Registered Nurse- Inpatient Unit (Nights)

SUMMARY: The Registered Nurse focuses on developing skills to guide him/her over a continuum of basic patient care through more complex assignments, assessing the needs of acute and chronically ill children using effective communication with patients/families and team members. The Registered Nurse uses the nursing process in a family-centered, interdisciplinary context to coordinate care and achieve team goals.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

1. Nursing Process 1. Completes initial and ongoing assessments and actively seeks assistance to verify assessments/changes noted. 2. Identifies problems e.g., nursing diagnosis and adds to problem list/kardex. 3. Carries out interventions defined in policy or individual plan of care as well as prescribed orders. Seeks assistance when relationship between orders and assessment is unclear. (e.g., abnormal lab values.) Maintains working knowledge of routine procedures, techniques, treatments as defined in policy. 4. Evaluates interventions against desired goals and seeks input on changes. 5. Documents assessments, interventions and patient responses, manually and electronically. Verifies and transcribes medical orders. 2. Assuring/Improving Quality of Care 1. Maintains a safe and therapeutic patient care environment by providing care that follows policies and procedures and is in accord with the Illinois Nurse Practice Act. 2. Demonstrates Unit specific skills and competencies (e.g, Tracheostomy Certification). 3. Knowledgeable in using patient care equipment; recognizes any malfunction, takes out of services and reports immediately. 4. Demonstrates knowledge of infection control and safety precautions (e.g., isolation, IV line care). 5. Displays basic knowledge of regulatory requirements; participates in continuous preparation for survey. 6. Aware of quality improvement initiatives on unit and in hospital and seeks to incorporate information from projects into practice. Monitor quality indicators as directed. 7. Completes and routes safety events appropriately.

1. Patient/Staff Education 1. Assesses patient/family readiness to learning. 2. Sets mutual goals and provides patient/family education, evaluates efficacy of teaching and documents in the patient record. 3. Obtains education materials and uses tools appropriate to patient’s age and/or special needs. 4. Provides specific discharge instructions for this episode of care. 5. Utilizes interpreter services as necessary. 6. Attends/Completes all mandatory education and in-services within appropriate timeframe.

1. Leadership/Collaboration/Professional Development 1. Practices Service Excellence Behaviors. 2. Seeks experiences to develop clinical knowledge base and technical skills. 3. Delegate patient care tasks to other members of team: includes assigning responsibilities, evaluating completion of tasks, and providing education, feedback and coaching to complete tasks. 4. Demonstrates effective communication, feedback, and conflict resolution skills. 5. Promotes collaboration among healthcare team members. 6. Follows chain of command for problem resolution.