Nurse Practitioner Adult - Stroke Program

St. Michael’s Hospital, as part of Unity Health Toronto, is one of three Regional Stroke Centres in the Greater Toronto area supporting the acute phase of stroke through timely assessment and provision of tPA, Endovascular Therapy, and inpatient care. St. Michael’s Hospital has a stroke unit supported by an interprofessional team including NPs, stroke neurologists and trainees, nurses, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, registered dietitians, and physiotherapists. The Stroke Program Nurse Practitioner (NP) works collaboratively with the interprofessional team to provide advanced nursing care optimizing patient outcomes and enhancing safety, efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility to care for patients experiencing stroke. Reporting to both the Senior Clinical Program Director, ED and Medicine and the Director of Nursing Practice and Education, the Stroke Program NP supports care provision through initial admission to discharge and follow-up. The Stroke NP also takes a leadership role in best practice implementation and evaluation, education, and quality improvement. The Stroke NP is required to work weekends on a rotational basis.

The Stroke Program NP works within 4 domains of practice:

Clinical Domain: the NP

• Demonstrates the CNA competencies in providing clinical care to patients and their families experiencing stroke. The NP works autonomously to diagnose, order and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe pharmaceuticals and perform procedures within the legislated scope of practice and a defined St. Michael’s Hospital Collaborative Practice Agreement.
• As part of an inter-professional plan of care, will make clinical decisions to discharge patients from hospital, including completion of discharge summaries and transfer of accountability to community care providers.
• Assessing diagnostic tests and organizing follow-up further diagnostics and/or referral to the Secondary Stroke Prevention clinic.

Knowledge Translation: The NP

• Analyzes, appraises and synthesizes research and best practices to use as a foundation for enhancing the delivery of quality patient care.
• Uses knowledge translation techniques in innovative ways to put research-based knowledge into daily practice and to support and educate other members of the health care team.
• Contributes to the dissemination of nursing knowledge through presentations and publications.

Scholarship: The NP

• Contributes to the culture of discovery at St. Michael’s Hospital by advancing and/or appraising nursing research.
• Evaluates outcomes of practice, practice patterns and systems of care against local and national benchmarks to identify variances in practice outcomes and population trends.
• Identifies issues related to clinical practice and patient care and develops innovations to improve care and care delivery for patients, families, and communities.
• Designs, directs, participates in and evaluates quality improvement methodologies to promote safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered care.

Leadership: The NP

• The NP acts as a transformational leader by using ideals, inspiration and intellectual stimulation to influence the behaviours and attitudes of others towards the goal of excellent patient care
• Acts as a consultant and resource to members of healthcare team and external groups in the process of decision-making strategic planning and problem solving by committee involvement, participation in program development and evaluation
• Is eligible for cross-appointment to an academic institution
• Is a member of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO/NPAO) and other relevant organizations

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Adult or Primary Health Care NP (Registered Nurse in the Extended Class) in good standing with the College of Nurses of Ontario
• Masters degree in Nursing
• Current CPR/BCLS certificate required
• Demonstrated experience and leadership in education and research
• Current acute care nursing experience (minimum 5 years) required
• Experience in stroke and/or neurology is required
• Previous NP experience is preferred
• Ability to function as both an independent practitioner and a collaborative team member
• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent time management skills
• Demonstrated critical thinking skills
• Demonstrated ability to lead best practice and quality improvement initiatives