Department Educator / Professional Practice Leader RN - ICU

Houston Methodist • Cypress, TX, United States • $200k - $250k / year • 1m ago

At Houston Methodist, the Professional Practice Leader position serves as a consultant and subject matter clinician for a service line/specialty area, functioning at the Expert level of Benner's model of clinical practice. The Professional Practice Leader position provides education and development to the direct patient care staff in addition to being accountable for the care outcomes of a service line or clinical population. This position leads and coordinates interprofessional activities focusing on clinical practice, consultation, education and research, incorporating evidence into practice. The Professional Practice Leader position uses expert communication skills to serve as care advocate and to mentor and coach staff in clinical and professional practice. This position assumes an advanced leadership role in analyzing systems to anticipate/reduce risk and improve patient safety/quality. Responsibilities for the Professional Practice Leader position include contributions at the unit and housewide levels, with expectation to collaborate/manage/lead on system-wide and national initiatives.

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Promotes interprofessional collaboration in patient care, providing leadership to maintain a supportive and healthy work environment. Partners with department leadership to define priorities of service line/specialty department. Builds partnerships across the system and strives for consensus in practice.
Partners in collaboration with leadership of the service lines/specialty areas to promote staff accountability and effective decision-making, which includes coaching to provide feedback in an effective way. Empowers nurses to seek feedback from peers, informally or through established preceptor or mentor relationships. Leads interprofessional teams to achieve organizational goals through involvement in shared governance.
Consults, as the subject matter expert, and guides clinicians to available resources and policies on standards of care for their service line and/or across departments. Coaches clinicians, utilizing effective communication techniques, in strategies to improve practice and patient outcomes or changes in practice.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Indirectly affects patient care through the bedside RN as their focus is on developing and ensuring they give quality care. Promotes the transfer of knowledge to practice, ensuring that knowledge/training is carried out and integrated into practice. Validates effectiveness of education on identified outcomes.
Oversees transition to independent practice of clinicians. Develops timely and efficient onboarding process, orientation, professional development related to the service line and competency requirements.
Directs and mentors teams in implementing clinical projects and/or practice changes. Evaluates outcome measures to adjust or reinforce practice changes.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Identifies gaps in practice through competency assessment, observation, or available measures. Plans and implements strategies to address gaps through observation of employee and their practice, audits, and metrics that may indicate a gap or need for improvement. Provides guidance to staff in clinical project development and management, using the PDCA process and supporting the Pathway to Excellence/Magnet journey.
Collaborates with Quality team regarding patient safety events. Engages in action planning including evidence-based practice guidelines and disseminating necessary practice changes.
Utilizes dashboards to maintain awareness of patient outcome measures and system patient care metrics, partnering with clinical areas to identify needs, plan, implement, and evaluate an intervention to positively impact the quality of patient care. Drives nurse sensitive indicator performance by using data to identify gaps and plan interventions to meet and exceed expectations. Provides education to support improvement of the patient experience.
Operationalize quality initiatives by maintaining awareness and knowledge of applicable regulatory or accrediting body standards and the applicability to the clinical area. Provides leadership in design, implementation and evaluation of process improvement initiatives.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Builds a project plan for practice change while considering financial implications. Identifies cost-containment measures, as applicable in clinical areas, to quantify cost savings.
Contributes to unit plans for resource utilization and capital needs, incorporating financial evaluation within project management. Drives strategies to meeting department financial target on hospital and/or unit-based scorecard.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Engages the learner for continued professional growth while promoting and supporting transition of staff along the Clinical Career Path. Assists in cross training and preparing staff to transition across clinical settings (e.g. Obs to ED, L&D ST to OR cross-training).
Applies theories of change to support staff and promote evidence-based decision-making. Cultivates a climate of clinical inquiry to establish an environment where staff want to become involved in research and evidence-based practice. Guides staff in the creation and submission of clinical abstracts, posters, and presentations.
Champions and leads innovative initiatives to obtain service line/department-specific focus or specialty designations, recognitions, or awards. Collaborates across the hospital and system in implementing change as appropriate, maintaining awareness of current changes in practice standards and applies to clinical practice setting. Completes and updates the individual development plan (IDP) on an ongoing basis.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.