Located in Nashville, Tennessee, and operating at a global crossroads of teaching, discovery and patient care, VUMC is a community of individuals who come to work each day with the simple aim of changing the world. It is a place where your expertise will be valued, your knowledge expanded, and your abilities challenged. It is a place where your diversity — of culture, thinking, learning and leading — is sought and celebrated. It is a place where employees know they are part of something that is bigger than themselves, take exceptional pride in their work and never settle for what was good enough yesterday. Vanderbilt's mission is to advance health and wellness through preeminent programs in patient care, education, and research.
Your Role:
Assist in the management and coordination of the Vanderbilt Biosafety Program to facilitate and promote the safe and secure handling, transport, use, and disposal of biological materials throughout Vanderbilt University Medical Center, primarily in the basic research to support compliance with applicable regulations and guidelines.
Perform similar functions for Vanderbilt University in accordance with the Service Level Agreement between VEHS and Vanderbilt University. This position reports to the Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety (VEHS) Assistant Director, Biosafety.
Key Functions and Expected Performances:
Assist with activities involved in research program review through the Vanderbilt Institutional Biosafety Committees (pursuant to National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines).
Conduct hazard identification and biosafety risk assessments for research programs and provide recommendations regarding appropriate biosafety containment measures to be used.
Conduct assessments and audits of work practices, facilities, and equipment for use at established biosafety containment levels.
Establish and monitor correction and preventive action for deficiencies in biosafety containment identified during audits, incident reports, or other biosafety program activities.
Conduct, develop and coordinate training activities to promote safe and secure handling, transport, use, and disposal of biological materials in the research setting.
Serve as a liaison between the Biosafety Program and other Vanderbilt programs and committees that oversee research activities involving biological materials.
Evaluate issues of occupational exposure to biological materials and appropriately address those issues through hazard identification, risk assessment and risk management, including training and monitoring.
Provide emergency response in incidents involving biological materials and monitor the VEHS emergency pager in an on-call rotation to facilitate responses to other incidents requiring VEHS assistance.
Supervisory Responsibilities: Indirect supervision of interns, consultants and vendors.
Budgetary Responsibilities: Prepare necessary cost documentation for supervisory approval.
COMMUNICATION:
Internal
Extensive contact with researchers, principal investigators, laboratory managers, laboratory assistants, instructors and students. Also, will communicate on a frequent and coordinated level with other VEHS staff.
External
Management-directed contact with consultants and vendors involved with various aspects of the Biosafety Program.
Patient/Student Contact
Frequent contact with students as interns or in research or teaching laboratories. No direct patient contact.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS & WORKING ENVIRONMENT:
Be able to lift 50 lbs. Must be willing and able to wear required personal protective equipment including protective clothing and gloves, eye/face protection, and, in some cases, negative or positive-pressure respiratory protection. Position requires entry into areas where research animals, biological and infectious agents, hazardous chemicals, and ionizing radiation may be used.
Position Qualifications
Required:
Bachelors plus 3 years experience or Master's plus 0 years experience in Biology (or closely related field) with coursework in microbiology and/or molecular biology plus three years of either laboratory experience in microbiology and recombinant DNA techniques.
Applicant must possess excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as computer skills and the ability to input and utilize database information. Must demonstrate working knowledge of relevant prudent practices, guidelines and regulations in the field of biosafety.
VUMC Recent Accomplishments
Because we are committed to providing the best in patient care, education and research, we are proud of our recent accomplishments:
US News & World Report: #1 Hospital in Tennessee, #1 Health Care Provider in Nashville, #1 Audiology ( Bill Wilkerson Center ), 12 adult and 10 pediatric clinical specialties ranked among the nation's best, #15 Education and Training
Truven Health Analytics: among the top 50 cardiovascular hospitals in the U.S.
Becker's Hospital Review: one of the "100 Greatest Hospitals in America"
The Leapfrog Group: grade "A" in Hospital Safety Score
National Institutes of Health: among the top 10 grant awardees for medical research in the US
Magnet Recognition Program: Vanderbilt nurses are the only group honored in Tennessee
Nashville Business Journal: Middle Tennessee's healthiest employer
American Hospital Association: among the 100 "Most Wired" medical systems in the US
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is home to Vanderbilt University Hospital, The Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital and the Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital. These hospitals experienced more than 61,000 inpatient admissions during fiscal year 2015. Vanderbilt’s adult and pediatric clinics treated nearly 2 million patients during this same period.Vanderbilt University Hospital and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt are recognized again this year by U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals as among the nation’s best with 18 nationally ranked specialties. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is world renowned because of the innovation, work ethic and collegiality of its employees. From our health care advances to our compassionate care, Vanderbilt owes its accomplishments and reputation to staff and faculty who bring skill and drive and innovation to the medical center day after day. World-leading academic departments and comprehensive centers of excellence pursue scientific discoveries and transformational educational and clinical advances across the entire spectrum of health and disease.As th...e largest employer in middle Tennessee, we welcome those who are interested in ongoing development in a caring, culturally sensitive and professional atmosphere. Most of us spend so much of our lives at work, we want to be part of maintaining a workplace in which people support one another and encourage reaching for excellence. Many high-achieving employees stay at Vanderbilt because of the professional growth they experience and because of their appreciation of Vanderbilt’s benefits, public events and discussions, athletic opportunities, beautiful setting and, above all, sense of community and purpose.Vanderbilt and its employees share a set of mutual expectations that have been created with productivity, legality, fairness and safety always in mind. We believe that our investment in training and compensating employees multiplies in value when we enable individuals to deliver their best performance for the benefit of us all.
