Infusion Nurse

General Summary of Duties: This position reports to the clinical manager and provides direct patient care, educates, collaborates, and counsels patients and families in a clinic setting. The clinic nurse assesses physical, psychosocial, and learning needs of patients and families.
Essential Functions:
• Administers medications, chemotherapeutic agents, biotherapy agents, immunotherapy agents and hematopoietic growth factors to patients with cancer following age-specific guidelines and standards.

• Assesses patient compliance with medications, treatments and appointments.

• Demonstrates competency in the performance of simple and complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as venipuncture, administration of IV fluids, care of vascular access devices, and de-clotting of lines.

• Documents the interventions and outcomes of the care plan in the medical record.

• Evaluates the need for prescription refills, effectiveness of medication, or medication changes.

• Facilitates the transition of care for patients to home care, palliative care, or hospice in collaboration with the cancer care team.

• Follows standard policies and procedures for medical orders according to chemotherapy, biotherapy and immunotherapy administration, hematopoietic growth factors, immunosuppressive agents and antiemetic therapy.

• Manages telephone calls from patients and families and triages patient calls, assesses the clinical problem, and makes a nursing diagnosis and care plan related to the patient's problem.

• Optimizes physical and emotional comfort for patients and families by providing equipment, resources, or referrals to community services.

• Optimizes the use of team resources by establishing patient priorities and advising the medical assistants, nurse practitioners, and physicians of patients' needs.

• Provides continuity of care between outpatient and inpatient departments on patient admissions to the hospital and accepts information on discharges from the hospital.

• Provides direct care to patients by conducting a patient history and assessment including symptoms, performance status score, and clinical changes from the last visit and formulates a plan of care for patients and families.

• Provides instructions and directions to patients and families on tests and chemotherapy side effects.

• Provides patient and family education and serves as an educator for nursing and other staff.

• Reviews all patient medical data prior to a patient visit to ensure that all results are available for the medical team during the patient visit (i.e., that all laboratory results, pathology reports, imaging studies, and medical records are available for team from which to make a disposition).

• Reviews patients' medications, distress assessment, and vital signs including pain on each visit to the clinic and plans nursing interventions.

• Serves as a patient advocate on issues related to the clinical changes and physical status of patients since the last clinic visit.

• Contributes to the problem list derived from the assessment in the areas of physical, emotional, and psychosocial status.

• Participates in quality metrics and data for the oncology dashboard.

• Adheres to safety and quality control measures such as Occupational Safety and Health Administration, infection control, and sterilization criteria.

• Completes adverse drug event forms or other quality reports as indicated by institutional policy.

• Assists patients with completion of disability and other forms required for their functioning and well-being.

• Assists patients to achieve the maximum level of functioning by coordinating resources on the multidisciplinary team such as the dietitian, social worker, navigator, and outreach coordinator.

• Assists patients who are enrolled in a clinical trial.

• Coordinates patient and family services in collaboration with the psychosocial team such as skilled home nursing care, respiratory therapy, nutritional