Nurse Educator & Infection Preventionist

Overview

Acadia Healthcare and Geisinger Health have partnered to establish a state-of-the-art, 96-bed behavioral health hospital in Danville, PA. Geisinger Behavioral Health Center Danville will serve pediatric and adult patients, offering inpatient treatment, intensive outpatient programming, and ECT services. It will also serve as a teaching hospital for students and residents of Geisinger’s College of Health Sciences.

Set to open in late Spring 2025. This facility will help meet the urgent need for accessible, high-quality psychiatric care in the region, expanding capacity to support patients with diverse mental health needs.

The Nurse Educator/Infection Preventionist plays a critical role in ensuring that behavioral health staff are well-equipped to provide safe, high-quality patient care. This hands-on position is responsible for developing and implementing education plans, identifying learning needs, and leading new hire orientation from a clinical perspective. The Nurse Educator/Infection Preventionist facilitates ongoing training programs, ensures compliance with regulatory guidelines, and fosters a culture of continuous learning. By modeling best practices and engaging staff in evidence-based education, this role directly contributes to enhancing professional competency and patient safety within the facility. Additionally, the Nurse Educator/Infection Preventionist plays a key role in infection prevention by implementing protocols, training staff on infection control measures, and monitoring compliance to reduce the risk of infectious outbreaks within the facility.

Responsibilities

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: NE

• Facilitates orientation/onboarding program to promote employee retention.
• Conducts orientation in a manner that fosters a positive learning environment.
• Role models organizational and personal commitment to new employee success.
• Participates in designing and identifying educational activities to address practice gaps for identified target audiences, which may include licensed and non-licensed healthcare personnel.

• Identifies learning needs of staff and/or facility
•  Role models competent practice through demonstration or simulation activities
•  Assess practice gaps/Crosswalk competencies to practice
• Collaborates with Corporate Nursing Director /Educator to review outcomes data to evaluate and refine competency management activities
•  Assist with development and/or instruction of didactic content and clinical skills for designated competencies
• Develops education plan according to gap assessment or quality data/safety outcomes
• Aligns educational programs with facility and/or organization policies and procedures

• Implement and deliver educational curricula as required by regulatory agencies such as Joint Commission, CARF, CMS and State agencies.

• Creates engaging, evidence-based educational content to meet the specific needs of the intended audience
• Demonstrates exceptional instructional skills while maintaining learner engagement

• Act a general resource for nursing staff.
• Collaborate with medical practitioners and CNO/DON to incorporate nursing processes into the plan of care for patients.
• Provide educational leadership to patients and care providers to enhance specialized patient care within established clinical protocol.

• Promotes safe, quality, and compassionate patient care

• Assist patient and caregivers with education needs, problem solution and health management across the continuum of care.
• Educate direct patient care staff in the use of equipment, supplies, and coordinates in-service training for appropriate staff.

• Supports new ideas and innovation in educational design
• Provides staff with resources and “just-in-time” education to implement immediate changes

• Communicate therapeutically and professionally with patients, visitors, coworkers and others in an effective manner
• May provide direct care as needed.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: IP

• Conduct ongoing surveillance of infections.
• Gather and interpret data and keep accurate records of all infections.
• Compile and present Infection Reports to the Safety/Infection Control Committee and the Performance Improvement Council at assigned intervals.
• Inspect environment and observe personnel activities for the purpose of detecting infection hazards.
• Monitor and evaluate compliance with standards set by facility policy and industry.
• Monitor and update all facility department supervisors on all area-specific policies and procedures important to infection prevention principles. Investigate all 'exposure incidents,' oversee post-exposure evaluation and follow-up process in order to recommend appropriate actions to be taken.
• Notify designated medical, administrative staff and appropriate health department authorities all reportable communicable disease.
• Develop and provide in-service and orientation programs concerning prevention and control of infection, standard precautions, isolation techniques and education on current infectious disease.
• Responsibilities may also include gathering, analyzing and presenting data, facts and trends on infection prevention to facility or corporate leadership.
• Train staff on infection prevention and control protocols.
• Assess and re-enforce infection prevention practices.

OTHER FUNCTIONS:

• Provides expertise in identifying professional development needs of individual staff
• Assists staff to identify areas for individual growth in current role
• Identifies and provides opportunities for skill enhancement and mastery
• Utilizes novice to expert continuum when developing staff
• Promotes certification in areas of nursing specialty

• Perform other functions and tasks as assigned.

Qualifications

EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/SKILL REQUIREMENTS:

• Master’s degree in nursing, Healthcare Administration, Education or other clinical field or equivalent combination of education and/or experience preferred.
• Three or more years’ clinical experience required.
• Two or more years’ behavioral health experience required.
• One or more years’ experience in infection control preferred.
• 1 years experience in Clinical Education/Training and Development (Preferred)

• Certification as an NPD Practitioner and/or clinical certification as recognized by American Nurse Credentialing Center. (Preferred)

LICENSES/DESIGNATIONS/CERTIFICATIONS:

• Current state license is required for this position.
• Certification by the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology preferred
• CPR and de-escalation/restraint certification required (training available upon hire and offered by facility).
• First aid may be required based on state or facility.

ADDITIONAL REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS:

For Joint Commission facilities: The infection preventionist is appointed by the governing body to be responsible for the infection prevention and control program. The appointment is based on recommendations of medical staff leadership and nursing leadership.

While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of the requirements of the job, management reserves the right to add or remove duties from particular jobs when circumstances (e.g. emergencies, changes in workload, rush jobs or technological developments) dictate.

AHRN

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