Tl’etinqox Community Health Nurse
Community Health Nurse
Classification: full time
Wage: Salary negotiable based on experience
Location: Tl’etinqox (Anaham)
Closing Date: Open until filled
The community of Tl’etinqox is approximately 1-hour drive from Williams Lake and a ten-minute drive from Alexis Creek. Tl’etinqox is nestled in the beautiful Chilcotin Plateau surrounded by lakes and rivers, and the Coast Mountain range is within an hour’s drive. The Chilcotin Plateau is also one of the only places in BC where wild herds of horses can still be viewed in their natural habitat. As part of the Tl’etinqox health team, the successful applicant will contribute to improving the health and quality of life of the community members by providing health promotion, disease prevention and other forms of health intervention. Emphasis for this community nursing position is placed on the delivery of Communicable Disease Control Program, Maternal/Child health, and supporting the Home and Community Care Program.
Qualifications
- Baccalaureate Degree in Nursing
- Valid BCCDC Immunization Certificate
- CRNBC Certified Practice: Reproductive Health- Contraceptive Management and familiar with use of relevant DST’s an asset
- Experience with community/public health nursing
- Current practicing member of CRNBC
- Knowledgeable regarding cultural competency in professional nursing practice
- Knowledgeable regarding First Nations health and social issues
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Computer experience is an asset
- Experience working with children/youth group facilitation an asset
Job Summary
The Community Health Nurse performs the Public Health/Home Care Nurse duties and works in collaboration with the community and health team, contributing to the overall health of the community using a population health and community development framework. The Community Health Nurse promotes traditional and cultural approaches to health practices. The Community Health Nurse demonstrates knowledge and skills in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating community health and home care nursing based on local knowledge and information, population health and current preferred practice as they relate to community health and home care nursing practice. The successful candidate possesses an understanding of the social determinants of health and demonstrates values of community health promotion, commitment to the creation or health partnerships and community development strategies. The Community Health Nurse provides direction and support to Home Care Aides, and oversees the clinical needs of members with functional limitations. Elder Care, home visits, annual care planning, and documentation. The Community Health Nurse is responsible for community health, and will oversee disease prevention activities including immunization, as well as maternal child health. Respectful engagement with community members as equal partners in health service provision includes home and community visitation and group programming.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Public Health Nurse Programs
- Communicable Disease Control (CDC)
- Assures a comprehensive CDC program. including but not limited to a focus on influenza, HIV, Hepatitis A, B & C, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STls), Tuberculosis (TB) and vaccine preventable diseases
- Provides community awareness programming on immunizations and other communicable diseases (prevention, early detection, transmission & control strategies)
- Provides programming on prevention, early detection, and CDC response as outlined by Medical Health Office r (MH O) , FNH A Health Protection Team, and BCCDC Guidelines
- Plans, implements and evaluates immunization programs for infants, children, adults, elders and members of the community deemed to be at higher risk
- Assesses needs/strengths/resources, plans, implements and evaluates TB Programming for the community as per the BCCDC TB Manual (TB Services for Aboriginal Communities)
- Ensures that required training is completed and competency is maintained, including current immunization certification, transportation of dangerous goods (TDG), and CPR certification
- Ensures that the CDC references are kept up-to-date
- Ensures the regular maintenance of CDC equipment and that BCCDC recommended CDC supplies is available
- Ensures that cold chain principles are adhered to
- Ensures that mandatory CDC reporting is completed in a timely fashion
Maternal and Newborn Health
- Assesses needs /strengths and resources, plans, implements and evaluates prenatal, postnatal and newborn programming, including linkage to Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Programming.
- Provides prenatal, postnatal and newborn education and support programing that includes topics such as injury prevention, SIDS, nutrition, lifestyle and health practices, growth and development, prenatal care, newborn care, breastfeeding, physical & emotional care, and when to seek medical attention.
- Provides referrals to other health professionals or programs as required
Infant and Child Health
- Assesses needs/strengths/resources, plans, implements and evaluates child health programming
- Provides assessments and screening aimed at early intervention for identified health and development concerns including vision and hearing screening, speech and language development, and physical growth
- Provides referrals to other health professionals and programming should a delay or health concern be identified
- Provides information and counselling for parents, other care givers or staff on topics including but not limited to injury prevention, growth and development, parenting, anticipatory guidance, nutrition, oral health , and environmental risks such as sun exposure, wood ticks and water safety.
