Atrium Health Seeking Chief Advanced Practice Provider (APP) – Pediatric Critical Care – Levine Children's Hospital at Atrium Health

If it’s possible, you will find it at Atrium Health—the leading community-focused academic healthcare system serving North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. We invite providers to discover all that we can do when we bring healing hearts, inquisitive minds, and progressive visionaries together.

The Division of Pediatric Critical Care at Levine Children’s Hospital is actively seeking a Chief Advanced Practice Practitioner to join their team of providers in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and work in conjunction with APP and PICU medical leadership to lead the PICU APP team.  The current PICU is 10 beds but will be expanding to a 24 bed PICU in September of 2024.  Levine Children's Hospital is a 234-bed pediatric hospital located on the campus of Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. For 15 years in a row, Atrium Health’s Levine Children’s Hospital has been named a Best Children’s Hospital by U.S. News & World Report with 8 specialties ranked among the best in the United States:

Job Summary

The PICU NP or PA responsibilities include providing comprehensive care to all patients in the PICU in collaboration with the attending physicians and resident team; rounding daily and providing minute by minute acute management of pediatric critically ill patients with a goal of 24/7 APP coverage. The PICU APP will also attend PERTs, Pediatric Code Blues and provide PICU consult for patients in the ED and general floor when appropriate.  Weekends, nights and holiday rotation required. Schedule is very conducive to providing work-life balance.

The APP functions independently in the inpatient critical care clinical settings. Patients are typically intubated on ventilators and/or have hemodynamic instability. The focus is on pediatric critical illness management and invasive procedures. The APP manages invasive and non-invasive ventilation, ECMO, vasopressors and manages complex clinical cases.

Essential Clinical Functions

• Performs initial and periodic medical history, physical examinations, and daily assessments.
• Records findings of examinations, assessments and plan of care.
• Writes appropriate prescriptions and administers medications.
• Orders and interprets laboratory and radiology examinations.
• Determines treatment plan for patient.
• Documents all patient encounters, records observations, interventions, and actions in a medically appropriate manner on the patient's medical record.
• Demonstrates appropriate critical thinking, interpersonal skills and the ability to prioritize and concentrate.
• Acts as a patient advocate for the population served.
• Attends, participates and contributes to group/practice meetings and development of policies and procedures when requested

Essential Chief APP Functions

Responsible for greater than or equal to eight direct reports

Staff/Direct Reports

• Supports recruitment and onboarding of new staff members, facilitates orientation of new team members
• Responsible for communicating quality, patient experience and financial metrics to 

               team

• Completes end of year evaluations with direct reports in collaboration with physician 

               and administrative leaders

• Ensures team’s regulatory documents are up to date (i.e. collaborative practice 

agreements, QI documents/evaluations)

• Accountable for clinic or department APP scheduling and coordinates 

PTO/FMLA to limit excess/call shift needs and balance for the team

Professional & Personal Growth of Direct Reports

• Assesses educational needs of the team and plans/conducts ongoing education and training
• Ensures competency in clinical practice through simulation training/ongoing clinical 

evaluation

• Encourage professional and personal growth of direct reports through intentional rounding

System Participation

• Contributes to and represents APPs in the assigned areas of responsibility on facility or 

system- wide committees

• Serve as the liaison for all APP student clinical placement requests within department

System Integration

• Assists in the review and development of clinical and operational policies and procedures in 

the specialty of practice

• Serves as a liaison to collaborating physicians, patients, nurses, staff and others as 

necessary

• Creates yearly APP goals with team in alignment with departmental goals and system 

strategy

• Communicates clinical practice or policy changes/updates per administration
• 75% attendance of monthly chief meetings at the Center for Advanced Practice and monthly pediatric APP Chief meetings
• Responsible for recognition of APPs on their teams
• Partners with Human Resources to plan appropriate disciplinary action in the event of 

complaints or violation of policy

Physical Requirements
Work requires walking, standing, sitting, lifting, reaching, bending, stooping, pushing and pulling. Must be able to lift and support the weight of 35 pounds in handling patients, medical equipment, and supplies. Must speak English fluently and in understandable terms. Must possess intact sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and finger dexterity. Must be able to react and perform in stressful situations.

Education, Experience and Certifications.
Must have or be eligible for a DEA license. Approved to practice as a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant in the state one works. Eligible for prescriptive authority application through the Board of Nursing or Medical Board in NC required. BLS for Healthcare Provider and PALS required with expiration date greater than 90 days from date of beginning practice. Demonstrates appropriate critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and the ability to prioritize and concentrate.

Nurse Practitioner
Master’s Degree or Doctor of Nursing Practice required. Acute care board certification required. License to practice as a Registered Nurse required. Certification in practice from a nationally recognized certifying body required. ACNP, AGACNP or PNP-AC board certification required per population served.

Physician Assistant
Graduate from an accredited Physician Assistant program required; Master’s Degree preferred. Certification from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants preferred. Experience in pediatric critical care preferred.

When you join Atrium Health, you will be welcomed into an inclusive culture that celebrates and respects the contributions a diverse team can make together. Practice where your voice is valued, your passion for advancing medicine is rewarded, and you get the resources and support you need to thrive personally and professionally. In our nationally-renowned integrated health system, you can work alongside the most advanced minds in medicine to improve medicine, elevate hope and advance healing—for all.

For more information: email Erin Dugan, CPNP-AC at erin.dugan@atriumhealth.org