Nurse Practitioner

POSITION SUMMARY: The Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) provides palliative care consultation directly to patients/families/caregivers to ensure specialty services are available to patients with a serious illness and a prognosis of one year or less who are not ready or eligible for hospice care. Proactively identifies patient-centered opportunities to improve the patient’s and family’s experience of illness, anticipates and treats distressing symptoms.

As a member of the palliative care Interdisciplinary Group (IDG), provides and facilitates evidence-based plan of care that improves the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of needed health-related interventions and resources. The NP provides specialized assessment, diagnoses, and implements a high-quality palliative plan of care utilizing evidence-based treatment protocols to provide patient-centered goals of care, symptom management, disease trajectory, prognostic education and counseling.

Actively fosters team processes that support appropriate referral for setting management. Closely communicates with patent’s referring physician to make recommendations and discuss the ongoing plan of care. Provides outreach to community agencies and health care settings (like skilling nursing facilities) to provide direct patient care in those settings when consulted. Under the direction and in collaboration with the Palliative Care Medical Director, patient’s referring physician, collaborating physicians, Palliative Care Clinical Director, and Palliative Care Interdisciplinary Group, assures that agency complies with legal and regulatory standards, clinical protocols, policies, and procedures.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

• Demonstrates effective and ethical use of approved, evidence-based palliative medicine practices in the delivery of all patient care based on physical, emotional, spiritual, psychosocial, ethical, educational, safety and related criteria, appropriate to the ages of patients served.
• Demonstrates knowledgeable clinical expertise by incorporating palliative care body of knowledge to formulate an effective plan of care.
• Systematically gathers pertinent information from all sources, including medical records, family history, and caregivers, and includes a thorough clinical patient assessment of patient’s physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual needs.
• Completes a comprehensive assessment utilizing the palliative care domains of assessment, interprets findings, conducts medication reconciliation, formulates problem-related diagnosis, initiates plan of care utilizing therapeutic interventions, and evaluates the results of these steps for adequate outcome responses.
• Provides thorough assessment of distressing symptoms utilizing appropriate scales and assessment techniques and prescribes evidence-based medications and adjunctive interventions for the palliation of symptoms.
• Formulates diagnoses and documents a problem list reflecting the appropriate history, physical examination, and results of diagnostic tests.
• Demonstrates professional consult etiquette and effective communication skills when discussing plan of care and recommendations with Medical Director, patient’s primary care provider, specialist providers, and IDG to ensure effective communication concerning the plan of care.
• Performs and documents ongoing reassessment of problems, and implications for management revision, utilizing problem-oriented documentation, as indicated by patient/caregiver needs.
• Demonstrates effective therapeutic communication/counseling techniques when performing illness counseling and conducting family conferences to discuss plan of care. Interacts in a positive manner with patient/family/caregivers, providing necessary information, and emotional/spiritual support.
• Contributes to the health teaching of patients, families, and caregivers, regarding the patient’s anticipated/active distressing symptoms, identified diagnosis, disease trajectory, advance directives, prognostic awareness, and end of life issues with appropriate teaching materials and strategies.
• Functions independently without…