Centralized Nursing Professional Development Specialist

Job Detail

• Job Title:

  Centralized Nursing Professional Development Specialist

• Department:

  81100-JDH-Prof Prac and Clin Excellence

• Location:

  Farmington

• FTE%:

  1

• Shift

  1

• Search #:

  2025-1215

• Closing Date:

  04/15/2025

• Recruiter:

  McNamara, Elizabeth

Additional Links:

• This position is Benefit eligible; click here for an overview of available benefits.
• This position is covered by the UHP Bargaining Unit; click here to review the current UHP Contract.
• This position is in Salary group UHP-13; click here to review the current UHP Pay Plan.

UConn Health is searching for a centralized Nursing Professional Development Specialist to join our patient-focused team. Gain experience in a world-class facility located in John Dempsey Hospital (Farmington, CT), as part of the Professional Practice and Clinical Excellence Department.

This role functions in a centralized capacity, leading key organizational programs, and supporting professional nursing practice through education, orientation/onboarding, collaboration, competency management, role development, and evidence-based practice. Key programs led by this role include the Age Friendly Care Program and the American Heart Association offerings (i.e. BLS, ACLS). Responsibilities include designing, planning, coordinating, implementing, and evaluating initiatives associated with the Age Friendly Care Program, AHA programs, and others in order to assist in achieving the nursing department's goals.

The Nursing Professional Development Specialist (NPDS) is a Registered Nurse with NPD practice judgment and expertise who influences professional role competence and growth of learners in an interprofessional healthcare environment. The NPDS is responsible for supporting learners within the context and framework of the Nursing Professional Development Scope & Standards of Practice as approved by the American Nurses Association. This position works in collaboration with nursing leadership to develop and influence onboarding/orientation, competency management, education, role development, collaborative partnerships, and inquiry. The NPDS is an essential member of the nursing leadership team who promotes the alignment of NPD and practice excellence for UConn Health.

SCHEDULE: 40 hours/week, Monday-Friday with hours predominantly 8am-4:30pm. 30 minute unpaid mealbrea. This positionis scheuled to start in June 2025

SUPERVISION RECEIVED:

Works under the general supervision of a Director, Nursing (reports to the Program Manager of Nursing Excellence)

EXAMPLES OF DUTIES:

Age Friendly Care Program leader responsibilities:

• Serves as expert resource in the care of older adults.

• Reviews current nursing practice in the care of older adults.

• Recommends, designs, and implements evidenced based practices and program.

• Creates and establishes protocols, policies, forms and tools.

• Engages leaders and members of the care team to build a consensus and gain cooperation in the reliable use of an evidenced based framework such as the Age Friendly Health System 4Ms.

• Facilitates the Age-Friendly action community steering group in assessing the current practice in the care of older adults at UConn Health, identifies gaps and opportunities for improvement, and establishes a plan to improve the care of older adults.

• Establishes key performance outcome measures, collects data, and evaluates effectiveness of implementations.

• Collaborates interprofessionally in quality improvement projects.

• Chairs the Age Friendly Care Committee.

• Provides oversight of Purposeful Visitor Program including orientation of volunteers and supervision of activities such as engaging older adult, facilitating therapeutic activities and enhancing patient/family hospital experience.

• Coordinates donation drives to collect items for therapeutic activity carts, including contributions from community libraries.

American Heart Association Training Faculty responsibilities:

• Serves as UConn Health contact person with Hartford Hospital Training Center and Enrollware software.

• Assists in reviewing and renewing contract with HH Training Center.

• Recruits, monitors and re-certifies instructors for BLS and ACLS.

• Provides updates, policy changes, or new guidelines to AHA instructors.

• Oversees, coordinates, implements, and evaluates all aspects of the online and live classes.

• Teaches BLS and ACLS classes (includes covering for unplanned instructor absence).

• Provides answers and guidance associated with AHA certification.

• Reviews and monitors employees' compliance with required certification on an ongoing basis.

Orientation/Onboarding responsibilities:

• Designs, facilitates, and implements orientation processes, new graduate RN Transition to Practice Program, and role transitions with a focus on retention and growth.

• Coordinates and facilitates orientation classes for new hires.

• Ensures orientation content aligns with policies and procedures.

• Incorporates topics required by regulatory and accrediting agencies.

• Assigns preceptors in collaboration with department managers.

• Facilitates, oversees, and guides clinical orientations for new hires and role transitions.

• Creates and revises new hire orientation competency checklists.

• Ensures documentation of orientation progress and completions

Competency Management responsibilities:

• Manages competency of new employees

• Coordinates with department managers to ensure ongoing competence of staff.

