment.
  • Ensures compliance with all regulatory agencies (CDPHE, CMS, OSHA, etc.)
  • Ensures compliance with all infection control standards.
  • Participates in CU Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives and metrics.
  • Participates in practice’s process and performance improvement activities and initiatives.
  • Ensures that the service expectations of both internal and external customers are met and/or exceeded.
  • Must be able to recognize and respond appropriately to urgent/emergent situations according to protocols.

Qualifications

• Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in nursing, biological science, or a directly related field from an accredited institution.
• 3 years registered nurse experience in either a clinical or a hospital setting.
• 1 year of experience in nurse navigation in specialty area.
• Substitution: A combination of education and related technical/military/paraprofessional experience may be substituted for a bachelor’s degree on a year-for-year basis.
• Preferred Qualifications: Three or more (3+) years of registered nurse experience in either a clinical or a hospital setting.
• Two or more (2+) years of experience in nurse navigation in specialty area.
• Bilingual, Spanish-speaking.
• Nursing certification (ANCC) in specialty area.
• Epic, Kronos, and Healthstream experience.