Physician Assistant- Palliative Care

Veterans Health Administration; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 100,000 - 169,000; Full time

Job summary

Veterans Health Administration's Salt Lake City VA Medical Center seeks a Palliative Physician Assistant to provide inpatient and outpatient palliative care for Veterans. You will lead care planning, manage symptoms, and coordinate with the interdisciplinary team to align with patient goals.

Responsibilities include orders/interpretation of labs, prescribing interventions, initiating hospice and specialty referrals, and conducting family meetings.

Qualifications

• Education recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions.
• For foreign education, a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with transcript must be provided to receive credit.

Responsibilities

• Independently manages a panel of patients with terminal illness focusing on symptom management and goals of medical care.
• Develops and implements an individualized plan to improve quality of life.
• Demonstrates leadership and collaborates with the interdisciplinary team; orders and interprets labs, tests, and diagnostic studies.
• Prescribes pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions; initiates referrals to specialty services.
• Provides education to patients and families and adjusts the care plan as needed.
• Responds to palliative care consults within 48 hours; cares for inpatient palliative and hospice patients.
• Initiates outpatient hospice consults and chairs veteran/family meetings; records outcomes for staff.
• Collaborates with social workers and chaplains; discusses code status and directives in meetings.

Job description

• Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

The Palliative Physician Assistant provides Inpatient and/or Outpatient Palliative Care to Veterans the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center.

Key Responsibilities

Major duties and responsibilities of the position: Independently manages a panel of patients with terminal illness with an emphasis on symptom management related to illness and discussion of goals of medical care. Develops and implements an individualized plan to achieve improved quality of life. Demonstrates leadership and works collaboratively with the interdisciplinary team. Orders and interprets labs, tests, and diagnostic studies.

Prescribes pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions. Initiates referrals and consults to specialty services. Provides education to patients and their families. Assesses and adjusts the plan of care as needed to achieve optimal patient outcomes. Exemplifies the ICARE core values of-Integrity, Commitment, Advocacy, Respect, and Excellence. Clinical: Responds to all palliative care consults within 48 hours. Provides care to inpatient palliative and hospice patients.

Initiates Outpatient consults for Hospice care as needed. Provide goal setting with Veteran and family, by initiating, and chairing Veteran/family meetings and recording the outcome of the meeting in the veteran's record to communicate veterans/families' goals for all involved staff to understand. These meetings may be in the inpatient or the outpatient setting. The veterans attending health care provider is encouraged to attend these family meetings.

Some issues of discussion may include code status, advanced directives, identification of resource needs. These meetings will include the social worker, and chaplain to be in attendance as much as able. Collaborates with veterans and the medical providers caring for the veteran at the time (provider may be urgent care/ER , primary care, specialty care, or hospitalist) to be informed of the history and prognosis of the patient.

Available to Emergency Medicine as needed, to assist with case-finding and goal setting. Has direct interaction with the veteran and family in various venues, such as primary care visits at the time of the veteran's appointment, Oncology Clinic, subspecialty clinics and acute care settings. Review ongoing pain and symptom management with evaluation and adjustments as needed for Veterans under the care of the SLCVHA.

Special interest/skill in malignant acute pain management with availability to other medical providers for consultation. Fills scripts for opioids, palliative care medications and durable medical equipment requests as needed. Ensures that their clinical activities are within their Scope of Practice and are medically and ethically appropriate. Administrative: Demonstrates leadership and works collaboratively with the interdisciplinary team.

Attends palliative care /hospice team meetings. Attends palliative care memorial service, participating as requested. Assists with evaluating requests made for inpatient palliative care admissions. Contributes to local, VISN, and National Palliative Care workgroups or QI as needed. Participating in conference calls as scheduled. Works to strengthen and progress the overall Hospice and Palliative care service in VISN.

This activity is above and beyond normal duties and would contribute to higher level evaluations. Other duties as assigned. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package. Work Schedule: Monday through Friday, 8:00am to 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: May be authorized by supervisor Telework: Not available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements & Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.

For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Which agency is hiring for this position?

This position is with Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs.

What is the salary for this position?

The posted pay range is $100264 – $169454/yr.

What is the application deadline?

Applications close on 2026-10-23.

Who is eligible to apply?

This position is open under the 'Fed Internal Search' hiring path.

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Source: USAJOBS.gov — U.S. Federal Government · Retrieved 2026-10-16 · Not affiliated with or endorsed by OPM or USAJOBS.gov