Licensed Practical Nurse - Mental Health

Department of Veterans Affairs • Johnson City, TN

45d • Onsite

About The Position

The LPN is administratively responsible and accountable to the Nurse Manager (NM) or designee in the Specialty Care Units.. The LPN performs a wide range of resident/patient care and supportive duties throughout the medical center. The LPN must demonstrate an exceptional degree of practical nursing knowledge and skills necessary for concentrated effort and self-direction to provide care for the medically complex Veteran population.

Clinical Nursing Practice:

Demonstrates proficiency in initiating, performing, and completing assigned duties while providing care to diverse patient populations.
Maintains knowledge and ability to carry out patient care determined by the patient's condition utilizing judgement in selecting appropriate orders, procedures, and treatments; and recognizing, reporting, and recording relevant patient information to include urgent and emergent situations.
Observes, identifies, and responds to patient needs for medication, medical equipment, and patient/family education while considering emotional, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and age-related factors.
Maintains knowledge and skill to prepare, administer and appropriately document actions taken specific to commonly prescribed oral, topical, subcutaneous, intramuscular and/or intravenous medications as permitted by approved local facility policies and procedures.

Administration:

Demonstrate ability to serve as a responsible member of the clinic and interact with patients, family members, professional and supportive personnel who provide patient care, and with members of other services.
Assist with answering the phone, conveying timely messages to the appropriate staff, placing calls/pages as needed.
Participate in evaluation of nursing care through attendance and input at team conferences and communication with the Nurse Manager. Further, participates in team conference development and implementation, by presenting a patient for team conference discussion when need identified.

Research:

Have the option to participate in the accurate collection of data as instructed by the Nurse Manager or designee.
Have the option to make recommendations for the application of current research findings to practice as well as applying those findings as assigned by the Nurse Manager or designee.

Education:

Provides appropriate information to patients and their families regarding the plan of care.
Assists the patient and family in understanding and acceptance of the disease process and encourages participation in the plan for the care and rehabilitation of the patient.
Identifies patient's educational needs to include equipment, medication, treatment procedures, and diagnosis. Assists with teaching patient/family as appropriate.

Reusable Medical Equipment (RME):

Be responsible for knowing what reusable instruments, equipment, medical devices, or supplies (inventory) are used in their assigned area.
Be familiar with which items are cleaned locally (in clinic) and which items are sent to sterile processing service (SPS) for reprocessing and/or sterilization. If items are to be transported for reprocessing, he/she must be aware of the initial decontamination steps that must be taken prior to transport of item and the appropriate method of transport.
Be responsible for following the local Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) drafted in accordance with the manufacturer's written recommendations. SPS and Infection Prevention and Control should be consulted when clarification of written instructions are needed. No one should be reprocessing any reusable medical equipment based on vendor's verbal instructions alone: this is not an adequate practice.

Responsibilities

• Initiating, performing, and completing assigned duties while providing care to diverse patient populations.
• Maintaining knowledge and ability to carry out patient care determined by the patient's condition utilizing judgement in selecting appropriate orders, procedures, and treatments
• Recognizing, reporting, and recording relevant patient information to include urgent and emergent situations.
• Observing, identifying, and responding to patient needs for medication, medical equipment, and patient/family education while considering emotional, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and age-related factors.
• Maintaining knowledge and skill to prepare, administer and appropriately document actions taken specific to commonly prescribed oral, topical, subcutaneous, intramuscular and/or intravenous medications as permitted by approved local facility policies and procedures.
• Serving as a responsible member of the clinic and interact with patients, family members, professional and supportive personnel who provide patient care, and with members of other services.
• Assisting with answering the phone, conveying timely messages to the appropriate staff, placing calls/pages as needed.
• Participating in evaluation of nursing care through attendance and input at team conferences and communication with the Nurse Manager.
• Participating in team conference development and implementation, by presenting a patient for team conference discussion when need identified.
• Providing appropriate information to patients and their families regarding the plan of care.
• Assisting the patient and family in understanding and acceptance of the disease process and encourages participation in the plan for the care and rehabilitation of the patient.
• Identifying patient's educational needs to include equipment, medication, treatment procedures, and diagnosis. Assists with teaching patient/family as appropriate.
• Knowing what reusable instruments, equipment, medical devices, or supplies (inventory) are used in their assigned area.
• Being familiar with which items are cleaned locally (in clinic) and which items are sent to sterile processing service (SPS) for reprocessing and/or sterilization.
• Following the local Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) drafted in accordance with the manufacturer's written recommendations.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and regular salary increases.
• 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)
• After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
• After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
• Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA
• Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Industry: Administration of Human Resource Programs
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees