Occupational Therapist , Adult - Rehabilitation Services

Discover Vanderbilt University Medical Center:

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. It is a place where your diversity — of culture, thinking, learning and leading — is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday.  Vanderbilt's  mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.

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Overview of VUMC Rehab

Rehabilitation Services at Vanderbilt are provided in multiple inpatient and outpatient settings including the Vanderbilt University Medical Center,  Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital ,  Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Institute ,  Vanderbilt Dayani Center ,  Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center ,  Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation  and  Vanderbilt-Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital .  Professionals represented in our rehabilitation programs include Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Physical Therapists, Physical Therapy Assistants, Certified Athletic Trainers, Speech-Language Pathologists, Audiologists, and Neuropsychologists. These professionals participate as essential members of various multidisciplinary teams providing care based on best practices and with a focus on the patient and family.

Our programs in rehabilitation extend to our community for continuous learning and support of future professionals. With over 70 contracts to professional schools across the United States, we provide training for over 50 occupational and physical therapy students and 60 audiologist and speech-language pathologists annually. We host many continuing education workshops annually. A majority of these are open to a variety of medical professionals as we strive to share our knowledge and remain current in the latest therapy techniques, theories, and regulations that govern our practice.

Our Rehabilitation programs are actively involved in continuous quality improvement through Focus Teams charged with the improvement of a service area through ensuring evidenced based practice, continued competencies for staff, and consistency of practice and documentation.  To learn more about any of our service areas, extensive programs for students, or employment and educational opportunities, explore our Rehabilitation Services at VUMC REHAB

JOB SUMMARY:
Provides occupational therapy services to patients who have impairments, developmental disabilities, functional limitations, disabilities, or changes in physical function and health status resulting from injury, disease or other causes under occasional guidance. Actively collaborates with the health care/educational team to meet patient care, outcomes and system improvement objectives. For more information regarding the physical requirements and environmental conditions for this job, please click  here .

• Analyzes comprehensive information from formal and informal assessment that is pertinent to the patient's care and management to determine a rehabilitation treatment diagnosis.
• Collaborates with stakeholders in establishing the plan of care, coordinates and implements care delivery while anticipating patient care needs across the rehabilitation continuum.
• Applies appropriate, evidence-based interventions to ensure effective outcomes and re-evaluates performance to assess patient's progress towards goals.
• Employs strategies to promote successful return to home, community, and school/vocational environments.
• The responsibilities listed are a general overview of the position and additional duties may be assigned.

TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES:

REHABILITATION THERAPIST PATIENT EVALUATION (NOVICE): - Demonstrates proficiency in evaluating patients with physical deficits including impairments, developmental disabilities, functional limitations, disabilities, or changes in physical function by obtaining information pertinent to the assessment and administering and scoring standardized tests and objective measures of deficit areas. Selects appropriate measures and performs a functional assessment to document patient's status requiring skilled therapy. Interprets the results of the assessment and their significance to the patient, family, referring physician and other members of the health care team. 

TREATMENT PLANNING & GOAL SETTING (NOVICE): - Demonstrates sufficient proficiency in developing a plan of care that incorporates treatment interventions focused on meeting objective goals. Develops and documents patient focused short and long term goals that are functional and measurable. Identifies the need for and referral to other services, as needed. 

TREATMENT IMPLEMENTATION (FUNDAMENTAL AWARENESS): - Demonstrates proficiency in providing treatment consistent with physician prescription and established plan of care. Able to modify treatment plan as needed to demonstrate provision of skilled therapy services including progression of treatment throughout course of care, and revision of treatment interventions of goals not met. May supervise and direct certified athletic trainers (PT only), physical therapist / occupational therapist assistants, technicians and volunteers and students. Selects and follows correct protocol for care and utilize evidence based treatments. 

REHAB THERAPIST PATIENT DOCUMENTATION (NOVICE): - Demonstrates proficiency in documentation practices. Documents in the appropriate templates and utilizes only approved abbreviations within patient documentation. Meets institutional standards for quality and timeliness of documentation. 

PHYSICAL/OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST PATIENT EDUCATION (NOVICE): - Demonstrates proficiency in communicating functional impact of assessment findings, treatment interventions, treatment planning diagnosis, and disease process. Considers the communication needs/level of understanding of audience and may share appropriate information/literature. May supervise, educate and train students from professional programs of physical therapy, occupational therapy and athletic training.

CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES:

• Organizational Impact: Executes job responsibilities with the understanding of how output would affect and impact other areas related to own job area/team with occasional guidance.
• Problem Solving/ Complexity of work: Analyzes moderately complex problems using technical experience and judgment.
• Breadth of Knowledge: Has expanded knowledge gained through experience within a professional area.
• Team Interaction: Provides informal guidance and support to team members.

• - Develops Self and Others: Invests time, energy and enthusiasm in developing self/others to help improve performance and gain knowledge in new areas.
• - Builds and Maintains Relationships: Maintains regular contact with key colleagues and stakeholders using formal and informal opportunities to expand and strengthen relationships.
• - Communicates Effectively: Recognizes group interactions and modifies one's own communication style to suit different situations and audiences.

• - Serves Others with Compassion: Seeks to understand current and future needs of relevant stakeholders and customizes services to better address them.
• - Solves Complex Problems: Approaches problems from different angles; Identifies new possibilities to interpret opportunities and develop concrete solutions.
• - Offers Meaningful Advice and Support: Provides ongoing support and coaching in a constructive manner to increase employees' effectiveness.

• - Performs Excellent Work: Engages regularly in formal and informal dialogue about quality; directly addresses quality issues promptly.
• - Ensures Continuous Improvement: Applies various learning experiences by looking beyond symptoms to uncover underlying causes of problems and identifies ways to resolve them.
• - Fulfills Safety and Regulatory Requirements: Understands all aspects of providing a safe environment and performs routine safety checks to prevent safety hazards from occurring.

• - Demonstrates Accountability: Demonstrates a sense of ownership, focusing on and driving critical issues to closure.
• - Stewards Organizational Resources: Applies understanding of the departmental work to effectively manage resources for a department/area.
• - Makes Data Driven Decisions: Demonstrates strong understanding of the information or data to identify and elevate opportunities.

• - Generates New Ideas: Proactively identifies new ideas/opportunities from multiple sources or methods to improve processes beyond conventional approaches.
• - Applies Technology: Demonstrates an enthusiasm for learning new technologies, tools, and procedures to address short-term challenges.
• - Adapts to Change: Views difficult situations and/or problems as opportunities for improvement; actively embraces change instead of emphasizing negative elements