Lead Inpatient Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant

NJ Palliative Care Solutions; Belleville (NJ); On-site; USD 160,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Malpractice coverage

CME allowance

Tuition reimbursement

PTO 28-33 days

Medical & dental & vision

401(k) plan

Disability insurance

Employee assistance

Job summary

NJ Palliative Care Solutions seeks a Lead Advanced Practice Provider (NP/PA) to guide hospital-based palliative care at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, NJ. The role blends direct patient care with APP mentoring and quality oversight.

You will set clinical standards, support onboarding, and build referral networks, while maintaining protected leadership time and a manageable clinical caseload that scales with the team.

Qualifications

• Active New Jersey NP or PA license required.
• National board certification in nurse practitioner or physician assistant.
• Palliative care certification preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day leadership, mentoring, and clinical support to NPs and PAs.
• Carry a focused clinical caseload calibrated to team size with evidence-based care.
• Provide palliative care consultations across hospital units.
• Lead goals-of-care discussions with patients and families.
• Promote quality standards and consistent documentation in hospital workflows.
• Oversee discharge planning and transitions to next care settings.
• Support onboarding, case review, and escalation workflows.

Skills

Leadership experience

Mentoring

Clinical judgment

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Communication skills

Education

New Jersey NP or PA license

National board certification

Palliative care certification (ACHPN/CHPN) preferred

Job description

Lead and grow a palliative care APP team — while maintaining meaningful clinical practice and protected leadership time as the team grows.

Base salary $160,000–$190,000/year plus annual performance bonus up to $25,000. This is a clinical leadership role with protected leadership time, not a full staff caseload with management layered on top. Direct patient load is calibrated to team size, creating real capacity to lead.

Setting · License: Inpatient – Clara Maass Medical Center, Belleville NJ · New Jersey NP or PA license required

About us & the role:

NJ Palliative Care Solutions is on a mission to deliver palliative care without walls across New Jersey, partnering with leading health systems including RWJBarnabas Health. We are hiring a Lead Advanced Practice Provider (NP/PA) to guide Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants delivering hospital-based palliative care at Clara Maass Medical Center. The role combines direct patient care, APP mentoring, quality oversight, documentation standards, and practical program-building.

Leadership model:

• A clinical leadership role with protected leadership time.

• May be mostly clinical at launch; as the team grows, direct patient load decreases to create capacity for APP onboarding, shadowing, 1:1 mentorship, case and chart review, clinical escalation, referral relationship management, and performance improvement.

• Visibly different from a staff APP role: the Lead helps set standards, strengthen execution, and improve the team’s quality, productivity, and consistency.

Why you’ll want this role:

• Real ownership: shape clinical standards, mentor APPs, and help build the program.

• Protected leadership time, with the operational and clinical support to use it well.

• Data-guided mentorship and a collaborative interdisciplinary team behind you.

• Academic pathways, CME, and a clear path to grow your leadership.

• Primarily a Monday–Friday schedule with flexibility to swap workdays.

What you’ll do:

• Provide day-to-day leadership, mentoring, and clinical support to NPs and PAs.

• Carry a focused clinical caseload calibrated to team size — performing at the top of your license with best-practice, holistic, patient-centered, evidence-based interdisciplinary palliative medicine.

• Provide palliative care consultations and follow-up visits across the hospital continuum – from high-acuity ED and ICU encounters to ongoing management on medical, surgical, and specialty units.

• Lead goals-of-care and advance care planning conversations with patients and families, coordinating with partner SNFs and/or hospices if and when appropriate.

• Promote evidence-based standards, quality, and consistent documentation across the team — fully integrating into hospital workflows and shaping the palliative medicine practice.

• Give discharge planning as much attention as intake, managing transitions from inpatient to each patient’s next setting based on their longitudinal preferences and best interests.

• Support onboarding, shadowing, case review, quality review, and escalation workflows.

• Build referral relationships and represent NJPCS with hospital partners.

What you bring:

• Active New Jersey NP or PA license and national board certification.

• DEA + CDS registration, or ability to obtain by start date.

• Minimum 5 years of palliative care experience.

• 1–2+ years of leadership, mentoring, precepting, team lead, or supervisory experience.

• Palliative care certification (e.g., ACHPN / CHPN) preferred.

• Strong communication, clinical judgment, operational follow-through, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Compensation & total rewards:

• Competitive base salary: $160,000–$190,000/year.

• Annual performance bonus up to $25,000, rewarding both productivity (RVUs) and quality of care.

• 28 days of paid time off your first year, growing to 33 days at 2 years, in one flexible bank.

• Malpractice & professional liability ($1M / $3M), license & DEA renewals, up to $1,000/year CME, up to $2,000 tuition reimbursement.

• Medical via Cigna PPO, including a $0/month employee-only option, plus dental, vision, and an HSA.

• Short- and long-term disability, voluntary life & AD&D, and accident / critical-illness / hospital coverage.

• 401(k) retirement plan, plus pre-tax FSA, dependent-care FSA, HSA, and commuter benefits.

• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program, identity-theft protection, legal plan, pet benefits, and member discounts.

This position is full-time, and full-time is our strong preference. That said, we know exceptional clinicians sometimes need a different arrangement — for the right candidate, we're open to discussing part-time or per-diem schedules. If that's you, please apply and tell us what schedule you have in mind.