Nurse Practitioner (NP) - Neurology (Sleep Division)

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:  Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery, and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. Vanderbilt Health is committed to an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and where your uniqueness is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt’s mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

Organization:

Neurology

Job Summary:

The specialty Physician Assistant (PA) in the ambulatory care setting works in collaboration with a multidisciplinary health care team. The specialty PA is generally service/physician aligned, managing a distinct patient population in the outpatient setting. The PA functioning primarily in a clinic setting may be required to perform some coordination of iPAatient care and facilitate discharges/outpatient follow up. The specialty clinic PA has a strong foundation in evidenced based practice/education and is responsible for ensuring adherence to clinical pathways/protocols and ensures an environment of safe quality care. The PA demonstrates an advanced level of medical and nursing knowledge, clinical/technical competence, sound clinical judgment, professional communication skills, timely and compliant documentation, and responsible for professional development and competency validation.

.

Department Summary:

The Division of Sleep Medicine focuses on a comprehensive approach to sleep disorders. With almost 100 different sleep disorders to understand and treat, VUMC’s Sleep Medicine Division prides itself on providing expertise, training and research on this wide array of sleep disorders across the lifespan. Research and treatment often takes place in the Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center's unique hotel-based sleep labs. The overarching clinical goal of the Sleep Medicine Division is to improve daytime functioning and quality of life of patients, particularly those also afflicted with other disorders.

The division has a particular interest in the relationship between sleep and various developmental disabilities, neurologic disorders, or other conditions. Clinicians, researchers, and educators invest themselves in studying how autism, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, strokes, etc. affect sleep, and conduct integrative trials and interventional studies accordingly. The breadth and depth of faculty allows for clinical research to intersect with nearly any other discipline, including neurology, psychology, internal medicine, and others.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Assessment of Health Status
• Performs and documents in the medical record a complete history and physical examination for acute and complex chronically ill patients.
• The Physician Assistant may serve as the first responder for both nursing and house staff in the event of patient status changes, orders, and in situations requiring procedural and resuscitative interventions.
• Assesses for risks associated with the care of the acute and complex chronically ill patient including medication side effects, immobility, impaired nutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, immunocompetence, invasive interventions and diagnostic procedures.
• Coordinates daily clinic schedule with the attending physician team, presents patient report, collaborates in plan of care, and follows assigned patient population.
• Diagnosis
• Collaborates with interdisciplinary health care team in making diagnoses of acute and complex chronic conditions.
• Manages diagnostic tests through ordering, interpretation, performance, and supervision.
• Formulates differential diagnoses by priority.
• Diagnoses complications and orders appropriate interventions.
• Formulates Plan of Care
• Identifies expected outcomes from diagnosis, and formulates and documents a plan of care to address complex acute and chronic health care needs.
• Utilizes evidenced based practice guidelines or protocols in an individualized, dynamic plan of care that can be applied across the continuum.
• Implements and modifies plan of care
• Prescribes diagnostic strategies and therapeutic interventions both pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic, and surgical, needed to achieve expected outcomes.
• Manages further diagnostic tests through ordering, interpretation, performance, and supervision.
• May perform advanced procedures consistent with privileges and competency validation, including minor s