Full-time LICENSED PRACTICAL NURSE III (LPN) - Fitzsimons Veterans Community Living Center, Aurora chez State of Colorado

About the Department

This position will receive a short-staffing temporary pay differential of (4%) from July 1st 2025 - June 30th 2026.

CDHSCareers

Position Duties

This position is responsible for planning and coordinating basic and skilled nursing care for residents. The role involves reviewing and auditing care activities to ensure they meet quality assurance standards and comply with established policies. Key duties include administering routine and specialized nursing services, such as medications and treatments, and documenting all care in medical records. The ideal candidate will also assess and evaluate residents upon admission, during critical incidents, or whenever there's a change in their condition to determine necessary nursing interventions. For those who are IV certified, administering IV fluids as prescribed is also a requirement. The nurse will also be responsible for assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of all care and treatment provided.

Additionally, as an LPN III, you can expect to: 

• Provide and coordinate nursing care: Plan and coordinate skilled nursing care for residents, including a broad range of medical treatments and procedures.
• Ensure quality and compliance: Review and audit specific care activities to ensure they comply with policies and quality standards.
• Administer medication: Competently administer medications to residents, following the five rights of safe medication administration, resident rights, and infection control standards.
• Assess and monitor residents: Identify changes in residents' conditions that require assessment by a registered nurse, document treatments, and gather data to determine their effectiveness.
• Promote safety: Identify and intervene for high-risk residents to prevent falls and skin breakdown and correctly use safety and positioning devices, transfer belts, and other equipment.
• Participate in team development: Contribute to work teams to establish best practice protocols and provide input and orientation for new employees.
• Maintain professional skills: Keep your skills, knowledge, and competencies current through continuing education and ongoing training.
• Manage supplies and equipment: Ensure proper infection control, use universal precautions, and dispose of waste correctly. Clean linen rooms and equipment, and stock supplies.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

Special Qualifications:

• Required to obtain a CPR card and possess and maintain a Colorado LPN license in  good standing

Education/Licensure/Certification/Experience:

• Current, valid licensure as an LPN from the Colorado Board of Nursing or any state participating in the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC)

AND

• Three years of professional experience in a long-term care environment 

Substitutions

Appropriate education will substitute for up to two years of the required experience on a year-for-year basis

• CDHS employees (all Direct contact with vulnerable persons): CBI name check and fingerprint check, ICON Colorado court database, Medicare fraud database, Reference Checks, Professional License verification (licensure requirements), Drug Screen, PREA (Division of Youth Services), Trails check (direct contact with children), CAPS (direct contact with adults – Mental Health Institutes, Regional Centers, Veterans Community Living Centers)
• New Compact Rule: Starting Jan. 2, 2024, if you have a multistate license and change your primary state of residence to another state within the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact (eNLC), you must apply for a license in that state within 60 days. If this latter step is not completed within the allotted time frame, your previous license may expire. This puts you at risk of practicing without a license. As an example, if you are a registered nurse with a multistate license from Arizona practicing in Colorado and you move to Colorado, you have 60 days to apply to Colorado’s Board of Nursing for a new multistate license. These changes were part of the final rules passed by the Interstate Commission of Nurse Licensure Compact Administrators at its annual conference in August.  The eNLC allows for mobility and creates a more robust workforce by allowing nurses to practice in Colorado with licenses from other compact states.
• Vaccinations as required by the state and facility
• TB Test
• Day, evening, and night shifts to include holidays & weekends as needed. May be required to do on-call work.

• Former State employees who were disciplinarily terminated or resigned in lieu of termination must (1) disclose that information on the application (2) provide an explanation why the prior termination or resignation should not disqualify the applicant from the current position, (3) provide the employee number from the applicant’s prior State employment.  Absent extraordinary circumstances, prior disciplinary termination or resignation in lieu of termination, and failure to provide this information will disqualify the applicant from future State employment with CDHS.

Appeal Rights: 

If you receive notice that you have been eliminated from consideration for this position, you may file an appeal with the State Personnel Board or request a review by the State Personnel Director.

An appeal or review must be submitted on the official appeal form, signed by you or your representative. This form must be delivered to the State Personnel Board by email ([email protected]), postmarked in US Mail, or hand delivered (1525 Sherman Street, 4th Floor, Denver, CO 80203), or faxed (303.866.5038) within ten (10) calendar days from your receipt of notice or acknowledgement of the department’s action.

For more information about the appeals process, the official appeal form, and how to deliver it to the State Personnel Board; go to spb.colorado.gov; contact the State Personnel Board for assistance at (303) 866-3300; or refer to 4 Colorado Code of Regulations (CCR) 801-1, State Personnel Board Rules and Personnel Director's Administrative Procedures, Chapter 8, Resolution of Appeals and Disputes, at spb.colorado.gov under Rules.

Other Qualifications

How to Apply

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The Assessment Process

For additional recruiting questions, please contact [email protected]

About Us: 

If your goal is to build a career that makes a difference, consider joining the dedicated people of the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). Our professionals strive to design and deliver high quality human and health services that improve the safety, independence, and well-being of the people of Colorado. In addition to a great location and rewarding and meaningful work, we offer:

• Strong, secure, yet flexible retirement benefits including a PERA Defined Benefit Plan or PERA Defined Contribution Plan www.copera.org plus 401(k) and 457 plans

• Medical and dental health plans

• Employer supplemented Health Savings Account

• Paid life insurance

• Short- and long-term disability coverage

• 11 paid holidays per year plus vacation and sick leave

• BenefitHub state employee discount program

• Employee Wellness program

• Excellent work-life programs, such as flexible schedules, training and more

• Remote work arrangements for eligible positions

*Some positions may qualify for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. For more

information, go to https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/dhr/student-loan-forgiveness-programs.

Our Values:

We believe in a people-first approach: To serve the people of Colorado, we develop a culture and work environment that creates an energized, inspired, and healthy team capable of giving their best to Coloradans.

Balance creates quality of life: We want our team to be resilient through a supportive workplace that values flexibility, health and wellness, and employee engagement.

We hold ourselves accountable: We take responsibility through our actions, programs, and results for the state of health and human services in Colorado.

Transparency matters: We are open and honest with employees, our partners, the Coloradans we serve, and the public.

We are ethical: We abide by what is best for those we serve by doing what is right, not what is easy.

Collaboration helps us rise together: We work together with all partners, employees, and clients to achieve the best outcomes for Coloradans.

We are committed to increasing the diversity of our staff and providing culturally responsive programs and services. Therefore, we encourage responses from people of diverse backgrounds and abilities.  

ADA Accommodations: CDHS is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment, including completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or to perform essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to our ADA Coordinator, Nancy Schmelzer, at  [email protected] or call 1-800-929-0791.

~THE STATE OF COLORADO IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER~

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