Nurse Practitioner - Primary Care

Nurse Practitioner Position

The Nurse Practitioner (NP) is a licensed independent practitioner with advanced education and national certification who provides evidence-based care for a population of patients. Major duties and responsibilities of the position include:

• Primary focus of practice is the independent clinical evaluation of Veterans through their panel of patients including prevention and patient self-management. Comprehensive primary care will be provided to male and female Veterans.
• Comprehensive primary care includes but is not limited to evaluating patients in an outpatient clinical setting to diagnose and treat acute and or chronic diseases, educating on health promotion and disease prevention and ensuring that health maintenance is up to date. Completes physical examinations, which may be comprehensive, or focused to formulate treatment plans. Treatment plans are evidence based and engages in shared medical decision making of treatment plans.
• Care may be provided in many modalities, from direct face to face care, virtual care (including telephonic, video, secured messaging and others)
• Develops and implements an individualized plan to achieve optimal population health and disease management
• Orders and interprets labs, tests, and diagnostic studies
• Prescribes pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions
• Initiates referrals and consults to specialty services
• Provides education to patients and their families
• Assesses and adjusts the plan of care as needed to achieve optimal patient outcomes
• Functions as a member of a Patient Aligned Care Team, collaborating with clinical and administrative support to provide timely, quality, coordinated care for Veterans
• Participates in continuous medical education as per requirements with topics included but not limited to opioid prescribing and trainings to fulfill and maintain designated women's health primary care provider
• May provide coverage for other providers in clinic or other primary care clinics if needed or assigned
• Participation in clinical education as appropriate

License and DEA requirements: The NP practices to the full extent of their education, training, and certification. However, per the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. 801 et seq., which is enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), NPs prescribing controlled substances will need to meet North Carolina (NC) rules regarding prescribing. The NP will be required to have a collaborative practice agreement with a physician ONLY as it pertains to prescribing controlled substances. Such agreement is embedded in the NP's privileging forms. It is a preferred qualification of the DVAHCS for all NPs to obtain a DEA (even if he/she is not prescribing controlled substances). The DVAHCS cannot mandate that an NP obtain a North Carolina NP approval to practice (aka NP license). However; if an NP requests to maintain an NP license in a Non-FPA state, and that state's regulation requires that all NPs must collaborate with a physician who also holds a license in that same non FPA state, then the NP must abide by that state's practice act/ state's regulation. If there is NOT a physician collaborator at the DVAHCS who holds a matching state license in the Non-FPA state, and if it is a condition of the NP's employment to order/ prescribe controlled substances in primary care, then the NP will need to consider applying for a North Carolina NP approval to practice in order to fulfill his/her commitment to the assigned job duties. NPs maintaining a license in a Full Practice Authority (FPA) State while working at the DVAHCS must be aware of and must abide by that state board's regulation and practice act. It is the NP's responsibility to provide information regarding his/her state's practice act/state's regulation to members of the Durham VA Health Care System when requested. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: VA Nurse Total Rewards

Pay: Competitive salary, regular salary increases, potential for performance awards

Paid Time Off: 50 days of paid time off per year (26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year)

Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA

Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement)

Licensure: 1 full and unrestricted license from any US State or territory

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Compressed/Flexible : Not Authorized

Telework: Ad hoc - as determined by the agency policy. Requires supervisory approval.

Virtual: This is not a virtual position.

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized.

EDRP Authorized: Former EDRP participants ineligible to apply for incentive. Contact, the EDRP Coordinator for questions/assistance. Learn more