Palliative Care Bereave Spec.

Interested in a career with both meaning and growth? Whether your abilities are in direct patient care or one of the many other areas of healthcare administration and support, everyone at Parkland works together to fulfill our mission: the health and well-being of individuals and communities entrusted to our care. By joining Parkland, you become part of a diverse healthcare legacy that's served our community for more than 125 years. Put your skills to work with us, seek opportunities to learn and join a talented team where patient care is more than a job. It's our passion.

PRIMARY PURPOSE: Facilitate, plan, and organize all bereavement services for Palliative Care. Focus on identifying the bereaved persons resources and capacity that will enhance resilience over time with attention on the palliative care clients primary life-threatening illness and extending to other caregivers/family members where resources allow. Provide accurate and timely information and resources.

MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS

Education:

- Bachelor's degree required.

Experience:

- Must have four (4) years of total experience to include:

- (1) year experience working with a culturally diverse audience.

- (2) years' experience with grief management, grief counseling, and bereavement counseling.

- (1) year experience in a healthcare setting.

Certification/Registration/Licensure:

- LMSW, LCSW, LPC, LMFT, or board certification as a professional chaplain, child life specialist, grief counseling, or thanatology, required.

Skills or Special Abilities:

- Ability to perform structure screening and assessment with interventions.

- Knowledge of bereavement support strategies (pre- and post-death)

- Able to deliver bereavement support.
- Ability to recruit, orient and train volunteers to support the phases of the grief process.
- Studies, training, or certificate in Thanatology or Grief Management.

- Addresses social determinants, applying the appropriate interventions.

- Utilize creativity and innovation to attain desired outcomes.

- Use a holistic approach and persist when solving problems.

- Work in a highly organized manner, capturing and attending to details and the bigger picture.

- Act with a sense of urgency.

- Work effectively in an ambiguous environment.

- Demonstrate a working knowledge of PC operations and the ability to use word processing and spreadsheet software in a Windows environment.

- Excellent professional customer service skills and ability to interact with individuals at all organizational levels.

- Organizational skills to successfully manage multiple priorities in a complex work environment.

- Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to mediate conflict

- Ability to enhance and expand programming and events.

- Excellent interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills to effectively convey instructions to staff and volunteers and to delegate responsibilities and assign tasks.

- Ability to work as part of a team in a service-oriented environment.

- Effective time management and attention to detail required.

- Experience working with electronic medical records system preferred.

- Other duties as assigned.

Responsibilities:

1. Connect with patients, families, and communities through the illness trajectory, between home, hospital, and hospice including facilitating team and family communications and attending family conferences when identified as supportive and beneficial. Work with hospital case management and Interdisciplinary team (IDT) on the transition of care.

2. Develop, monitor, and evaluate grief care plans including arranging for anticipatory grief counseling and applying universal bereavement support strategies at various points along the grief trajectory. Maintain appropriate chart documentation.

3. Coordinate services for volunteers including orientation and education.

4. Advocate for change to resolve systemic barriers or gaps in palliative care.

5. Communication: Participate with IDT in developing communication strategies.

6. Interact with outside agencies and families to identify circumstances around death. Manage bereavement phone calls for family/caregiver support and conduct death interviews. Support staff in processing deaths.

7. Work closely with IDT to coordinate the Patient Accompaniment Initiative (PAI)

8. Evaluate and update department literature on grief management and services and maintain and provide oversight for program educational material.

9. Stay abreast of the latest developments, advancements, and trends in the field of bereavement by attending conferences, seminars, workshops, reading professional journals and articles, actively participating in professional organizations, networking with other professionals, and integrating knowledge gained into current work practices.

10. Provide exceptional customer experience and make human connections including being mindful of customers, creating an atmosphere of respect and courtesy, listening and responding to their concerns, and providing clear explanations of plans, progress, etc. all reinforced through standardized approaches.

11. Manages and directs all grief support programs and bereavement activities.

12. Ensures that all program policies and procedures are adhered to.

13. Leads the grief support programs in improvement initiatives.

14. Procure program supplies, monitor inventories, and track program expenses.

15. Develops and tracks statistical information regarding the utilization of services, and program outcomes.

Parkland Health and Hospital System prohibits discrimination based on age (40 or over), race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, disability, national origin, marital status, political belief, or veteran status.As part of our commitment to our patients and employees' wellness, Parkland Health is a tobacco and smoke-free campus.