Comprehensive Stroke Center RN Navigator

The registered nurse adheres to the rules and regulations of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing and is primarily responsible for professional performance and direct patient care. The role encompasses nursing assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, evaluation, and coordination of care for patients and their families across the health care continuum. The registered nurse is accountable for clinical, educational, quality and fiscal patient care outcomes using the model of care designed by the nursing department and in accordance with established agency policies, procedures, protocols, guidelines and standards of practice.

The CSC RN Navigator reports directly to the CSC RN Manager.

• Serve as a leader in stroke education, working with bedside nurses, therapists (PT, OT, SLP), case managers, social workers, and the Neurology team to develop educational materials and to provide stroke education to patients and families.
• Participate in quality assurance initiatives within the Comprehensive Stroke Center.
• Work with the CSC RN Manager on quality improvement projects within the Comprehensive Stroke Center with a focus on patient education and outcomes.
• Identify system deficiencies and seek to fill identified gaps.
• Maintain and improve a concurrent database tracking the clinical care of hospitalized patients with acute stroke, monitoring achievement of core performance measures and areas identified for process improvement.
• Maintain and improve a database evaluating clinical performance during Code Strokes with time tracking including patients eligible for intravenous fibrinolysis and/or endovascular therapy in order to guide process improvement.
• Maintain and improve an adverse event database to identify adverse events and to facilitate clinical review of such events among hospitalized patients with acute stroke to help guide process improvement.
• Maintain high fidelity in data representation of clinical care performance for external reporting agencies, including the Joint Commission, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke, Coverdell/Department of Public Health, Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services, and others, working with data abstractors, the Quality department, administrators, and clinicians to reconcile these data with the concurrent database.
• Audit patient charts (select number per month) periodically to assess adequacy of clinical documentation practices.
• Perform “drill down” investigations when clinical or process measures are not met to identify potential factors influencing these trends.
• Facilitate case updates for allied clinicians including Emergency Medical Services, referring physicians at community hospitals, and clinical care teams at BMC
• Facilitate external reporting of clinical care performance measures to the Joint Commission, Get With The Guidelines-Stroke, Coverdell/Department of Public Health, etc.
• Coordinate and facilitate maintenance of Joint Commission certification of the Comprehensive Stroke Center along with the Stroke APN and Medical Director of the CSC, including preparing presentations on data use and clinical performance metrics.
• Track annual education requirements for CSC clinicians to help facilitate Joint Commission maintenance of certification.
• Assists in the development, writing, approval, dissemination, and implementation of protocols, policies, and clinical practice guidelines for the care of patients with stroke and cerebrovascular diseases.
• Develop and implement community health education programs on stroke.
• Facilitate outreach with Emergency Medical services, community hospitals, and other medical…