Hospice Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner

Overview

Are you a Nurse Practitioner with a passion for excellence in the delivery of care for people and their families requiring hospice palliative care? You will collaborate with inter-professional care teams across the health care continuum, including home care, primary care, specialized hospice palliative care, acute care and community supportive care organizations and agencies. You will provide direct care for individuals with hospice palliative care needs when this service would not otherwise be available and work to promote integration of inter-professional care across the continuum of health care services.

You will be supported by a collaborative team that includes over 8,000 regulated health care and other professionals.

As a Hospice Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner, you will lead in providing connected, accessible, patient-centered care in a professional practice that supports your growth and work-life balance.

• You will ensure rapid response capacity to provide expert clinical care to complex palliative care patients, including management of pain, provision of psychosocial support and therapeutic interventions. This may require the ability and capacity to respond to urgent patient issues beyond regular working hours.
• Provide expert clinical advice to primary care physicians and community nurses, and perform home visits for this patient population and their families.
• These home visits will include:
  • Conducting comprehensive clinical assessments
  • Contributing to the development of comprehensive shared care plans
  • Considering psychosocial, cultural or ethnic factors that may impact patient care needs
• Understand and utilize standard palliative care assessment tools (e.g., ESAS, PPS, MMSE, MOCHA).
• Use disease-specific classification systems (e.g., NYHA for HF, MRC dyspnea score for COPD/ILD, dementia functionality scales such as FAST).
• Be knowledgeable about the implementation of Symptom Response Kits (SRKs) in patient homes.
• Coordinate an interdisciplinary plan of care and facilitate navigation of the patient through the health care system.
• Facilitate ethical decision making aligned with patient/family goals and communicate the plan of care to patients/families and the health care team.
• Deliver, coordinate and participate in education and professional development activities/programs.
• Interpret, communicate and disseminate research findings to support clinical care and guide policy change.
• Provide leadership in quality improvement initiatives and program planning for this population.
• Identify opportunities to develop medical directives, participate in their development, implementation and evaluation, and directly implement aspects of care based on medical directives.
• Educate and recommend interventions in consultation with primary care providers and the care team to influence the plan of care for the patient and family.

• Must hold current registration with the College of Nurses of Ontario in the Extended Class Nurse Practitioner Program with a minimum Baccalaureate in Nursing (Masters level degree in Nursing preferred).
• Must have certification as a hospice palliative care nurse with the Canadian Nurses Association CPHCN(C).
• Must have continuing education in Palliative Care;
  Hospice Palliative Care Nursing Certification preferred.
• Minimum 2 years of experience in Palliative Care Nursing (previous work in the community setting an asset).
• Hold current CPR-Level C & AED certification.
• Valid Ontario driver’s license and access to a vehicle.
• Proficient in a Windows environment.
• We have a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. As a condition of employment, all employees are required to submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination status prior to start date.

• Advanced knowledge of health care management needs and therapeutic intervention for complex palliative care patients, based on the eight Domains of Issues Associated with Illness and Bereavement (Disease Management;
  Physical; Psychological; Social; Spiritual; Practical; End of Life Care/Death Management; Loss and Grief).
• Advanced knowledge of the management of pain and other symptoms, including a range of…