RN Navigator

Virginia Mason Medical Center, a leading healthcare provider committed to exceptional patient care in Seattle, WA, is seeking a highly motivated and compassionate RN Navigator to join our dedicated Cardiothoracic department. In this vital role, you will serve as a central point of contact and advocate for our cardiothoracic patients, guiding them and their families through every stage of their treatment journey.

The RN Navigator plays a crucial role in ensuring seamless, individualized, and holistic care, offering expert clinical guidance, education, and unwavering support. If you are a registered nurse with a passion for patient advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and optimizing patient outcomes in a complex and rewarding specialty, we encourage you to apply.

Responsibilities:

Patient Care Coordination & Advocacy:

• Coordinates care for all assigned patients throughout the continuum of care from diagnosis to release from care, ensuring a smooth and comprehensive experience.
• Develops and shares ongoing assessments, establishes patient-centered goals, implements nursing interventions, and meticulously documents patient responses.
• Serves as a consistent support system throughout the patient’s entire course of treatment, fostering trust and rapport.
• Provides empathetic support to patients and families during difficult decision-making periods, empowering them to make informed treatment choices.
• Advocates tirelessly for the patient and family in decision-making discussions, meticulously preserving and protecting patient autonomy, dignity, rights, and cultural beliefs.
• Provides essential education, psychosocial support, and logistical guidance to enhance patient preparedness for treatment and streamline transitions across care pathways.
• Proactively determines and assesses personal needs/concerns, helping patients and families to fully understand treatment options and the profound implications of their diagnosis.
• Identifies actual and/or potential problems/concerns, intervening in a timely and appropriate manner to mitigate challenges.
• Efficiently coordinates tests and other procedures, ensuring they are timely and cause as few interruptions to the patient’s life as possible.
• Provides comprehensive follow-up for further diagnostic work-up, education, and support to promote effective coping for both the patient and their family.
• Maintains ongoing communication with patients to consistently check their progress throughout the course of their experience, ensuring their needs are continually being met.
• Attends and actively participates in hospital patient rounds with physicians and/or the multi-disciplinary team, contributing valuable insights to patient care plans.

Education & Resource Provision:

• Continually assesses the educational needs of patients, families, healthcare providers, and the wider community.
• Initiates and diligently documents patient teaching, collaborating with all available resources to provide comprehensive information that patients and their families need and desire.
• Responds promptly and accurately to patient requests for information regarding the disease process, treatment plans/options, and expected side effects/outcomes of treatment.
• Develops high-quality educational materials using current literature and other credible resources, making them readily available to patients and healthcare providers/staff.
• May plan and lead classes to effectively meet patient educational needs.

Collaboration & Holistic Care Planning:

• Consults and collaborates extensively with other providers to comprehensively meet the medical, social, and financial needs of patients.
• Formulates an individualized, holistic care plan for patients based on evidence-based research, constantly evaluating the general management of patients and their response to nursing interventions and multi-disciplinary treatment plans.
• Communicates and collaborates effectively with physicians involved in the patient’s care, ensuring a cohesive and coordinated approach.
• Consults with physicians/providers who require assistance with the care of their patients, particularly related to continuity of care, coordination of care, education, and available resource services.
• Contacts and interacts with external services/support groups when appropriate to effectively fulfill patient needs.
• Refers patients to appropriate internal and external resources/professionals, coordinating these crucial resources and consultative services to provide seamless continuity of care and an appropriate follow-up plan of care.
• May provide advocacy assistance with complex insurance and/or financial issues, alleviating patient burden.
• Facilitates the development, implementation, and adherence to clinical and research guidelines to ensure optimal clinical outcomes.
• Works closely with the care team to assure direct care needs are met, assisting as needed or assigned.
• Ensures meticulous follow-up on identified patient clinical and non-clinical care, facilitating effective communication and compliance to care plans (e.g., medication reconciliation, follow-up on trigger points, patient care conferences, etc.).
• Consults with physicians, professional nursing staff, and ancillary members of the patient care team in determining nursing care/treatment plans/case management and to proactively address clinical practice issues and changes.

Data Tracking, Evaluation & Quality Improvement:

• Provides accurate and timely data tracking, management, evaluation, and reporting of clinical/treatment protocols/practices through ongoing observation and analysis of current activities.
• Contributes actively to an environment of continuous quality and process improvement.
• Ensures accurate and timely data collection and entry into the patient database as indicated by department guidelines.
• Identifies patterns of variance from standardized practices guidelines and recommends effective strategies to resolve them.
• Tracks and evaluates interventions and outcomes, demonstrating a commitment to evidence-based practice.
• Provides continuing assistance to management with respect to the implementation and ongoing maintenance of policies, standards, procedures, and automated tools that support CHI-FH goals and department-specific objectives/initiatives.
• Assists with the monitoring of patient outcomes, audits, and evaluates results achieved in relation to objectives.
• Participates in the development, evaluation, and serves as a department representative on cross-functional and interdisciplinary teams as assigned.

Operational & Research Support:

• Provides operational support and contributes to clinical research activities conducted by the department.
• Assesses daily patient schedule, nurse staffing requirements, and available resources in accordance with established standards/guidelines.
• May revise work schedules to ensure adequate staff coverage when necessary.
• Coordinates clinical research activities conducted by the department, ensuring accuracy and compliance.

Cultural Competence & Population-Specific Care:

• Demonstrates proper use of communication tools/materials for effective communication and understands how the culture(s) of patient populations can profoundly affect communication, collaboration, and the provision of care, treatment, and services.
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge and proper skills associated with the department’s defined specific patient populations served, ensuring culturally sensitive and individualized care.

Performs related duties as required.

• Education:
  • Bachelor’s degree in Nursing or another related discipline, along with graduation from an accredited school of nursing.
  • Three years of related professional nursing work experience in the clinical focus area that demonstrates the attainment of the requisite job knowledge, skills, and abilities.
  • Previous navigator work experience is strongly preferred.
  • Additional equivalent qualifying work experience that demonstrates attainment of the requisite job knowledge/abilities may be substituted for two years of the bachelor’s degree requirement (Associate’s degree or diploma in nursing required).
  • Master’s degree in Nursing or related field is strongly preferred.
• Licensure/Certification:
  • Current licensure as a Registered Nurse issued by the Washington State Board of Nursing.
  • Current Healthcare Provider BLS Certification.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health brings together two award-winning health systems in Washington state  CHI Franciscan and Virginia Mason. As one integrated health system with the most patient access points in western Washington, our team includes 18,000 staff and nearly 5,000 employed physicians and affiliated providers. At Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, you will find the safest and highest quality of care provided by our expert, compassionate medical care team at 11 hospitals and nearly 300 sites throughout the greater Puget Sound region.  While you’re busy impacting the healthcare industry, we’ll take care of you with benefits that include health/dental/vision, FSA, matching retirement plans, paid vacation, adoption assistance, annual bonus eligibility, and more!