Registered Nurse - Health Education - 5025

We have a need need for a Registered Nurse  - Health Education at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, CA.

Job Specific Details and Tasks: The duties for the RN include but are not limited to the following: 

• Coordinate patient care in collaboration with a wide array of healthcare professionals. Facilitate the achievement of optimal outcomes in relation to clinical care, quality and cost effectiveness.

• Ensure compliance with standards of care and practice in accordance with all established policies, procedures, and guidelines used in the facility.

• Perform physical exam and health histories.

• Provide health promotions, counseling, and education.

• Administer medications, wound care, and numerous other personalized interventions.

• Direct and supervise care provided by other healthcare professionals.

• Accountable for making patient care assignments based on the scope of practice and skill level of assigned personnel.

• Recognize adverse signs and symptoms and quickly react in emergency situations.

• Communicate and collaborate with a diverse group of people for the purpose of informing the healthcare team of plans/actions, for teaching/education to benefit the patient/family and organization.

• Make referral appointments and arrange specialty care as appropriate.

• Maintain a level of productivity comparable with that of other individuals performing similar services.
• Participate in peer review and performance improvement activities.
• Practice aseptic techniques as necessary. Comply with infection control guidelines to include the proper handling, storage, and disposal of infectious wastes, and the use of universal precautions to prevent the spread of infection.
• Function with awareness and application of safety procedures.
• Perform efficiently in emergency patient situations following established protocols, remaining calm, informing appropriate people, and documenting events. Anticipate potential problems/emergencies and make appropriate interventions. Notify supervisor, leadership, or other designated person regarding problems that the Health Care Worker is unable to manage.
• Apply an awareness of legal issues in all aspects of patient care and strive to manage situations in a reduced risk manner.

• Participate in the implementation of the Family Advocacy Program as directed. Participation shall include, but not be limited to, appropriate medical examination, documentation, and reporting.
• Exercise awareness and sensitivity to patient/significant others' rights, as identified within the facility.
• Maintain an awareness of responsibility and accountability for own professional practice.
• Participate in continuing education to meet own professional growth.
• Actively participate in the command’s Performance Improvement Program. Participate in meetings to review and evaluate the care provided to patients, identify opportunities to improve the care delivered, and recommend corrective action when problems exist.
• Participate in the provision of in-service training to clinic/ward/unit staff members. Assist with providing training and/or clinical direction as applicable to supporting government Health Care Workers (e.g., hospital corpsmen, students, etc.).
• Attend and participate in various meetings as directed.
• Perform timely, accurate, and concise documentation of patient care.
• Operate and manipulate automated systems such as ADS, MHS Genesis participate in clinical staff Performance Improvement (PI) and Risk Management (RM) functions, as prescribed by the Commander. Maintain DOD email account as directed. Be responsive to all email and voicemail communications.
• Maintain documentation of all treatment provided in accordance with clinic directives and prepare such records and reports as may be required. All records and reports must be legible. Abbreviations must be only those listed in local instructions.

•  Provide services within the scope of their competencies, the applicable duties provided in the basic contract, and the following:

• Manage care for the patients of the Health and Wellness Department within the Health and Wellness and Disease Prevention domain to promote effective education, self-management support, and timely health care delivery to help improve patient’s health and wellness efforts.

•  Collect, analyze, interpret, and evaluate data to assess trends and developments to target the population and deliver Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW) services directly to patients.

