Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant - Medical Oncology Acute and ICI Clinics

The Nurse Practitioner (NP) or Physician Assistant (PA) hired into this position will be an integral role across our adult Medical Oncology and Hematology practice, seeing patients with early and advanced solid and blood malignancies requiring acute care for a wide range of needs.  These needs primarily include symptom management, oncologic emergencies, and treatment-related complications including immunotherapy complications. Time is split in this role between seeing patients in the cancer infusion therapy center for acute needs, outpatient clinic supporting patients with concerns that arise between their scheduled cancer follow up and the immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) toxicity clinic.  These teams work closely with the patient’s primary treating oncology team.   

The Acute clinic provides a critical role to decrease emergency department visits by facilitating direct admissions and managing patients, when possible, in an outpatient setting with close follow up.  In addition, this role helps support shortened hospital length of stays by providing important follow up care for hospitalized cancer patients.  This role supports our remote management nursing teams for cancer patients with neutropenic fevers and respiratory illness. There is an opportunity to expand the use of remote patient monitoring further.  Acute pager coverage is one of the key responsibilities in this role. 

The ICI toxicity clinic sees patients with toxicities that range from mild with focus on symptom management to emergent concerns. As part of the ICI toxicity clinic coverage an individual will see patients in the outpatient setting to manage ICI toxicities.  This can be a one-time visit or many weeks to months of follow-up, depending on the individual patient’s needs.  Additionally, when covering the ICI toxicity clinic, an individual will cover the ICI service pager to provide collaborative support for outpatient and inpatient colleagues with questions regarding ICI toxicities. This is a growing practice, and we anticipate continued evolution of the role and responsibilities.  One of the key areas of projected growth will be streamlining the care of our hospitalized patients with ICI toxicities. Currently, the ICI team does daily virtual rounds with the inpatient and primary oncology team. In the future, this may change to in person rounding. 

The individual(s) working in this position will rotate coverage of the ICI toxicity and Acute clinics.  Pager coverage for both clinics will be held by two different NP PAs working that day.  The goal is to have at least 3 NP PAs working every day to cover these clinics. 

 It is an ideal role for a NP or PA to work autonomously, with collaborative support as needed.  This role requires collaboration with the patient's primary oncology team, medical specialties, Emergency Department, and other hospital services.  This is a busy and dynamic practice requiring individuals with excellent communication, time management, flexibility, and critical thinking skillsets.  Success in this role requires strong internal medicine skills, a passion for caring for cancer patients, and a desire for continuous learning and process improvement.  This requires individuals to demonstrate adaptability, leadership skills and a keen interest in quality improvement. The NP or PA serving in this role will see all solid tumor and hematologic malignancies in collaboration with respective tumor-specific Oncology and Hematology consultants, NP or PAs, fellows, pharmacists, RNs, and other allied health staff. This is a growing practice with expected evolution over the next 5 years.  We hope to expand the clinic to support an observational unit to allow for real-time interventions to prevent escalation of care.  As the clinic evolves, there will be opportunities to engage with leadership to optimize support for our cancer patients and promote excellence across the 3-shield practice.  Once someone has established themselves clinically, we hope to foster interest and professional growth across the research and education shields.  

Masters-prepared graduate of an accredited school of nursing and Nurse Practitioner program. Current Minnesota RN license and certification (or eligible to be certified) as a FNP, ANP, or ACNP (certification must be obtained within 6 months of employment date); 

or 

Graduate of accredited Physician Assistant program with current PA certification by NCCPA and registration as a PA by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice (or eligible). Must be eligible for DEA registration and billing privileges. 

Previous Internal Medicine/Acute Care, Oncology/Hematology, and/or NP/PA experience preferred, but not required.

External and Internal candidates for this position are asked to attach 2-3 letters of reference to their online application to be considered for this position.

New graduates please upload 3 letters of reference from prece