The Family Connects Home Visit Nurse conducts home visits with families with newborns in Bastrop County. This nursing role, at LSCC Bastrop, will participate in a community-based program called Family Connects that supports new parents in caring for their newborn(s), offers physical assessments of the mother and the baby, addresses questions about caring for the newborn(s), identifies parents' needs, and helps to identify community services or resources to meet those needs. The Home Visit nurse will work with team to schedule families for an initial Family Connects home visit in which the nurse will conduct an Integrated Home Visit between two to twelve weeks of birth ideally targeting the third week postpartum.

The Family Connects program centers on theory-driven and evidence-based assessment of child and family strengths and needs, provided in an informal and family-friendly manner.  As a community-based program, Family Connects supports new parents in caring for their newborn(s), offers physical assessments of the mother and the baby, addresses questions about caring for the newborn(s), identifies parents’ needs, and helps to identify community services or resources that can meet those needs.  In addition, through this connection to resources, Family Connects helps to identify gaps in critical community-wide resources with the goal of working toward increasing needed services locally.

• Follows Family Connects home-visiting and scheduling protocol and provides physical assessments of mother and baby, assess family needs in 12 domains of physical and psychosocial well-being, including depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence.
• Performs patient assessments/reassessments including triaging, exercise clinical skills in appraising situations and making decisions.
• Establish trusting relationship with families during in-home visits and engage family to establish a family support plan.
• Work with team to ensure appropriate referrals and connections to community resources as needed.
• Performs clinical and non-clinical skills proficiently and in accordance with policies and procedures
• Coordinates and participates in providing direct and indirect patient care
• Maintains patient care standards
• Interventions are implemented and documented in a safe and appropriate manner
• Performs care to meet the physical, psychological, psychosocial, emotional and social needs of the patients/families within the patient's home.
• Care is based on the patient’s age, developmental stage, educational needs and family/guardian expectations
• Apply working knowledge of parent-child interaction, child-maternal health, child development, and child abuse/neglect to help families improve parenting skills, increase parenting supports, reduce stress, and address needs of patient
• Collaborates with the Interdisciplinary Team in the planning of patient care
• Contacts the appropriate health care provider of patient/family concerns
• Manages the referral process ensuring timely and efficient referrals to specialty services and communicates barriers to the appropriate Provider
• In collaboration with other members of the health team provides health care teaching to patient/family or significant other (in compliance with HIPAA Standards)
• Provides for patient safety at all times
• Interprets reports, data and medical information to determine the needs of the patient/family
• Interprets an extensive variety of technical instructions and manages several abstract and concrete variables
• Participates with leadership in data collection and quality improvement initiatives 
• Performs clinic specific technical skills
• Organizes work and utilizes time efficiently based on knowledge of nursing theories and procedures
• Assumes responsibility for his/her own professional development and for sharing knowledge with others
• Invests own time and effort to improve knowledge, skills and judgment
• Other duties as assigned

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, AND LICENSE:

• Graduate of accredited nursing school
• Current valid Texas nursing license (RN) required
• Minimum of one (1) year of experience in maternal/child health, public health, home visits, lactation education
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification issued by the American Heart Association (AHA)

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, AND LICENSE:

• Certified Lactation Educator or Consultant
• Previous experience in outpatient/clinic nursing
• Previous work using Electronic Medical Records
• Bilingual English/Spanish language skills are a definite plus