Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist - Locums

CRNA - Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist - Locums

Chicago is truly one of the world's great cities. The spectacular lakefront skyline is the backdrop to a lively mix of fine food, fun times, vibrant arts, rich history and a warm Midwest welcome. A world-class commercial, industrial and cultural city, Chicago functions as a major national center and as the major regional center for America's heartland. Over 30 Fortune 500 companies in an assortment of industries have headquarters here. Factories and warehouses extend for miles from the downtown area. Chicago is also a major center for small manufacturing and business. There is probably no more diverse an economy in the country.

Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, located 12 miles west of downtown Chicago on a 147-acre campus, offers primary, extended and specialty care and serves as a tertiary care referral center for VISN 12. Specialized clinical programs include Blind Rehabilitation, Spinal Cord Injury, Neurosurgery, Radiation Therapy and Cardiovascular Surgery. The hospital also serves as the VISN 12 southern tier hub for pathology, radiology, radiation therapy, human resource management and fiscal services. Hines VAH currently operates 483 beds and six community based outpatient clinics in Hoffman Estates, Kankakee, Oak Lawn, Aurora, LaSalle, and Joliet. More than 850,000 patient visits occurred in fiscal year 2017 providing care to more than 57,000 veterans, primarily from Cook, DuPage and Will counties.

Schedule

Schedule hours of work are Monday-Friday, alternating weekly shifts: one week of 8-hour shifts from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., 5 days a week; and the other week of 10 hours shifts from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., 4 days/week; excluding Federal Holidays. Evening On-Call coverage 3:30 p.m. 7:00 a.m. Weekend On-Call coverage 7:00 a.m. on Saturday through 7:00 a.m. on Monday. 24 hours Holiday On-call coverage is also required.

Requirements (Duties Include But Are Not Limited To)

Pre-Anesthetic Evaluation

• Obtain an appropriate health history
• Conduct an appropriate physical exam
• Request pertinent diagnostic studies
• Select, obtain, order, and administer pre-anesthetics medications
• Obtain informed consent for anesthesia, anesthesia induction, maintenance, and emergence.
• Document the informed consent, along with the pre-anesthetic evaluation, in the electronic record system.
• CRNA will be under the professional direction of an Attending Anesthesiologist, but must be capable of working independently.

Preoperative and Intra-Operative Care

• Obtain, prepare, and use all equipment, monitors, supplies, and drugs used for the administration of anesthesia, performing and ordering safety checks as needed.
• Select, obtain, or administer the anesthetics (General, Regional, MAC), adjuvant drugs, accessory drugs, fluids and blood products necessary to manage the anesthetics.
• Perform all aspects of airway management.
• Perform BLS/ACLS management
• Insert peripheral and central venous catheters
• Insert arterial catheters and perform arterial punctures to obtain arterial blood samples.
• Insert pulmonary artery catheters
• Perform and manage regional anesthetics techniques including, but not limited to subarachnoid; epidural; major and peripheral nerve blocks; intravenous regional anesthesia; transtracheal; topical and local infiltration blocks; bilateral superior laryngeal nerve blocks.
• Provide appropriate invasive and non-invasive monitoring modalities utilizing current standards and techniques.
• Recognize abnormal patient response during anesthesia, select and implement corrective action and request consultation, as needed from the assigned attending anesthesiologist in charge of professional direction.
• Evaluate patient response during emergence from anesthesia and institute pharmacological or supportive treatment to insure patient stability during transfer.

Postoperative Care

• Provide post anesthesia follow up evaluation of the patient's response to anesthesia and surgical experience and notify the attending anesthesiologist as needed.
• Deliver a full report to the recovery room or ICU nurse.
• Select and prescribe medication and writing postoperative orders related to the care of the patient as necessary, in consultation as needed with the attending anesthesiologist.
• Initiate and administer respiratory support to ensure adequate ventilation and oxygenation in the post-anesthesia period.
• Initiate and administer pharmacological or fluid support of the cardiovascular system during the post-anesthetics period to prevent morbidity and mortality, in collaboration with the attending anesthesiologist.

Additional Responsibilities

Accept additional responsibilities which are within the expertise of the individual CRNA and are appropriate and relevant to the practice setting, as determined by the Director of the Operating Room, Chief of Anesthesia. These duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Covering all the Intensive Care Units/wards for emergency intubations; emergency and scheduled cardioversions; anesthesia for ECT treatments; epidural pain management; preoperative visits and or postoperative visits on the wards as required to support the proper level of functioning for the OR schedule, and for the needs of the Anesthesia Service.
• Furthermore, the CRNA schedule will be determined by the needs of the Anesthesia Service.
• CRNAs will also actively participate in the QA process as mandated by the VA, Joint Commission, or any other regulatory agency.

Qualifications

• Must hold a Master's of Science in Nursing (MSN) from an accredited school.
• Must have current certification as a CRNA by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA).
• Must have at least one (1) years of experience within the last three (3) years in an operating room handling complex surgical care/patients.
• Must have some experience working with GI cases.
• Must have and maintain a valid, unrestricted and unencumbered license in one of the 50 states in the U.S. or the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Must have and maintain Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certifications as approved by the American Heart Association (AHA).