Registered Nurse (RN) Spine & Surgical Trauma Step Down (Full Time/Night Shift)

LOCATION: Lancaster General Hospital - 555 N Duke St Lancaster, PA 

HOURS: 36 hours per week, night shift, 7:00pm-7:30am, every third weekend, every third holiday

UNIT SUMMARY 4EW: A 35-bed Trauma (Level I), Spine Surgery and Stroke—overflow unit that serves a diverse patient population and works in direct contact with the Trauma ICU, Emergency Department and the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit. We consistently care for high acuity Medical/Surgical patients with tracheotomies, Chest Tubes, and various other complicated devices. This unit is fast-paced and high energy. A great place to begin and continue to build a strong nursing foundation.

Summary:

• Assume responsibility and accountability as defined by the American Nurses Association standards of nursing practice. 
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice is a newly licensed new to practice RN or RN with less than 15 months of experience that demonstrates basic safe practice within the organizational professional practice model. 
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice seeks guidance to integrate concepts, knowledge, skills and attitudes to meet standards for competent professional nursing practice. 
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice exhibits Penn Medicine’s experience standards which reflect its mission and are embedded in the professional practice competency domains.
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice is accountable for the provision of direct care to patients who may range in age from infancy to the elderly and demonstrates within the competency domains of Continuous Quality Improvement, Evidence Based Practice and Research, Leadership, Person and Family Centered Care, Professionalism, Safety, Teamwork and Technology Informatics.
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice works closely with the interprofessional health care team to facilitate the coordination of care across the continuum. The nurse focuses on developing the knowledge and skills necessary to provide individualized care based on physical, psychosocial, cultural, educational, safety, and age-appropriate considerations of assigned patients.
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice requires consultation with more experienced clinicians and benefits from feedback while demonstrating growth in the ability to care for increasingly complex patients. The nurse demonstrates how nursing practice impacts the organizational vision, mission, and goals and the care delivery system. The nurse complies with all regulations and standards of regulatory and accrediting bodies.
• The Clinical Nurse 1 New to Practice Apprentice must complete all Clinical Nurse 1 competencies and is expected to advance to the Clinical Nurse 2 Colleague level by 18 months of professional practice.

Qualified individuals must have the ability with or without reasonable accommodation to perform the following duties:

• Incorporates the Lancaster General Health mission, vision and values into planning patient care.
• Functions as an independent and interdependent member of the health care team as defined in unit based Plan for Provision of Care.
• Performs patient assessments, focusing on physiologic, psychological, and cognitive functions. Evaluates progress toward attainment of outcomes and adapts the plan of care based on recognized trends and changes. Collects and manages comprehensive data pertinent to the patient’s health or the situation.
• Analyzes the assessment data to determine the diagnosis or issues. Formulates age-appropriate and culturally and ethically sensitive plan of care
• Implements care in a knowledgeable manner and coordinates patient care across several disciplines and among caregivers.
• Provides leadership to other members of the team by effectively communicating expected standards of care and encouraging and supporting team members and their contributions.
• Demonstrates an understanding of and a commitment to our values of privacy, quality, respect, service and teamwork.
• Assigns, delegates, and supervises other employees and intervenes as appropriate to assure that the plan of care is carried out, continuity of care is provided and that established outcomes are achieved through availability and appropriated utilization of human, material and financial resources.
• Educates patients about healthy practices and treatment modalities.
• Systematically enhances the quality and effectiveness of nursing practices. Utilizes technology where appropriate.
• Considers factors related to safety, effectiveness, cost and impact on practice in the planning and delivery of nursing services.
• The following duties are considered secondary to the primary duties listed above:
• Manages rapidly changing situations following established protocols, coordinating and accessing appropriate health team members and resources, and documenting events.
• Participates in process improvement activities with an emphasis on increasing continuity in the nurse to patient relationship, minimizing rework and redundancies; constantly seeks ways to improve processes, increase efficiency, finds solutions to current situations or develops new methods and procedures.
• Completes mandatory education and training that includes review of age-specific needs, caring behaviors, and interpersonal skills as defined by unit based Plan for Provision of Care.
• Maintains a safe working environment through compliance with established evidence-based practice policies and procedures and timely reporting of safety variances.
• Projects pride in their work as exhibited in day-to-day interactions with staff, coworkers, patients and all those they come in contact with.
• Seeks experiences and formal and independent learning activities to maintain and develop clinical and professional skills and knowledge.
• Provides supervision, including guidance, counseling and mentoring, to targeted peers and subordinates to enhance the learning experiences and improve the professional practice environment within the designated work setting.
• Participates in the employee performance process related to peers and subordinate team members; address employee problems, complaints, disputes or requests as the first level of supervision; evaluates their performance post hire.
• Participates in the on-call responsibilities for this position as required.
• Other duties as assigned.