Registered Nurse (RN)- Special Care Nursery

Key Responsibilities

• Collect and document comprehensive patient health data while maintaining privacy and confidentiality.
• Apply the nursing process and principles of growth and development in all aspects of patient care.
• Promote therapeutic relationships with patients and families.
• Maintain a safe working environment by adhering to Carroll Hospital policies and procedures.
• Identify, document, and report outcome variances and critical values using read-back procedures within required timeframes.
• Implement infection prevention practices and patient safety precautions, including fall prevention and restraint use per policy.
• Adhere to medication administration standards, including medication reconciliation and the Five Rights of medication administration.
• Utilize appropriate safety equipment and safe patient-handling procedures.
• Communicate effectively with physicians, associates, patients, and families to ensure care plans and interventions are understood and implemented.
• Carefully coordinate human, material, and financial resources to support patient care and discharge planning.
• Promote patient flow by adhering to admitting and transfer timeframes.
• Ensure all transfer processes are completed, including medication reconciliation, valuables documentation, and inter/intrafacility transfer paperwork.
• Utilize established chain of command to resolve issues, complaints, or concerns.
• Demonstrate strong clinical judgment, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• React appropriately to changes in patient condition by coordinating interventions with the healthcare team and family.
• Activate additional resources when needed, including the Critical Outreach Team (COT) and other hospital response teams.
• Accept accountability and responsibility for professional practice and workload management.
• Promote efficiency and seek opportunities to improve processes and outcomes.
• Display leadership skills and teamwork in daily practice.
• Serve as a mentor or preceptor to support professional growth and a positive practice environment.
• Participate in unit-based drills, peer review, and quality improvement initiatives.
• Attend a minimum of three educational activities annually and share new knowledge with staff.
• Participate in initiatives related to regulatory standards, including National Patient Safety Goals and prevention of never events.

Clinical Competencies

• Competent to work in at least two of the following three areas:
• Labor & Delivery
• Mother/Baby
• Special Care Nursery (SCN)

Unit-Specific Competencies

• Labor & Delivery: Proficient in fetal monitoring interpretation and timely interventions.
• Special Care Nursery (SCN): Independently stabilizes and transfers unstable infants; anticipates needs and recognizes changes in infant status.
• Mother/Baby: Performs thorough head-to-toe assessments; identifies subtle changes in condition and notifies providers appropriately.

Requirements

• MD Board of Nursing RN License - Required.
• American Heart Association (AHA) Basic Life Support (BLS) - Required.
• Special Care Nursery and/or NICU experience required.