Physical Therapist - Acute Care (PRN)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center•Nashville, TN

4d•Onsite

About The Position

Vanderbilt Health is seeking an experienced Acute Care Physical Therapist to join one of the nation's leading academic health systems. This PRN position offers flexibility with meaningful clinical impact, allowing therapists to maintain their acute care expertise, supplement their current role, or seek a schedule that better fits their lifestyle. The role involves caring for medically complex patients within a Level 1 Trauma Center and the nation's largest transplant center by volume. The Acute Care Rehabilitation team provides services across various specialized units including Trauma Services, Transplant Services, Burn Center, Emergency Services, Women's Health/OB, Neurosciences, Cardiovascular Services, Medical and Surgical ICUs, and Specialty Medicine Services. The team manages a high volume of daily consults and patient care, dedicated to exceptional patient outcomes.

Requirements

Licensed Physical Therapist (or license-eligible) in Tennessee
Acute care or hospital-based experience preferred
Strong clinical reasoning and communication skills
Ability to work effectively within interdisciplinary teams
Commitment to exceptional patient-centered care
Has completed at least one year of clinical experience in treatment implementation.

Nice To Haves

Experience Level : Less than 1 year

Responsibilities

Perform evidence-based evaluations and treatment interventions for hospitalized patients with complex medical and surgical diagnoses.
Develop individualized treatment plans that promote mobility, safety, functional recovery, and independence.
Collaborate with physicians, nurses, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, case managers, and other healthcare professionals.
Educate patients and caregivers regarding mobility strategies, equipment recommendations, fall prevention, and discharge planning.
Apply strong clinical reasoning to assess patient progress and modify treatment plans as patient needs evolve.
Document care in accordance with hospital, regulatory, and professional standards.
Contribute to a culture of clinical excellence, teamwork, and compassionate patient-centered care.
Analyzes comprehensive information from formal and informal assessment that is pertinent to the patient's care and management to determine a rehabilitation treatment diagnosis.
Collaborates with stakeholders in establishing the plan of care, coordinates and implements care delivery while anticipating patient care needs across the rehabilitation continuum.
Applies appropriate, evidence-based interventions to ensure effective outcomes and re-evaluates performance to assess patient's progress towards goals.
Employs strategies to promote successful return to home, community, and school/vocational environments.
Demonstrates proficiency in documentation practices, documenting in the appropriate templates and utilizing only approved abbreviations within patient documentation, meeting institutional standards for quality and timeliness.
Demonstrates proficiency in developing a plan of care that incorporates treatment interventions focused on meeting objective goals, developing and documenting patient-focused short and long-term goals that are functional and measurable, and identifying the need for and referral to other services, as needed.
Demonstrates proficiency in evaluating patients with physical deficits including impairments, developmental disabilities, functional limitations, disabilities, or changes in physical function by obtaining information pertinent to the assessment and administering and scoring standardized tests and objective measures of deficit areas, selecting appropriate measures and performing a functional assessment to document patient's status requiring skilled therapy, and interpreting the results of the assessment and their significance to the patient, family, referring physician and other members of the health care team.
Demonstrates proficiency in providing treatment consistent with physician prescription and established plan of care, able to modify treatment plan as needed to demonstrate provision of skilled therapy services including progression of treatment throughout course of care, and revision of treatment interventions of goals not met, and selecting and following correct protocol for care and utilizing evidence-based treatments.
Demonstrates proficiency in communicating functional impact of assessment findings, treatment interventions, treatment planning diagnosis, and disease process, considering the communication needs/level of understanding of audience and may share appropriate information/literature.