Registered Nurse Clinician

About the role

The Nursing, GEC Nurse Clinician is a professional nurse with a broad-based clinical knowledge appointed to effectively implement health promotion, prevention, and management of patients with chronic illness and those at the end of life. This position is located at the Hampton VA Medical Center in Hampton, VA.

Responsibilities

• Provides educational instruction and training for nursing staff in the Nursing, GEC practice area: the Community Living Centers, Hospice and Palliative Care, and Home-Based Primary Care.
• Performs learning needs assessments, develops educational training for clinical staff within organization.
• Assists with the orientation of new employees, evaluation of their progress in the orientation process, and development and implementation of a learning plan for improving identified deficiencies.
• Maintains BLS/Advanced Life Support (ALS) compliance within Nursing, GEC.
• Collaborates with Nursing, the GEC leadership team to support and evaluate responses to emergency responses within Nursing, GEC service line. Participates, and evaluates mock codes.
• Supports the RN Transition to Practice Residency Program to support nurse residents and the RNTTP Program Director for clinical rotations.
• Develops expert level coaching and mentoring skills. Systematically evaluates current practice, formulates outcomes for groups of patients and/or organizational processes within area of expertise. Collaborates with other Nurse Clinicians and interprofessional healthcare teams in the ongoing clinical education activities including in-services, training, competency assessment, and evaluations of both current and new staff nursing skills.
• Reviews current nursing literature for new trends and changes based on evidence-based research with the ability to propose practice and documentation revisions based on evaluation of outcomes. Collaborates with leadership and unit managers to identify educational training needs for staff, while supporting activities that foster competence, critical thinking, and decision making. Provides consultation and collaboration through participation within organizational committees.
• Analyzes, interprets, and evaluates data to determine outcomes and changes related to educational programs. Responsible for the documented outcomes at the program or service level.

Requirements

This position requires visual acuity, keen hearing, clear distinctive speech, and manual dexterity. It also requires potentially long periods of continued walking, standing, stooping, sitting, bending, pulling, and pushing. Transferring patients and objects may be required. Mechanical inpatient lifts are provided.

The incumbent may be exposed to infected patients and contaminated materials and may be required to don protective clothing in isolation situations, operative/invasive procedures, or home settings.

Qualifications

• Basic Requirements: Graduate of a school of professional nursing approved by the appropriate accrediting agency and accredited by one of the following accrediting bodies at the time the program was completed by the applicant: The Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) or The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE); OR Individuals attending a master's level bridge program in nursing who have completed coursework equivalent to a bachelor's level degree in Nursing may have opportunity to become registered as a nurse with a state licensing board prior to completion of the bridge program. Upon achievement of a State license, the individual may be appointed on temporary basis and later converted to a permanent appointment upon successful completion and graduation from the bridge program. (Reference VA Handbook 5005, Appendix G6); OR In cases of graduates of foreign schools of professional nursing, possession of a current, full, active, and unrestricted registration will meet the requirement for graduation from an approved school of professional nursing to warrant an appointment as a Nurse who has completed an associated degree/entry level Nursing education program. Credit for foreign nursing education higher that associate degree/entry level requires a formal degree equivalency validation from a recognized equivalency evaluation accepted by VA such as International Consultants of Delaware (ICD).
• Current, full, active, and unrestricted registration as a graduate professional nurse in a State, Territory or Commonwealth (i.e., Puerto Rico) of the United States, or the District of Columbia.
• Grade Determinations: The following Scope, Education and Dimension criteria must be met in determining the grade assignment of candidates, and if appropriate, the level within a grade. The Dimension requirements (Practice, Veteran/Patient Driven Care, Leadership, Professional Development and Evidence-Based Practice/Research) are detailed for each grade and level within the online assessment: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13001676.
• Physical Requirements: See Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Directive and Handbook 5019, Employee Occupational Health Service.