Registered Nurse - Infection Preventionist

Ralph H. Johnson VA Health Care System is a Level 1a major interdisciplinary teaching facility serving Veterans in a 21-county area. The medical center has one main campus with service-lines serving medical, surgical, and neurological Inpatients, and outpatients with an Emergency Department and 7 community-based outpatient clinics (CBOC). There is a large inpatient and outpatient psychiatric population, with admission for medical co‑morbidities.

Home Based Primary Care is also provided.

Registered Nurse Infection Preventionist (IP) promotes personal growth and development of infection control practices. The IP conducts surveillance indicators and monitoring to identify and reduce the risk of acquiring and transmitting infections among patients, employees, visitors, and students. Contributes to the annual Infection Control Risk Assessment. The IP provides education on infection control issues, as well as annual and ongoing trainings to staff.

The IP serves as an education resource for all employees on infection control, epidemiology, and provides knowledge and guidance. The IP assist in managing the Clinical Case Registry for Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and Hepatitis C, including providing reports and alerts to clinicians. The IP assist with the collection of data related to Public Health reportable diseases and submitting reports of those diseases to the appropriate Public Health Department.

The IP has an important role in various programs and systems within the organization, i.e. Reusable Medical Equipment, Environment of Care, Construction and Water Safety committees. The IP participates in risk assessments for all construction projects and completes schedule and random walk‑throughs of construction projects to inspect/review practices. The IP implements and maintains a system for analyzing, trending, and reporting the data.

The IP assists in developing and maintaining mandatory documents such as standard operating procedures, policies, and external agency required documents.

• Pay:
  Competitive salary, regular salary increases, potential for performance awards
• Paid Time Off: 50 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)
• Retirement:
  Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
• Insurance:
  Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long‑term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)
• Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory
• Work Schedule:
  
  Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m.
  
  - 4:00 p.m. Subject to change based on agency needs.
• Telework:
  Available - Ad‑hoc
• Virtual:
  This is not a virtual position.
• Relocation/Recruitment
  
  Incentives:
  
  Not Authorized
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS):
  Not Authorized
• VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Nurse Total Rewards