Covenant Health

Registered Nurse, Post Anesthesia Care

Full Time, 80 Hours Per Pay Period, Day Shift

10AM-8:30PM, 4 days a week, Monday-Friday.

Some weekend/weeknight/holiday call required.

Fort Sanders Regional Overview:

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is an award-winning, certified, and accredited facility with 468 beds. As a Joint Commission Comprehensive Stroke Center, Fort Sanders offers state-of-the art care that maximizes recovery from stroke.  We are also the region’s leader in technology in areas such as bariatric surgery, robotic surgery and minimally invasive spine surgery. Our door-to-balloon times for heart attack patients are below the national average, and our hip fracture center offers advanced diagnosis, surgery and recovery procedures for hip patients.

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is a member of Covenant Health, a locally-owned, non-profit health system based in Knoxville, TN, with a “patient-focused” culture. It has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as its 2020 “Best-in-State-Employer” for Tennessee. The CEO of our company, Jim VanderSteeg, attends every new employee orientation and will ask you to sign our pledge of excellence to always put patients first, strive for excellence in everything we do, and make Covenant Health the first and best choice for patients in our region. As you’d expect, we offer our employees a robust benefits package, including: offering unmatched medical insurance, tuition reimbursement; student loan repayment assistance, certification bonuses; leadership and professional development programs; an employer-matched 401(k); and a generous Combined Time Off (CTO) program.

Department Description:

The Post Anesthesia Care Unit at Fort Sanders Regional is a 15 bay fast paced, team driven unit that serves a wide variety of postoperative patients.  Our team recovers the majority of our surgical patients from our 17 suite ORs.  In addition, we provide Phase I recovery care to patients requiring general anesthesia from other procedural areas.  Our team consists of RNs, perioperative technicians and unit secretaries.

Nursing responsibilities include some preoperative but mostly postoperative Phase I recovery care.  Nurses are trained in Phase I recovery, working as a team with our anesthesiologists to meet safe criteria for discharge to the next phase of care.  Our department is open from 6 AM-11 PM, Monday-Friday with holiday, after hours and weekend call coverage.  Call coverage for RNs is 4 weeknight calls per 6 weeks.  Weekend call coverage is 1 12 hour day call Saturday or Sunday and 1 12 hour night call Saturday or Sunday per 6 weeks.  Holiday call is on a yearly rotating schedule.

We are looking for team focused RNs who are highly motivated with critical thinking skills, computer proficiency, detail oriented and who put their patients first.

Position Summary:

Provides professional nursing care within an assigned unit; coordinates care planning with other disciplines.

Recruiter: Lacey Spoon || Lspoon2@covhlth.com || 865-374-5404

• Correlates patient history and support systems within hospital care/nursing home care.
• Assesses needs of patient and family.
• Develops and initiates plan of care, involving patient and family.
• Recommends interventions.
• Evaluates plan of care.
• Clinical expertise and knowledge is such that individual can resolve complex patient/management/physician problems without supervision.
• Demonstrates competence in performing critical skills to include appropriate delivery of care according to the age-specific needs of the population served.
• Leads process improvement initiatives in their own unit or participate in facility team.
• Precepts new employees/students or attends formal preceptor workshop and is willing to precept. Reviews clinical performance of preceptee with unit leader or clinical instructor.
• Provides four contact hours of educational activities, excluding basic patient education.
• Contributes to development and evaluation of unit orientation program.
• Supervises LPNs, Nursing Assistants, HUCs, Techs, and sitters.
• Follows policies, procedures, and safety standards. Completes required education assignments annually. Works toward achieving goals and objectives, and participates in quality improvement initiatives as requested.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Education: 

None specified; however, must be sufficient to meet the standards for achievement of the below indicated license and/or certification as required by the issuing authority.

Minimum Experience:

Minimum of three (3) years professional experience.

Licensure Requirement:

Must have and maintain Tennessee State RN licensure. CPR required. ACLS/PALS preferred.