Career Center

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:

General Surgery

Job Summary:

The Department of Surgery is accepting applications for a Physician Assistant in our Division of General Surgery with an emphasis in Colon and Rectal Surgery.

We are committed to providing the best in patient care. Our program is one of the region's most experienced. Patients, and referring doctors, turn to us from throughout Tennessee and across the United States for treatment for colon and rectal conditions, from the common to the complex. To further support our programs, we seek a physician's assistant in the ambulatory care setting to work as a part of an integrated health care team. This is a split position with clinical responsibilities at our Edward Curd Lane clinic and on VUMC's main campus.

This individual will be a full-time billing provider and will work with faculty to manage a wide variety of patients, including pre and post-operative patients, and a distinct non-surgical patient population in the outpatient setting independently and through collaboration with our multidisciplinary team.
We are seeking and individual with a strong foundation in evidenced based practice and who will be responsible for adherence to clinical pathways and protocols providing safe, quality care in a welcoming environment.

The Surgical Physician Assistant (PA) works in collaboration with a multidisciplinary health care team. The PA provides healthcare in ambulatory and acute care health care settings. Including management of surgical patients from pre-operative, peri-operative and post operative phases of care. The PA has didactic education, clinical competency and national certification in identified area of clinical practice. The PA demonstrates medical knowledge, clinical judgment, technical competence, professionalism, interpersonal communication skills, timely and compliant documentation, and is responsible for professional development and competency validation. The PA has an advanced knowledge of nursing theory and application.

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KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
* Obtains and documents a health history; performs and documents complete, system-focused, or symptom-specific physical examination, assessment and plan of care.
* In collaboration, provides healthcare services for primary, acute and complex care of patients and manages patient's overall care, identifying expected outcomes for diagnoses.
* Orders, performs, interprets and collects data using appropriate assessment techniques, relevant supporting diagnostic information and diagnostic procedures where indicated.
* Forms differential diagnoses and treats acute and chronic conditions.
* Prescribes therapeutic interventions both pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic and surgical, needed to achieve expected outcomes.
* Utilizes evidence-based, approved practice protocols in planning and implementing care;
* Initiates appropriate referrals and consultations;
* Provides specialty specific consultation services upon request and within specialty scope of practice;
* Facilitates the patient's transition between and within health care settings, such as admitting, transferring, and discharging patients.


TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES
* Professionalism (Advanced): Demonstrates behaviors that reflect a commitment to continuous professional development, ethical practice, an understanding and a responsible attitude toward their patients, their profession and society. Participates in medical center committees, professional organizations and activities that influence advanced practice and/or health outcomes of a population focus.
* Interpersonal and Communication Skills (Advanced): Demonstrates interpersonal and communication skills that enable them to establish and maintain professional relationships with patients, families, and other members of health care teams. Communicates practice knowledge effectively both orally and in writing.
* Practice-Based Scholarly Inquiry and Integration (Advanced): Demonstrates the use of scientific evidence and methods to investigate, evaluate and improve patient care practices. Anticipates variations in practice and is proactive in implementing interventions to improve quality. Uses best available evidence to continuously improve quality of clinical practice. Generates knowledge from clinical practice to improve practice and patient outcomes. Reviews data and evidences to improve advanced practice. Integrates knowledge from the humanities and sciences within the context of nursing science.
* Patient and Family Centered Care (Advanced): Demonstrates care that is compassionate, appropriate and effective for the promotion of health, prevention of illness, treatment of disease and care at the end of life. Within scope of licensure and certification, manages previously diagnosed and undiagnosed patients. Uses health assessment skills to differentiate between normal, variations of normal, and abnormal findings. Employs screening and diagnostic strategies in the development of diagnoses. Prescribes medications within scope of practice. Manages health/illness status of patients and families over time and across the continuum. Provides patient-centered care recognizing cultural diversity and the patient or designee as a full partner in decision making. Creates a climate of patient-centered care to include confidentiality privacy, comfort, emotional support, mutual trust, and respect. Incorporates cultural and spiritual preferences, values and beliefs into health care. Preserves the patient's control over decision making by negotiating a mutually acceptable plan of care. Integrates ethical principles into decision making. Uses electronic health record to capture data on variables for the evaluation and management of patient care. Clearly documents findings, assessment and plan of care.
* Clinical Knowledge and Practice (Advanced): Demonstrates established and evolving biomedical, clinical and social sciences, and the application of their knowledge to patient care and the education of others. Demonstrates knowledge of population focus but also other sciences that support his/her field of practice. Demonstrates knowledge of common and important health issues affecting society and other societies around the globe. Demonstrates commitment in maintaining current evidence based knowledge through continuous learning. Educates patients, families, students and other members of the healthcare team in clinical topics and application of clinical knowledge.
* Health Systems and Policy Management (Advanced): Demonstrates sufficient fundamental proficiency in behaviors that reflect a commitment to continuous professional development, ethical practice, an understanding and a responsible attitude toward their patients, their profession and society. Participates in professional organizations and activities that influence advanced practice and/or health outcomes of a population focus.

