Registered Nurse (Post Anesthesia Care Unit - Float)

<p>This position is in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit, located at the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center, responsible for providing competent, evidence-based care to patients. Integrates knowledge, skills, abilities, and judgment and is self-directed in goal setting for managing complex situations.</p><h3>Major Duties</h3><p>The PACU RN demonstrates attention to detail, utilizes critical thinking skills, initiates confident decisions in a fast-paced clinical environment, and communicates effectively with a multidisciplinary team, applies the nursing process to systems/processes at the unit/work group level to improve care. You are responsible to acquire knowledge/skills/abilities to maintain expertise in caring for critically ill patients, participate in educational activities to improve clinical knowledge/enhance role performance. RN duties require interventions for altered states of LOC occurring in post anesthetized patients, monitoring effectiveness of therapies for patient's s/p anesthetic agents and assessing patients requiring continuous hemodynamic monitoring/vasoactive medications. You will recognize problems/initiate nursing interventions to manage post-anesthesia, surgical, and medical complications, while utilizing assessment skills to prevent/intervene in life threatening emergencies. You will recover phase 1&2 patients from various levels of sedation/anesthesia including airway management, provision of physical/emotional maintenance, and discharge safely, including documentation/communication of patient's status. Your responsibilities include all aspects of post-surgical/post anesthesia care which includes/not limited to non-invasive/invasive hemodynamic monitoring; management of pain, N/V, surgical site evaluation for potential bleeding or other pathological indications, professional communication, assessing discharge criteria, and communication with families regarding patient status. You will rotate Charge Nurse duties for day/evening shift ensuring equitable staffing assignments, safe patient flow, and communication with the interdisciplinary team for an effective transition from OR to OPS or ward. You will provide safe patient transfer based on patient needs, selection of appropriate methods/personnel, provision for emotional needs of the patient, and assistance with patient transfer to/from stretcher/wheelchair/bed. You will cross train to OPS and Interventional Radiology and maintain competency to function independently with preop/intraprocedural/postop care to include administration of moderate sedation and monitoring patients with pacemakers in MRI. You will maintain competencies for each specialized care unit. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Nurse Total Rewards Pay: Competitive salary, regular salary increases, potential for performance awards Paid Time Off: 50 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement) Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory Work Schedule: 0730-1600, 0930-1800, 1130-2000, Rotating Tours Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized. PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized.</p><h3>Requirements</h3>U.S. Citizenship; non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy. All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959. Subject to background/security investigation. Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Must pass pre-employment physical examination. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP). You may be required to serve a probationary period. Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.<h3>Education</h3>The Associate Degree Nursing (ADN), Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN), or Master of Science degree in Nursing (MSN) must be fully accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) or the Commission On Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Verification of accreditation may be obtained from http://www.acenursing.us/accreditedprograms/programsearch.htm or https://directory.ccnecommunity.org/reports/accprog.asp If your school has changed names, or is no longer in existence, you must provide this information in your application. If your school was accredited by ACEN or CCNE at the time of graduation, but is no longer listed on the websites, you must provide documentation of accreditation with your application packet. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.