Registered Nurse Clinical Educator - Float Pool

SUMMARY:

Provides on-going orientation and professional development for all levels of personnel within a clinical department or hospital wide.  Provides clinical orientations, competency assurance and on-going education opportunities.  Works in collaboration with other Clinical Educators in development and implementation of hospital-wide education programs.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

Acts as clinical role model through 1:1 clinical time with staff to assess and teach critical thinking, priority setting, time management and "culture of patient safety" practices.

Maintains records of training activities and employee progress; monitors effectiveness of programs.

Prepares, organizes, directs, conducts, and supervises programs for orientation, training and in-service education; ensures the educational needs of staff are identified and met. Acts as an education resource to nursing community and health care team.

Assists learners to identify learning needs and guides them to appropriate resources.

Evaluates new employees’ performance and schedules regular meetings with them, according to the preceptor program, as well as the individual needs of the nurse, as identified by the unit based educators.

Serves as a liaison to new employees and actively participates in retention initiatives.

Maintains computer-based tracking system and compiles required reports and records.

Evaluates effectiveness of learning strategies and outcomes of educational activities.

Develops, executes and coordinates nursing orientation program. 

Plans education around new and existing hospital-wide nursing policies and procedures. Advocates standardization of nursing performance and standards of practice.  Evaluates unit-based procedures and policies and standing orders to meet the goal of standardization. Organizes the unit-based educators’ participation in hospital wide initiatives, such as CPR, JIREH, and CBT training.

Participates in Leadership Councils as membership requires.

Maintains clinical expertise through a variety if methods, including direct patient care as necessary. 

Participates in professional organizations and actively networks to share information and ideas.

Develops unit competencies related to findings.

Coordinates classroom/meeting room facilities and instructional aids.

Creates objectives, lesson plans, and evaluation strategies; present and coordinate in-service and continuing education programs.

Formulates and develops plans, procedures and programs to meet specific training needs and problems.

Uses information from QI data, need assessments, risk management concerns, safety issues, and infection control, and JCAHO, HCFA and OSHA requirements to create education programs. 

Collaborates with internal and external trainers and educators to present courses within the hospital.

Participates in and coordinate unit Quality Improvement Program on a regular and continuing basis.

Assists in research and development directly related to department services.

Implements and maintains established department, unit, and hospital policies, procedures, and objectives as well as quality improvement, environmental, safety, and infection control policies.

Adheres to TMC organizational and department-specific safety, confidentiality, values policies and standards.

Performs related duties as assigned.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in Nursing required, preferred Master’s degree.

EXPERIENCE:  Three (3) years of RN experience preferably in a related unit/department within an acute care setting.  

LICENSURE OR CERTIFICATION: Current RN licensure permitting work in the state of Arizona and current Basic Life Support (BLS) certification required.  Additional certification may be required per department.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES: 

·         Knowledge of critical care techniques, tools and responses required to ensure optimal patient care.

·         Knowledge of nursing protocols and patient care practices that ensures optimum care.

·         Skill in developing educational programs including training materials and educating staff in a variety of subjects.

·         Skill in evaluating performance and recommending improvements.

·         Skill in the use and maintenance of computer systems and programs, especially NRCPR, PC File and Folder, Word, EXCEL, e-mail and attachment capabilities, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

·         Skill in communicating with staff involved in critical care, and physicians to ensure the proper care of patients.

·         Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, technical procedures, or governmental regulations.

·         Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.

·         Ability to effectively present information and respond to inquiries or complaints from employees, patients and/or their representatives, and the general public.

·         Ability to work with concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions, and to apply mathematical operations to solve or analyze job-related situations.

·         Ability to identify positive or negative variances from expected outcomes.

·         Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.

·         Ability to interpret an extensive variety of instructions and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.