At Houston Methodist, the Palliative Care Coordinator (PCC) position is responsible for the planning, development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the Palliative Care Program in a manner consistent with the mission and vision of Houston Methodist and the Houston Methodist ICARE values. This position is responsible for the development and maintenance of collaborative relationships with physicians, staff, and the community in their efforts to coordinate the care of patients in the management of symptoms and delivery of supportive care through referral and resource management. The PCC position is an expert in the field and able to perform a skilled nursing assessment of patients referred to this service and provide education to patients, staff, physicians and the community related to this specialty. Role modeling compassionate communication with physicians and the interprofessional health care team, this position assumes leadership responsibilities with high level contributions at the bedside, unit, service line, and across Houston Methodist.

PATIENT AGE GROUP(S) AND POPULATION(S) SERVED
Refer to departmental "Scope of Service" and "Provision of Care" plans, as applicable, for description of primary age groups and populations served by this job for the respective HM entity.

HOUSTON METHODIST EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS

• Provide personalized care and service by consistently demonstrating our I CARE values:
  • INTEGRITY: We are honest and ethical in all we say and do.
  • COMPASSION: We embrace the whole person including emotional, ethical, physical, and spiritual needs.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold ourselves accountable for all our actions.
  • RESPECT: We treat every individual as a person of worth, dignity, and value.
  • EXCELLENCE: We strive to be the best at what we do and a model for others to emulate.

• Practices the Caring and Serving Model

• Delivers personalized service using HM Service Standards

• Provides for exceptional patient/customer experiences by following our Standards of Practice of always using Positive Language (AIDET, Managing Up, Key Words)

• Intentionally collaborates with other healthcare professionals involved in patients/customers or employees' experiential journeys to ensure strong communication, ease of access to information, and a seamless experience.

• Involves patients (customers) in shift/handoff reports by enabling their participation in their plan of care as applicable to the given job

• Displays cultural humility, diversity, equity and inclusion principles

• Actively supports the organization's vision, fulfills the mission and abides by the I CARE values

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Functions as a palliative care expert consultant to interprofessional team members for complex pain and symptom management issues through provision of advanced assessment skills for complex palliative care. Serves as a leader (including education, mentoring, and resource) for patient, families and interprofessional health care team.

• Collaborates to foster healthy relationships in the work environment such as mitigation of conflict. Anticipates the needs of the staff members and proactively offers assistance. Promotes positive behaviors, and peer-to-peer accountability. Acts as a role model and coaches staff in effective verbal, non-verbal and written communication, which includes active listening and teaching.

• Contributes to improving nurse satisfaction/engagement by serving as a role model and mentor, facilitating teamwork with RNs, non-licensed and interprofessional staff, as evidenced by the annual overall RN-RN teamwork score and interprofessional relationship score.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Receives referrals and conducts appropriate assessments. Monitors and evaluates plan of care development and appropriate delivery of palliative care/symptom management, referral to appropriate resources, coordination of access to equipment, medications, dietary, rehabilitation services, and other health care facilities/entities when needed. Facilitates team and family conferences.

• Provides leadership, direction, development, and evaluation of the supportive care/palliative care program. Practices in a manner that is congruent with cultural diversity and inclusion principles. Serves as a patient advocate in preventing/resolving ethical issues.

• Develops and implements effective patient teaching strategies based on learning needs; uses appropriate resources, incorporating planning for care after discharge. Consistently evaluates the patient's comprehension and adapts teaching methods accordingly.

• Strives to exceed patients and coworkers' expectations. Drives department activities to improve department score for patient satisfaction on unit-based scorecard, through peer-to-peer accountability.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Models the standards of care related to the nursing process, as outlined in the Houston Methodist Professional Nursing Practice document. Collaborates with interprofessional health care team to achieve patient goals. Anticipates/prevents and recognize/resolves early declines in patient condition and emergent situations.

• Models the standards related to regulatory requirements and professional practice as outlined in the Houston Methodist Professional Nursing Practice document. Role models highly developed assessment, clinical documentation, leadership and analytical skills; integrates and contributes to professional practice standards, policies, procedures, protocols and leads improvements in patient safety-related processes at unit or service line level. Serves as a patient advocate by identifying and reporting unsafe or malfunctioning equipment and unsafe operational practices to department leadership. Contributes to development of service line and hospital standards and guidelines.

• Audits adherence to program and hospital initiatives; fostering quality & safety improvements as necessary. Tracks data for all consulted patients and logs information within the EMR and other databases as indicated. Reports data as required.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Models independent time management effectively and prioritization of daily tasks. Actively participates in the stewardship and efficient utilization of resources and needs including department capital and operational budgets.

• Facilitates transition of patients between care settings (ex. Home care, long term care, hospice) when appropriate. Implements department strategies to achieve financial target on unit-based scorecard and mentors others to do the same through timely documentation of care, decreasing length of stay, optimizing efficiency, and other areas according to department specifications.

• Provides statistical/budgetary data to appropriate persons; reports on required data at identified meetings.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Serves as a resource on palliative care for the community. Provides education to the public, students, and health care professionals related to supportive medicine/palliative care reviewing patient charts, contacting family members when appropriate. Identifies and helps develop patient, professional and public educational materials and presentations. Provides seminars and presentations as appropriate. Serves as primary contact and liaison for specified clinical departments/physician offices and community entities regarding Palliative Care. Attends tumor boards and other meetings as indicated. Attends related conferences to embrace best evidence and increase own knowledge in the related field.

• Leads and identifies opportunities for practice changes, innovative solutions to improve patient care and performance improvement. Investigates and incorporates evidence-based practices which are presented to shared governance and leadership. Supports change initiatives and adapts to unexpected changes. Expands individual nursing knowledge and coaches staff to grow in knowledge, abilities, skills, and attitudes. Completes and updates the individual development plan (IDP) on an on-going basis.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• Bachelor of Science degree or higher from an accredited School of Nursing

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Three years experience with direct clinical nursing patient care

• Clinical nursing care in adult supportive medicine/palliative care and/or hospice care preferred

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - REQUIRED

• RN - Registered Nurse - Texas State Licensure and/or Compact State Licensure within 60 days OR
• RN-Temp - Registered Nurse - Temporary State Licensure within 60 days AND
• BLS - Basic Life Support (AHA) AND
• Magnet - ANCC Recognized Certification -- Hospice, Palliative Care, End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) or similar certification AND
• Other certifications as required by unit/service

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles

• Demonstrates proficient time management skills

• Demonstrates expertise in operating the electronic medical record

• Working knowledge of Microsoft products including PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook

• Acts as effective change agent

• Uses therapeutic communication to establish a relationship with patients, families and interprofessional team to collaborate on the plan of care

• Strong assessment, organizational and problem-solving skill as evidenced by capacity to prioritize multiple tasks and role components

• Ability to function independently and exercise judgment in interactions with physicians, interprofessional care team and patients and their families

• Uses critical thinking skills and clinical judgment to work autonomously as defined by the Nurse Practice Act

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform No
• Scrubs Yes
• Business professional No
• Other (department approved) No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. DIsaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* Yes

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area Yes
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area No

Since 1998, Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital has been serving Fort Bend and the surrounding counties. Residents have come to rely on a level of compassionate care and leading-edge technology that was once available only in the Texas Medical Center. Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital tied for No. 4 in Houston and No. 6 (three-way tie) in Texas in U.S. News & World Report’s best hospital rankings in 2020. With 316 operating beds, 24 operating rooms and over 2,400 employees, Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital was designed to provide comprehensive, personalized care for the community.