• Provides staff training to ensure competence with new processes, equipment, and others.

• Validates clinical performance.

• Develops, coordinates, implements, and evaluates competency assessment programs.

• Coordinates, implements, and teaches staff required certification classes such as BLS, ACLS, PALS, CPI, and others.

Education responsibilities:

• Conducts practice gap analyses and learning needs assessments.

• Develops, implements, and evaluates education programs.

• Coordinates continuing education programming in adherence with accreditation requirements and regulatory readiness.

• Partners with interdisciplinary departments for regulatory readiness assessments and action plans

• Participates in Root Cause Analyses and implementation of corrective action plans.

• Demonstrates innovation through teaching and learning methods.

• Uses technology for educational programming.

• Provides just-in-time education and coaching.

• Fosters acceptance, adoption, and action towards change

Role Development responsibilities:

• Develops and maintains role transition programs for new to practice staff and staff transitioning from one specialty or role to another, in alignment with accreditation criteria.

• Develops and provides initial and ongoing preceptor development programs.

• Supports succession planning.

• Conducts career coaching and mentoring.

• Advises and supports for obtaining of nursing professional certifications (e.g., MedSurg certification, Progressive Care Certified Nurse)

• Creates, supports, and/or implements clinical advancement models.

• Coaches and mentors' staff for clinical advancement

• Advises for academic education planning.

Collaborative Partnerships responsibilities:

• Collaborates with other departments as needed to facilitate high-quality, cost-effective patient care.

• Develops and provides interprofessional education in collaboration with interprofessional colleagues.

• Participates in interprofessional councils/committees.

• Manages and facilitates clinical/academic partnerships.

• Manages placements of nursing students' clinical rotations

• Precepts graduate nursing students' practicum experience

• Establishes effective communication networks with unit and organizational leadership.

• Collaborates with interprofessional teams, leaders, stakeholders, and others to facilitate nursing practice and positive outcomes.

• Partners with shared governance councils to effect nursing practice and generate positive outcomes.

• Facilitates excellence initiatives (e.g., Magnet, Beacon, PTAP)

Inquiry responsibilities :

• Oversees and participates in research, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement initiatives.

• Manages, updates, and develops patient care policies in collaboration with stakeholders.

• Conducts audits, as necessary.

• Supports the dissemination of new knowledge and the use of evidence to guide clinical practice and improve patient care.

• Other duties as assigned within the scope and range of job responsibilities.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED:

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Ability to plan, develop, deliver, and evaluate educational programs.

• Leadership skills and a commitment to education as a methodology for promoting continuous quality improvement in the delivery of patient care and services.

• Knowledge of the principles/theories of adult learning.

• Knowledge of nursing orientation and onboarding plans.

• Strong skills in the process of educational needs assessments.

• Considerable knowledge of nursing interventions and current clinical literature.

• Ability to incorporate research findings and best practices into standards of care.

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.

• Working knowledge of high reliability strategies.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

• Must be able to work independently as well as part of a collaborative team.

• Demonstrates strong interpersonal skills.

GENERAL EXPERIENCE:

• Registered Nurse with a current license.

• Incumbents must possess and maintain during employment a license to practice nursing in the State of Connecticut.

• Master's degree in Nursing or Education and a minimum of two (2) years of experience in an acute care environment (or related clinical experience). Can be substituted with current enrollment in a Master's Degree program (in Nursing or Education) and five (5) years of experience in an acute care environment (or related clinical experience).

PREFERRED EDUCATION, CREDENTIAL(S) AND EXPERIENCE:

• Recent experience in gerontological nursing

• At least one (1) year in education or nursing professional development.Certification in Gerontological Nursing (GERO-BC), Nursing Professional Development (NPD), Clinical Specialty or related. If not certified at the time of hire, Certification must be obtained within one year of employment. Certification must be maintained during employment.

• 5 or more years of relevant clinical nursing experience, with 3 of those years including relevant teaching experience

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Incumbents in this classification may be exposed to communicable and infectious diseases.

Incumbents may be required to travel in course of their daily work.

WHY UCONN HEALTH

UConn Health is a vibrant, integrated academic medical center that is entering an era of unprecedented growth in all three areas of its mission: academics, research, and clinical care. A commitment to human health and well-being has been of utmost importance to UConn Health since the founding of the University of Connecticut schools of Medicine and Dental Medicine in 1961. Based on a strong foundation of groundbreaking research, first-rate education, and quality clinical care, we have expanded our medical missions over the decades. In just over 50 years, UConn Health has evolved to encompass more research endeavors, to provide more ways to access our superior care, and to innovate both practical medicine and our methods of educating the practitioners of tomorrow.