Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

POSITION SUMMARY:

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is more than a hospital. It is a network of support and care that touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in need each year. It is the largest and busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. Emphasizing community-based care, BMC is committed to providing consistently excellent and accessible health services to all—and is the largest safety-net hospital in New England. The hospital is also the primary teaching affiliate of the nationally ranked Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine (BUSM) and a founding partner of Boston HealthNet – an integrated health care delivery system that includes many community health centers. Join BMC today and help us achieve our Vision 2030, a long-term goal to make Boston the healthiest urban population in the world.

Join a growing, mission-driven, academic Department of Psychiatry! The Nurse Practitioner-Psychiatry, is responsible for providing comprehensive psychiatric evaluations and consultations and thoughtful psychopharmacological evaluation and treatment. As an expert professional, the Nurse Practitioner is responsible and accountable for the application of the nursing process, inter and intradepartmental liaison, education, leadership and patient care management across the health care continuum from preventative, acute care through discharge. There are opportunities for receiving and providing supervision of clinical practice, quality improvement, research involvement, and other consultative services.

As a novel aspect to the role, in addition to Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner opportunities within BMC’s Outpatient Psychiatry clinic and subspecialty programs, Nurse Practitioners have the opportunity to spend part of their week as an integrated psychiatric provider at one or more Community Health Center sites that BMC partners with through the Boston HealthNet and other partnerships across Massachusetts. This is a unique opportunity to provide diagnostic and psychopharmacological consultation and short-term management in diverse community health settings, in collaboration with primary care providers. While serving in this community health capacity, Nurse Practitioners continue to receive central support from BMC’s Department of Psychiatry and maintain an academic affiliation with Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

Position: Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner         

Department: Outpatient Psychiatry

Schedule: Full Time, Monday-Friday, Days

Clinical Practice

• Provides direct care, counseling, and teaching to patients and families according to established collaborative protocols and standards of care.
• Sets priorities for appropriate and efficient management of patient care that reflects cost effective management of time, available human resources, supplies, and equipment.
• Performs psychiatric evaluations and evidence-based psychopharmacologic treatment prescribed guidelines and appropriate to patient needs.
• Continually evaluates patient clinical safety and initiates referrals to appropriate higher levels of care as necessary including initiating Section 12 protocol, referring patient to Boston Emergency Services (BEST) team or BMC Emergency Room. Coordinates with receiving program or facility to ensure clinical awareness of situation and advocates for patient’s needs.
• Conducts discharge appointments and medication reconciliation with patients discharging from inpatient facilities and higher levels of care to transition them back into outpatient services.
• Provides timely patient clinical support between visits through returning clinical calls to patients, facilities, and collaborating providers.
• Refers to appropriate inter-department specialty programs for diagnostic clarity, treatment recommendations, and clinical support.
• Provides clinical support for departmental patient care needs including medication refill and urgent appointments, and assistance with refill requests through electronic medical record.
• Orders, interprets, and evaluates appropriate lab and diagnostic tests to assess patient's clinical problems and health care needs.
• Based on outcome of diagnostic, lab, and physical assessment findings, arranges for appropriate plan of care and follow-up.
• Records pertinent patient care findings in the medical record. Maintains interdisciplinary approach to planning and communicating patient care information by discussing patient data with appropriate physicians and other health care professionals.
• Evaluates outcomes of patient care and makes necessary revisions in care plan.
• Seeks and provides consultative services as required including coordination with patient’s primary care providers and specialists.
• Through patient education and counseling, incorporates the concepts of health maintenance, prevention, and promotion into daily practice.
• Demonstrates awareness of community resources and assists staff, patients, and families to effectively utilize them.
• Demonstrates the knowledge and skills necessary to provide care appropriate to the age groups of patients regularly served. 
• Notifies supervisor when patients in age groups not regularly served present, and seeks assistance from individuals with the knowledge of the specialized needs of such patient age groups. 

Professional Development

• In collaboration with appropriate physicians, assists in the development, implementation, evaluation, and revision of nurse practitioner guidelines, policies, procedures, and protocols.
• Demonstrates leadership skills in problem solving with and directing designated personnel in assigned clinical area.
• Maintains current knowledge of legislation that may affect the health care delivery system and the function of the nurse practitioner in the hospital setting.
• Serves on nursing and hospital committees when requested and refers appropriate information to various departmental and hospital committees as needed.
• Identifies own learning needs and assumes responsibility for maintaining current knowledge and competency in clinical practice area.
• Educates patients, families, and professionals through the development of educational materials, in-services, formal lectures, and/or publications.

Quality Assessment/improvement and Research

• Consistently participates in the quality assessment/improvement program for the service.
• Based on quality improvement finding, identifies appropriate follow-up quality improvement projects or research studies.
• Utilizes quality improvement data and research findings to enhance patient care.
• Participates in patient care research at a level consistent with educational background and experience.
• Facilitates patient engagement in research opportunities by educating patients on actively recruiting research studies and appropriately refers for participation

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

Master's degree in nursing required. Completion of an accredited educational program for nurse practitioners required.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED:

Current license to practice as a registered nurse in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with authorization by the Board of Registration in Nursing to practice in an expanded role.

Registered with the ANCC or other accrediting organization for Nurse Practitioners.

Registered with the State of Massachusetts and DEA for prescription writing privileges.

Current BLS Certifications.

EXPERIENCE:

Minimum of two years of clinical nursing (registered nurse) experience in a behavioral health setting required, with preference for at least one year of psychiatric nurse practitioner experience and/or experience in substance use disorder treatment.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Expert clinical judgment and ability to be self-directed and demonstrate initiative in an expanded role.
• Demonstrated critical thinking, problem solving and conflict resolution skills.
• Full command (verbal and written) of the English language.
• Demonstrated ability to apply principles of adult learning to provide effective patient and/or family education.
• Confidence and skill in evaluating patient safety and determining when a higher level of care is warranted.
• Organizational skills to set priorities and efficiently complete assigned work.
• Effective interpersonal skills to facilitate communication with the various members of the health care team, patients and families.
• Computer proficiency inclusive of the ability to access, enter, and interpret computerized data/information required.
• Physical ability to meet the core job responsibilities in accordance with the practice setting demands for the patient populations regularly served.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Disabled/Veterans