• Assess education needs of patients and their families. Ensures education of patients and family members. Provides verbal and written instructions to the patient and family on matters pertaining to self-management and self-efficacy in the management of chronic conditions and/or improvement of health and wellness related outcomes.
• Provide highly coordinated nursing care interventions using established VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines, in coordination with other medical professionals including providers and pharmacists, to prevent or lesson possible disease progression and unfavorable outcomes associated with uncontrolled chronic disease/conditions
• Be part of a multidisciplinary team that assesses health promotions risk, analyzes health data, develops content for educational programs, drafts health promotions policy guidance, and evaluates health promotions outcome measures aimed at delivering improved patient care. As requested, the Health Care Worker will provide input and technical guidance on issues related to the Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW) program.
• Coordinate and deliver reports to Health and Wellness teams. Consult and collaborate with already existing departments, command, and community programs to ensure appropriate utilization of resources to meet the patients’ health and wellness goals.
• Provide primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of intervention to promote effective education, self-management support, and timely health care delivery to improve the patient’s health and wellness efforts.
• Educate patients in understanding disease processes, impact of disease on overall health and wellness, and apply strategies including motivational interviewing and theoretical change model to improve health-patient engagement.
• Participate in a multidisciplinary team that assesses health promotion risk, analyzes health data, develops content for educational programs, drafts health promotion policy guidance and evaluates health promotions outcomes measures aimed at delivering improved patient care.
• Work with all clinical teams as a resource on patient education and disease prevention on behalf of all patients enrolled to the command. Improving patient care, quality of life and compliance are the focuses to include the following:
• Pre-visit planning to ensure information and care completion prior to visiting when possible.
• After visit summary review with patients whenever appropriate.
• Provide follow-up contact with patients to ensure compliance with recommendations.
• Educating and involving patients to improve their health-patient engagement.
• Assist patients to set goals, progress and identify barriers when patients are not meeting treatment goals.
• Conduct both formal/informal group and individually based educational and counseling interventions to include timely telephone follow-up consultation assessments and teaching to reinforce previous patient care plan goals and to ensure patient understanding.
• Evaluate achievement of learning objectives by the patient and/or family and provide appropriate follow-up in accordance with the patient’s treatment goals, referring patients to specialty and community services as appropriate.
• Assess educational needs and provide health promotion and disease prevention counseling for patients, family members and groups about modifications and/or specific nursing interventions.
• Employ adult learning behavior change theories and teaching techniques to conduct a variety of individual and group health promotion and disease prevention interventions.
• Provide expertise to implement and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention education programs for all populations.
• Communicate and coordinate health promotion and wellness-based programs among local leadership and target beneficiary populations.
• Coordinate special projects such as education-focused workshops, health fairs, informative displays, and programs for special groups.
• Complete documentation of all educational activities, services and/or encounters and ensure they are placed into patient medical records in compliance with established standards to ensure evidence of intervention and patient confidentiality.

• Additional duties for the Lead Health Educator:
• Coordinate, collect, analyze, interpret, and evaluate data to assess trends and developments to target the population and deliver Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW) services directly to patients.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team that assesses health promotions risk, analyzes health data, develops content for educational programs, drafts health promotions policy guidance, and evaluates health promotions outcome measures aimed at delivering improved patient care. As requested, the Health Care Worker will provide input and technical guidance on issues related to the Health Promotion and Wellness (HPW) program.
• Coordinate and participate in a multidisciplinary team that assesses health promotion risk, analyzes health data, develops content for educational programs, drafts health promotion policy guidance and evaluates health promotions outcomes measures aimed to deliver improved patient care.
• Provide expertise to implement and evaluate health promotion and disease prevention education programs for all populations and will serve as a clinical resource to all HWD health educators and staff.

Work Schedule:

Normally Monday - Friday, 9 hours between 6:00am and 9:00pm, to include a one-hour lunch

Occassional Saturday for Health & Wellness events

Minimum Qualifications:

• Education: Possess a Master’s degree in Nursing, Health Promotion, Education, Community/Public Health or Wellness, or a Health Science related field from an accredited university.
• Experience: Possess at least two years of full-time experience as a health educator within the last four years working with Health Promotions and Wellness campaigns to include tobacco/nicotine cessation, diabetes prevention/management, weight management, stress management, sleep psychoeducation, nutrition, exercise, heart health, or disease management/prevention.  Lead position requires at least 4 years experience.
• Licensure: Current, full, active, and unrestricted RN license from any state.
• Life Support Certification: Maintain current AHA or ARC BLS Certification.
• Security: Must possess ability to pass a Government background check/security clearance.

Excellent Compensation & Exceptional Comprehensive Benefits:

• Paid Vacation, Paid Sick Time, Plus 11 Paid Federal Holidays

• Medical/Dental/Vision, STD/LTD/Life, Health Savings Account available, and more
• Annual CME Stipend and License/Certification Reimbursement
• Matching 401K

 Pay Scale: $43.00 - $77.00 per hour, to be determined based on qualifications and experience

Sign-on Bonus: $2,000.00 payable with first paycheck.