Clinical Associates - Gp Cardiac Surgery - Royal Columbian Hospital

The Division of Cardiac Surgery is seeking a Clinical Associate with excellent clinical skills to work collaboratively with the attending cardiac surgeons, consultant physicians, nursing, and allied health care providers. As a Clinical Associate at Royal Columbian Hospital on the 2 South Cardiac Surgery Step-Down Unit (2 South), you will lead an inter-disciplinary team providing the post-operative management of all cardiac surgery patients. You will have an independent practice license with additional training or experience in Cardiac Surgery, Cardiology, Surgery, ER, Hospital Medicine, Critical Care or Internal Medicine being an asset. You are able to perform procedures such as thoracentesis, chest tube insertion and central line insertion. Current ACLS is an asset.

Royal Columbian Hospital is the largest Cardiac Surgery centre in British Columbia. Significant ongoing growth is expected with the completion of the Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower at RCH and the Cardiac Cath Labs at Surrey Memorial Hospital. 2 South is a 30 bed, fully monitored step-down unit for the provision of care to cardiac surgery patients after they are discharged from the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit.

Responsibilities:

• Scheduling daily attendance and assessment of post-operative patients.
• Liaising with the PCC and nursing staff each morning to review overnight events and current urgent nursing issues.
• Clinical assessment, diagnostics, and treatment for medical management as required.
• Ward rounds are expected to include direct communication with each nurse, reviewing nursing concerns with each of their patients.
• Liaising with intensivists in CSICU regarding arriving post-op patients.
• Education and training with nursing, medical and pharmacy students.
• Multi-disciplinary meetings with occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers as required to facilitate complex discharges.
• Bedside procedures as required including wound assessments, chest tube insertions, incision & drainage procedures, wound debridement, skin biopsies, and minor suturing.
• Discharge planning including discharge summaries entered into CVI-Source and/or Meditech Advance for each discharged patient.
• Identifying and preparing follow-up outpatient diagnostic tests and coordinating follow up medical appointments.
• Medication review with attending pharmacist and education for patient and family
• Understanding the use and application of temporary external pacemakers which includes pacemaker troubleshooting as required, and nursing education;
• Interpretation of cardiac monitoring, ECG’s, and, as appropriate, consultation with the electrophysiology service for concerning arrhythmias or when an implanted device is being considered.
• Coordinating care when multiple subspecialties are involved (e.g., respirology, endocrinology, nephrology, infections disease specialists, psychiatry, etc.).

The clinical associates will provide 7 day a week, day-time coverage.

Two associates will provide care Monday – Friday, each working an 8-hour shift.

One associate will provide care Saturday, Sunday and Statutory Holidays on an 8-hour shift.

Evening and night coverage is provided by the on-call cardiac surgeon and residents (when available)

Additional ward rounding coverage is provided on the weekends by the on-call surgeon and resident (when available)

Facility: Royal Columbian Hospital

Royal Columbian Hospital is a provincial referral hospital (stroke/cardiac/trauma/neurosurgery) located in New Westminster, BC, with 439 acute beds and is a University of British Columbia affiliated teaching hospital. It offers medical, surgical, advanced and interventional diagnostics and imaging, critical care, inpatient pediatrics, obstetrics, outpatient clinics, neonatology, cardiac surgery, neurosciences, with nearly 80,000 visits annually.

If you have questions or interested in learning more about this opportunity, please contact Laurie Parker, Director, Clinical Operations – Critical Care, Inpatient Cardiac & Respiratory Services, at Laurie.Parker@fraserhealth.ca

Fraser Health is the heart of health care for over two million people in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada, on the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Coast Salish and Nlaka’pamux Nations and is home to 32 First Nations within the Fraser Salish region.

People - those we care for and those who care for them - are at the heart of everything we do. Our hospital and community-based services are delivered by a team of 48,000+ staff, medical staff and volunteers.

We are committed to planetary health and value diversity in the work force. We strive to maintain an environment of respect, caring and trust. Fraser Health’s hiring practices aspire to ensure all individuals are treated in an inclusive, equitable and culturally safe manner.

Together, we are the heart of health care.

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