- Works in collaboration with other health and education staff in the promotion of child health programming
- Works towards ensuring community-based family preservation and the integrity of kinship and biologic parenting systems, while ensuring child safety and following mandatory Ministry of Child and family development protocols
Youth Health
- Assesses needs/strengths/resources, plans, implements and evaluates youth health programming in collaboration with community youth, youth workers, teachers, and others delivering this programming: topics include but are not limited to healthy relationships, healthy communication, injury prevention, healthy lifestyle, emotional well-being, puberty, and healthy sexuality
- Provides referrals to other health professionals or program as required.
Adult and Elder Health
- Assesses needs/strengths/resources, plans, implements and evaluates adult and elder programming in collaboration with other health team members including the Home Care Nurse, Community Health Worker, and Elders Coordinator: topics include but are not limited to healthy lifestyle, early detection of illness, emotional wellness, women’s health topics, men’s health topics, injury/falls prevention, and elder abuse and neglect prevention
- Provides referrals to other health professionals or programs as required
Chronic Disease
- Assesses needs/strengths/ resources, plans, implements and evaluates programming around chronic disease. This includes prevention, early detection of illness, and understanding the illness and help to maintain a healthy state with the disease, and when to seek medical attention.
- Topics include but are not limited to cardiovascular health, obesity prevention, cancer, diabetes prevention, oral health, arthritis prevention and management, osteoporosis. healthy sexuality, commercial tobacco use prevention, substance misuse prevention, emotional, well -being and injury prevention.
- Provides referrals to other health professionals or programs as required
Environmental Health and Emergency Preparedness
- Works in collaboration with health staff in planning prevention awareness programs
- Knowledgeable in current surveillance programming with respect to environmental challenges such as mould in home, boil water advisories, rodents, or CDC outbreak that relates to the environment
- Collaborates with the FNHA Pandemic and CD Emergency nurse specialist around the nursing role within the emergency prepared ness plan
- Collaborate with FNHA Health Protection team to ensure respiratory response supplies are maintained and that N95 mask fit testing for all health center staff is offered annually
- Collaborates on the creation and maintenance of data bases for programming so that they may be utilized within an emergency response
Mental Wellness Promotion
- Mental wellness promotion rooted in a well-informed knowledge base of the sociohistorical context of First Nations including colonization, residential school trauma and ongoing health /socio-economic and educational inequities
- Promotes community and individual mental wellness
- Promotes natural social support networks
- Engages in building community networks
- Provides community- based program consultation for mental wellness
- Works towards mental illness prevention through screening and early identification, mental health assessment and monitoring well-being
- Collaborates with mental health resources, both internal and external mental health personnel, on suicide prevention programming
- Collaborates with relevant personnel to ensure family /intimate partner violence prevention programming is available
Injury Prevention
- Be cognizant of the major sources of injury in the community. and predisposing factors
- Offers injury prevention programming
- Collaboratively develops community driven substance misuse prevention and treatment interventions to reduce the incidence of substance related injuries
- Offers injury prevention education as appropriate for all community members
Addictions and Harm Reduction
- Collaboratively assures addictions prevention, intervention and treatment service
- Offers harm reduction supplies and equipment
- Provides opioid overdose prevention and education services (Naloxone/drug alert systems) as appropriate
- Assures outreach to community members deemed to be at high risk to offer prevention and harm reduction services, including H I V/ Hepatitis C screening
Home and Community Care Program
- Participates in the planning, development and evaluation of the Home and Community Care Program
- Coordinates home care services to meet the needs of the clients while encouraging independence, family and community support
- Identifies community members requiring home care supp ort
- Completes a client assessment that includes ongoing re-assessment and determines client need and service allocation
- Develops a client centered care plan
- Implement the care plan to provide in – ho me personal care/home management services in collaboration with the Home Support Workers
- Provides mentoring. direction, guidance, support and supervision for Home Care Assistants
- Provides in -home direct nursing care as required
- Document assessment s, care plans and service delivery on the client Home Care Health Records
- Adheres to infection-control guidelines
- Maintains client confidentiality and ensures that all records are stored securely
- Provides clients and family caregivers with health information as required through demonstrations and informal teaching sessions
- Assess the nee d for capacity building and conduct in-service training sessions tor the Home Care Assistants and other members of the health team as appropriate
- Participates in case management and family conferences as appropriate
- Maintains nursing skills through attendance a t workshops, conferences, in-service and staff meeting, in addition to staying up-to-date on current literature and Best Practice Guidelines
- Ensures that clients admitted to the Home and Community Care Program have access to medic al supplies and equipment
- Maintain s professional support and consultation to ensure the program is delivered in a safe and effective manner
- Establishes internal and external linkages with other professionals and community resources
ADDITIONAL DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS
- Maintain relevant, adequate reports, documents, data bases and client records and other administrative-base duties
Please contact:
Dr. Mitch Verde. PhD
Tl’etinqox Health Services
250-394-4240
