Coordinates the development and implementation of education and training programs to enhance, promote, and maintain high standards of staff professional growth in providing quality patient care. Serves as a role model of excellence in nursing knowledge and clinical practice.  Administers staff development programs through needs assessment and implements education and training programs for clinical staff.  Functions in a leadership role as a clinical expert. Develops and implements training and maintains established standards of care through quality improvement activities. Maintains unit-specific quality, accreditation, and clinical competency programs.   Responsibilities involve providing staff instruction on the collection of data, assisting with the development and implementation of clinical guidelines, and serving as a resource to departmental and other hospital staff.

PRIMARY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Coordinates development and implementation of staff development, orientation, in-service, and other education/training programs. Coordinates unit/department new hire orientation.
2. Serves as resource for clinical practice, quality initiatives, and regulatory requirements relating to education, competencies, and orientation, including conducting research and otherwise maintaining knowledge of current requirements. Assists staff with interpretation as necessary.
3. Works with department leadership to assure documentation of staff education and competency. Determines competency needs, and continually evaluates staff in order to provide feedback on staff performance to unit leadership.   
4. Participates in oversight and ongoing education programs related to regulatory standards, evidence-based practice, clinical guidelines, policies and procedures, and quality initiatives. Reports variances in compliance to appropriate leadership and facilitates, tracks, and trends improvement of standard processes. Relates quality improvement and practice guideline management to annual review and competency requirements. Assists with development of supportive patient care documentation tools.
5. Maintains educational resources for staff to include a resource library and audiovisual aids.
6. Serves as a resource person for various hospital departments regarding procedure related evidence-based practice, regulatory requirements, and quality initiatives.
7. Identifies opportunities to enhance clinical care, compliance with quality and regulatory initiatives, and patient safety, and assists in implementing new processes for improvement. Assists with departmental continuous readiness for all regulatory standards.
8. Participates in root cause analysis processes. Assists in identification of practice patterns and trends, investigation of problems and policy variances, and assists in facilitating team implementation of corrective actions to be taken.
9. Participates in hospital-wide committees, task forces, quality improvement teams, clinical pathway teams, and other group activities as assigned.
10. Promotes continuous quality improvement initiatives in daily service and problem solving opportunities both department specific and hospital wide.
11. Uses adult learning principles to participate in the planning, design, implementation, and evaluation of educational sessions and workshops for staff.
12. Maintains familiarity with a variety of medical problems, technical training techniques, and use of equipment pertinent to clinical area.
13. Provides educational instruction to staff members on the collection of data. Facilitates coordination of unit-based quality data collection.  Participates in quality indicator and patient outcome data analysis as appropriate.
14. Participates in the ongoing development, review and education of policies and procedures for Surgical Services or Cardiology Services.
15. Facilitates processes and assists in providing consultation for Surgical Services or Cardiovascular systems, including clinical documentation, to ensure compliance with applicable regulatory and hospital standards.