Interviewing for a new Acute Pain position

[djmatte, ADN, MSN, RN, NP]

Hi all. I am going through my second interview for a position at the local VA for a newly formed Acute Pain Nurse position. I have over 5 years experience in periop services and a short stint in a different acute pain service. This previous APS experience was basically as an RN who rounded on epidural/infusion pump patients who recently had surgery to determine effectiveness of pain control...but was only used for those patients who had those pumps.

The new position from what I gathered from the first interview was more hospital wide and would be a team consisting of a pharmacist, anesthesiologist, and an RN. It would involve more of a consult basis for a broader range of patients from all areas of the hospital who require additional eyes for pain management.

What I am wondering is if anyone has experience in these areas? Since this is a new position, I imagine I will be heavily involved in setting the tone and direction of the job. Any thoughts of how where I can focus or throw input would be most appreciated.

[RN_CAA]

I used to work as a pain champion on a medsurg unit and was part of the pain committee at the hospital. I'm not sure if your hospital already has a fully committee dedicated to pain but that would be very helpful.

The committee had a nurse from every unit designated to keep track of pain management on the unit by educating their fellow nurses regarding pain and different interventions beside the usual pain medications.

The committee met each month and discussed outcomes and feedback from nurses. after our meetings, we'd all visit a unit that wasn't our own and interview patients regarding how their pain was controlled.

We had a lot of work to do but our scores as a whole improved :)