Instructor - Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant
Instructor - Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant
Division: Anesthesiology
Work Arrangement:
Location: Houston, TX
Salary Range:
FLSA Status: Exempt
Work Schedule:
Summary
The Department of Anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine is recruiting a faculty Advanced Practice Provider (Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant) to join the Pediatric Chronic Pain Clinic at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. This provider will primarily practice at the West Campus location but may travel to another location over time.
The successful candidate will primarily manage a dedicated follow-up clinic, ensuring excellent continuity of care, evaluating treatment efficacy, and optimizing multimodal rehabilitation pathways for pediatric patients experiencing chronic pain. This role is crucial in supporting supervising physicians as we expand this dynamic, multidisciplinary, interventional pediatric pain practice.
This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the clinical and academic excellence at Texas Children's Hospital. U.S. News & World Report has consistently ranked Texas Children's Hospital on the prestigious Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll and No. 1 in Texas.
No experience is required; new graduates are strongly encouraged to apply! We offer a dedicated, structured onboarding and orientation program tailored for new graduates and providers transitioning into a full-time pediatric pain management practice.
BCM Offers
- Compensation: A highly competitive, market-driven pay scale.
- Academic Appointment: Faculty appointment within the Department of Anesthesiology.
- Schedule & Work/Life Balance: Five 8-hour shifts per week (Monday - Friday, 40 hours total). Generous paid vacation time, 11 paid holidays, and CME dollar allowances.
- Flexible Scheduling & Travel: Opportunities across multiple clinical sites; requires travel to designated satellite clinic locations within the greater Houston area only.
- Premier Benefits Package: Excellent health and dental insurance; outstanding Retirement Savings Programs (including an 8% institutional contribution to a 401a), and more. To learn more, visit bcm.edu/careers/benefits.
Job Duties
- Clinical Assessment & Patient Care
- Pediatric Pain Evaluations: Obtain detailed, pain-focused histories and perform targeted physical and neurological examinations, tracking functional milestones, mobility, and developmental impacts of chronic pain.
- Independent Follow-Up Clinic Management: Serve as the primary provider for established pediatric chronic pain follow-up clinics. Evaluate patient progress, assess the response to recent interventional procedures (e.g., injections, cryoneurolysis, non-invasive neuromodulation, and invasive neuromodulation), and adjust care plans accordingly.
- Multimodal Treatment Management: Formulate, prescribe, and manage appropriate pharmacological regimens (including non-opioid adjuvants) and non-pharmacological treatments.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration & Advocacy
- Diagnostic Coordination: Order and interpret relevant diagnostic tests and imaging studies (e.g., MRI, X-ray) in close consultation with the supervising physician.
- Multidisciplinary Team Triage: Actively collaborate with the broader interdisciplinary team-including pain-focused physical therapists and pediatric psychologists-to ensure a unified approach to care and identify appropriate candidates for specialized rehabilitation pathways.
- Academic Advocacy & School Liaison: Serve as the central clinical liaison between the practice, the family, and school systems. Formulate clinical recommendations and write formal medical justification letters for Section 504 Plans or Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) to facilitate safe, structured academic re-integration.
Practice Support & Insurance Navigation
- Prior Authorizations & Medical Necessity: Lead the clinical review process for prior authorizations, ensuring that complex interventional procedures, advanced diagnostic imaging, and specialized pharmaceuticals meet insurance medical necessity criteria.
- Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Reviews: Conduct formal peer-to-peer clinical reviews and discussions with insurance medical directors to defend the evidence-based necessity of proposed pediatric pain interventions and overturn or prevent insurance denials.
- Care Continuity: Act as a central clinical liaison between families, supervising pain physicians, and referring subspecialists (e.g., pediatric neurology, orthopedics, rheumatology).
- Documentation & Compliance: Maintain accurate, timely, and comprehensive progress notes and orders within the electronic health record (EHR) in accordance with institutional, state, and billing protocols. Optimize documentation to explicitly support insurance authorization criteria.
Minimum Qualifications
Education Required
- For Nurse Practitioner: Master's degree or higher in Nursing.
- For Physician Assistant: Master's degree in Physician Assistant Studies. (Note: Bachelor's degree in Physician Assistant Studies accepted based on terminal degree requirements at the time of graduation).
Experience Required
None required, though prior experience in pediatrics, pain management, PM&R, or neurology is preferred.
Certification/Licenses/Registration
- For Nurse Practitioner: Current license as a Registered Nurse (RN) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) with an NP designation by the State of Texas Board of Nursing. Appropriate national board certification (e.g., CPNP-PC or FNP-C) required.
- For Physician Assistant: Current license as a Physician Assistant by the Texas Physician Assistant Board. Current national certification (PA-C) by the NCCPA.
- Life Support Certifications: Current Basic Life Support (BLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certifications are required prior to start.
Baylor College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Equal Access Employer.
Baylor College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Equal Access Employer.
Requisition ID: 25648