Registered Nurse (Patient Aligned Care Team)

Duties and responsibilities

• Provides a full range of nursing care to Veteran/Patients, including complex care needs using the nursing process.
• Implements the PACT concept of right person, right place, right time that ensures access to care and supports staff functioning at the top of their scope.
• Manages Veteran chronic disease conditions through ongoing assessment of conditions and recognizing changes in condition and responding with timely and correct interventions.
• Establishes plan of care and goals with Veteran Patient after assessing learning needs, learning preferences, readiness to learn and modifies modalities of teaching when needed.
• Initiates referrals to other disciplines and services as appropriate and allowed by current Nursing Protocols.
• Offers preventative health measures to Veterans to include Whole Health modalities.
• Applies all modalities of care available to deliver best practice to panel.
• Ensures that documentation of care is complete, accurate, consistent, concise, and timely. Encounters will be coded appropriately and timely. Documentation will be alerted to other team members as needed. Recommend use of SOAP/SBAR models for documentation.
• Implements appropriate notification processes for problematic events involving patient, family, and staff along with appropriate documentation as needed.
• Uses tools and reports to provide proactive management of Veterans with chronic disease or at high risk.
• Promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety and rights of the patient.
• Demonstrates responsibility and accountability for own nursing judgments and actions.
• Collaborates with healthcare consumer and other key stakeholders in the conduct of nursing practice.
• Develops and implements a plan to meet learning needs, instructing patients and families in basic health teaching.
• Ensures application of institutional policy to protect information from unauthorized release, loss, alteration, or deletion.
• Contributes to an environment of a High Reliability Organization with a culture of safety founded on a systems approach to developing health care solutions based on prevention, not punishment, with collective mindfulness.
• Responsible for environment of care (EOC) issues when on duty.
• Ensures, clean, safe environment.
• Limits medications and verifies medication refrigerator and nutrition refrigerator temperatures are within acceptable range, and cleaning logs are checked and recorded per policy.
• Confirms that emergency equipment (i.e., crash cart) is checked daily per policy and the log completed.
• Ensures other EOC issues, such as items on the PCS EOC Checklist, are enforced.
• Completes orientation, unit-based in-services, and mandatory educational activities in a self-directed manner.
• Participates in unit based educational activities and VA continuing education requirements to increase clinical and professional knowledge.
• Reads policies and other messages as directed.
• Collaborates with peers in completing unit workload efficiently.
• Participates in unit-based performance improvement activities to improve patient care.
• Makes changes in own practice in response to performance improvement findings.
• Reviews and shares current literature in relation to practice with co-workers.
• Participates in meeting VA Performance Measures to include AES.

  Qualifications

  • Basic Requirements: English Language Proficiency, Basic Education Requirements, Current, Full, Active, and Unrestricted Registration as a Graduate Professional Nurse.
  • Scope: Delivers fundamental, knowledge-based care to assigned clients while developing technical competencies, Integrates biopsychosocial concepts, cognitive skills and technically competent practice in providing care to clients with basic or complex, Demonstrates proficiency in practice based on conscious and deliberate planning, Self-directed in goal setting for managing complex client situations.
  • Education: Nurse I, Level I: An Associate Degree (ADN) or Diploma in Nursing, Nurse I, Level II: An ADN or Diploma in Nursing AND 1 year of specialized nursing experience equivalent to Nurse I, Level 1 ;OR a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) with no additional professional nursing experience required, Nurse I, Level III: An ADN or Diploma in Nursing AND 2 years of professional nursing experience in which one year is equivalent to Nurse I, Level 2; OR a BSN and 1 year of professional nursing experience equivalent to the Nurse I, Level 2; OR a Master's degree in nursing (MSN) and no additional professional nursing experience; OR a Master's degree in a *related field with a BSN and no additional professional nursing experience, Nurse II: A BSN with 2 years of professional nursing equivalent to Nurse I, Level 3; OR an MSN with one year of specialized nursing experience equivalent to Nurse I, Level 3; OR a Master's degree in a *related field with a BSN and one year of specialized nursing experience equivalent to Nurse I, Level 3; OR a Doctoral degree in Nursing with no professional nursing experience.