Our Nursing Philosophy:

We believe highly skilled and specialized nursing care is essential to Vanderbilt University Medical Center's mission of quality in patient care, education and research. We believe nursing is an applied art and science focused on helping people, families and communities reach excellent health and well-being.

As a Vanderbilt University Medical Center employee, you make a difference to our patients and their families by bringing compassion and care to those in need of hope and healing. Please see our current employee benefits offered:

• Affordable High Quality Health Plan Options
• Dental and /or vision plan
• 403 (b) retirement plan
• Paid Time off (flex PTO)
• Tuition Reimbursement and adoption assistance (maximums applied)
• Short-Long term disability
• Subsidized backup childcare
• And many more... Ask us about our current inpatient nursing supplemental Pay Program!

Achieve the Remarkable:

Learn more about VUMC Nursing here.

Core Accountabilities:

Organizational Impact: Delivers projects/assignments that have a direct impact on goals/objectives of the unit/department that the job is in. Problem Solving/ Complexity of work: Conducts extensive analysis of situations or data to resolve numerous, complex issues; may involve the input/work of others. Breadth of Knowledge: Has in-depth level of knowledge within a professional area and working knowledge of other areas. Team Interaction: May lead mid-sized projects; coaches and guides team members.

Core Capabilities :

Supporting Colleagues: - Develops Self and Others: Invests time, energy, and enthusiasm in developing self/others to help improve performance e and gain knowledge in new areas. - Builds and Maintains Relationships: Maintains regular contact with key colleagues and stakeholders using formal and informal opportunities to expand and strengthen relationships. - Communicates Effectively: Recognizes group interactions and modifies one's own communication style to suit different situations and audiences. Delivering Excellent Service: - Serves Others with Compassion: Seeks to understand current and future needs of relevant stakeholders and customizes services to better address them. - Solves Complex Problems: Approaches problems from different angles; Identifies new possibilities to interpret opportunities and develop concrete solutions. - Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Provides ongoing support and coaching in a constructive manner to increase employees' effectiveness. Ensuring High Quality: - Performs Excellent Work: Engages regularly in formal and informal dialogue about quality; directly addresses quality issues promptly. - Ensures Continuous Improvement: Applies various learning experiences by looking beyond symptoms to uncover underlying causes of problems and identifies ways to resolve them. - Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Understands all aspects of providing a safe environment and performs routine safety checks to prevent safety hazards from occurring. Managing Resources Effectively: - Demonstrates Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of ownership, focusing on and driving critical issues to closure. - Stewards Organizational Resources: Applies understanding of the departmental work to effectively manage resources for a department/area. - Makes Data Driven Decisions: Demonstrates strong understanding of the information or data to identify and elevate opportunities. Fostering Innovation: - Generates New Ideas: Proactively identifies new ideas/opportunities from multiple sources or methods to improve processes beyond conventional approaches. - Applies Technology: Demonstrates an enthusiasm for learning new technologies, tools, and procedures to address short-term challenges. - Adapts to Change: Views difficult situations and/or problems as opportunities for improvement; actively embraces change instead of emphasizing negative elements.

Position Qualifications:

Responsibilities:

Certifications:

LIC-Physician's Assistant Certified - Tennessee

Work Experience:

Relevant Work Experience

Experience Level:

Less than 1 year

Education:

Master's

Vanderbilt Health is committed to fostering an environment where everyone has the chance to thrive and is committed to the principles of equal opportunity. EOE/Vets/Disabled.