Infection Preventionist Jobs

Summary

National Jewish Health is seeking an Infection Preventionist to join our Clinical Quality team. The selected candidate for the position will:

• Manages activities related to infection control and infection surveillance throughout National Jewish Health
• Monitor and provide timely feedback of surveillance data related to the prevention of infections at National Jewish Health
• Continuously evaluate and update policies, procedures, and practices relating to infection control within the institution
• Make decisions regarding appropriateness of care review, assist with analyzing and generating quality improvement reports
• Ensure compliance with state and federal regulations on infection control
• Ensure compliance of National Jewish Health with the Joint Commission standards on infection control
• Work independently as well as collaboratively with other internal and external team members to ensure timelines are met
• Provide training throughout National Jewish Health and ensure that new employees receive orientation in infection control

As the leading respiratory hospital in the nation, National Jewish Health is pioneering a new era of preventive and personalized medicine. By combining our efforts in comprehensive care, academic education and ground-breaking research, we're able to develop treatments that help our patients live more productive lives. We breathe science so our patients can breathe life. If you believe in working for an organization where Breathing Science is Life, we invite you to join our team!

Position Summary

Plans, coordinates, and implements all activities of Infection Prevention for clinics, Advanced Diagnostic Laboratories, and research areas. Collaborates with all departments, managers, supervisors and/or employees to execute a well-defined Infection Prevention Program. Assists Employee Health, as requested, with areas of mutual concerns such as immunizations and exposure management.

Essential Duties

• Participates as a member of relevant hospital or department committees. As a member, brings new or potentially more effective safety devices or practices for evaluation to decrease risk of blood-borne pathogen exposures. May provides cost data on new products to the committee.
• Maintains policies and procedures relative to the infection prevention and control program to be in compliance with current practices and reviewed at least every three years; reviewing and making recommendations on new or revised practices and/or procedures based on current, evidence-based infection prevention and control strategies. Annually reviews infection prevention program plan with measurable objectives including risk assessment and analysis of the current program.
• Facilitates the educational development of employees, work team, and self, and acts as a consultant to nursing staff and members of multidisciplinary team to provide formal and informal education that help prevent spread of healthcare associated infections.
• Verifies effectiveness of the program using selected internal audits or external comparative databases. Uses appropriate statistical techniques to describe the data, calculate rates, and critically evaluate significance of findings.
• Initiates epidemiological investigations of significant clusters of patient infection, outbreaks or serious communicable disease concern, reporting epidemiologically significant findings to appropriate customers as defined within the Infection Control Plan. Works with the medical epidemiologist in the planning and analysis of the current infection prevention program.
• Analyzes surveillance data, using standardized definitions for the identification and classification of events, indicators, or outcomes, including calculation of risk-adjusted rates appropriate to the indicator(s) when sufficient data are available.
• Responsible for managing all regulatory reporting activities at the facility and offsite locations including the Department of Health, CMS, Joint Commission and ensures operational policies and practices are designed to incorporate standards in the daily work as related to infection prevention.
• Management of infection prevention program, developing and implementing site specific Infection Prevention and Control Plan which considers populations served, services provided, previous data, and results of previous IC Plan evaluations and yearly risk assessment.
• Collaborates with Employee Health in areas of infection prevention such as employee immunization recommendations, blood-borne pathogen and other medical exposures (i.e., tuberculosis) exposure control plan and other areas as appropriate. Including investigation and follow-up plans.

Other Duties

• Provides coverage and back up to Employee Health.

Competencies

• Champion of Change: Facilitating the implementation and acceptance of change within the workplace. Cooperates with others to accomplish common goals; works with employees within and across his/her department to achieve shared goals; treats others with dignity and respect and maintains a friendly demeanor; values the contributions of others.
• Problem Solving: Uses issue identification, data relation and comparison, pattern recognition and information gathering to create analyses and make recommendations.
• Collaboration/Teamwork: Cooperates with others to accomplish common goals; works with employees within and across his/her department to achieve shared goals; treats others with dignity and respect and maintains a friendly demeanor; values the contributions of others.
• Building Strategic Relationships: Identifying opportunities and taking action to build strategic relationships between one’s area and other areas, teams, departments, units, or organizations to help achieve business goals.
• Professional Development or Continuous Learning and Development: Actively identifying new areas for learning; regularly creating and taking advantage of learning opportunities; using newly gained knowledge and skill to enhance their contribution to the organization.
• Creativity and Innovation: Applies creative problem-solving skills to develop solutions to problems; recognizes and demonstrates the value in taking “smart” risks and learning from mistakes; develops multiple alternatives and understands the feasibility of each; effectively shares and implements his/her ideas. Generates innovative solutions in work situations; tries different and novel ways to deal with work problems and opportunities.
• Initiative: Taking prompt action to accomplish objectives; taking action to achieve goals beyond what is required; being proactive.
• Accountability: Accepts full responsibility for self and contribution as a team member; displays honesty and truthfulness; confronts problems quickly; displays a strong commitment to organizational success and inspires others to commit to goals; demonstrates a commitment to National Jewish Health.
• Impact and Influence: Using appropriate interpersonal styles and techniques to gain acceptance of ideas or plans; modifying one’s own behavior to accommodate tasks, situations, and individuals involved. Taking advantage of opportunities to make a difference and have an impact. When used well, the intended outcome of this competency is the creation of goodwill, trust, and respect while motivating people to want to follow you even when they don’t have to.

Supervisory or Managerial Responsibility

None

Travel

None

Core Values

• Adheres to safe working practices and at all times follows all institutional and departmental safety policies and procedures.
• Be available to work as scheduled and report to work on time.
• Be willing to accept supervision and work well with others.
• Fosters an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the institution.
• Be in compliance with all departmental and institutional policies, the Employee Handbook, Code of Conduct and completes NetLearning by due date annually.
• Be well groomed, appropriately for your role and wear ID Badge visibly.
• Wears appropriate PPE as outlined by the infection control policies and procedures.
• Demonstrates compliance with all state, federal and all other regulatory agency requirements.

Minimum Qualifications

• Work Experience: A minimum of three (3) years of recent and relevant infection prevention experience preferred.
• Special Training, Certification or Licensure: Current Colorado RN license preferred. Certification in Infection Prevention and Control (CIC®) required or, if a new infection preventionist, should be prepared to take the examination required within two years of employment.
• Education: Bachelor’s Degree required, preferably in nursing and/or epidemiology.

Salary Range: $75,000 - $95,000

Benefits

At National Jewish Health, we recognize that our outstanding faculty and staff are the essence of our organization. For every aspect of health care, our employees are our greatest asset.

With that in mind, we have designed a valuable, comprehensive benefits package to meet the needs of our employees and their families.

• Legal Plan
• Wellness Program
• Retirement Plan
• FSA and HSA
• Sick and Vacation Paid Time Off
• Medical Plans, Dental Plans and Vision Insurance
• Voluntary Benefits, like Accident Insurance, Critical Care and Hospital Indemnity
• Life Insurance and AD&D
• Short and Long Term Disability