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Clinical Nurse Leader RN, Emergency Department
Job Description
Location: Oak Park, Illinois
Business Unit: Rush Oak Park
Hospital: Rush Oak Park Hospital
Department: Emergency Department
Work Type: Full Time (Total FTE between 0. 9 and 1. 0)
Shift: Shift 2
Work Schedule: 10 Hr (11:00:00 AM - 9:00:00 PM)
Rush offers exceptional rewards and benefits learn more at our Rush benefits page (https://www.rush.edu/rush-careers/employee-benefits).
Pay Range: $48.07 - $74.39 per hour
Rush salaries are determined by many factors including, but not limited to, education, job-related experience and skills, as well as internal equity and industry specific market data. The pay range for each role reflects Rush’s anticipated wage or salary reasonably expected to be offered for the position. Offers may vary depending on the circumstances of each case.
Summary:
The Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) is an expert nurse and role model who achieves expected outcomes, demonstrates leadership, and serves as a resource in the management of clinically complex patients. The CNL works with the healthcare team to coordinate care for all patients within the defined microsystem and functions to provide holistic patient centered care using the nursing process and evidence based practices. The CNL is responsible for determining the appropriateness of admissions and continued patient stay, assisting the Care Management team in the development of the plan of care, ensuring that the plan is implemented in a timely basis, and identifying the expected length of stay (ELOS). The CNL contributes to the healthcare team’s effectiveness by identifying barriers to effective and efficient utilization of resources and evaluating patients’ psychosocial and/or financial and clinical needs throughout the continuum of care. The CNL also functions as a nexus of internal and external communication between patients, physician practices, the hospital, and other community providers, and actively participates in and initiates efforts to enhance patient flow and decrease length of stay while increasing patient satisfaction and reducing readmissions. The CNL evaluates, monitors, and improves the quality of nursing care, promotes quality patient care by participating in performance improvement activities, and coordinates and participates in the provision of education and/or nursing quality improvement. The CNL evaluates monitors, manages and improves the quality of nursing care through planning, implementation, and evaluation of educational activities to promote high standards of nursing practice throughout the Division of Nursing. The CNL assignment will be by unit and may require responsibility on other units. The CNL functions over half of the time in direct patient care through these activities on the assigned unit. The CNL assists in organizational initiatives as relates to ongoing upkeep of specialty designations, regulatory requirements and community collaboratives. Exemplifies the Rush mission, vision and values and acts in accordance with Rush policies and procedures.
Other information:
Required Job Qualifications:
• Master’s Degree in: Nursing from an accredited school of nursing is required (must, at a minimum, be enrolled in a Master’s Program with proof of graduation date within 9 months of employment).
• BLS
• At least 1 year experience
• National certification.
• ACLS
• PALS in ED or continuously assigned to areas with a scope of service that involves patients under the age of 13.
• Incident Command Training
• Case Management Educational Programs as dictated by organization
• Clinical Nurse Leader- ICU: At least 1 year of ICU RN experience, and ACLS
• Clinical Nurse Leader-ED: At least 1 year of ED RN experience, ACLS, and PALS required.
*Clinical Nurse Leader‐Perioperative Services: At least 1 year of RN experience within a perioperative services
departments (OR, SDS, PACU, Pre-op, or Endo), ACLS required.
• Clinical expertise, ability to practice at an advanced level
• Ability to teach and motivate staff
• Ability to act flexibly as new developments arise and priorities change
• Ability to take initiative and develop role
• Mentoring and group facilitation skills
• Must possess level of interpersonal skills sufficient to interact effectively across the multidisciplinary team
• Knowledgeable on evidence based practice
• Basic computer skills
• Can demonstrate recent clinical practice
• Ability to utilize various data monitoring outcomes through tools such as Excel.
• Ability to disseminate outcomes and knowledge through the use of PowerPoint and writing abilities.
• Ability to meet deadlines both at unit and organizational level.
Preferred Job Qualifications:
• Clinical Nurse Leader certification preferred, but not required.
• CCRN.
Responsibilities:
Relationships and Caring
• Create respectful interactions that are therapeutic and trusting through supporting patient’s rights to make decisions about care and treatment and through remaining cognizant of cultural differences when communicating.
Foster collaborative relationship with interdisciplinary team and colleagues through rounding with other members of the interdisciplinary team to discuss patient progress and by conducting interdisciplinary team meetings to provide mechanism for all clinical disciplines to collaborate, plan, implement, and assess the plan of care.
• Interact with the patient/family upon admission and throughout the hospital stay to discuss the plan of care and coordination of services based on clinical needs and available resources.
• Support of educational environment through patient and family education regarding available options for care through the continuum, creation and coordination of the development of patient educational pathways and patient education materials, and by providing formal and informal educational opportunities on the unit to improve clinical skills of all staff.
• Nurture professional relationships both internal and external to unit and organization with professional organizations, regulatory bodies, Boards of Nursing, colleges of nursing and other key stakeholders through participation in continuing education for self and for the development of colleagues and future generations.
• Seek opportunities within the nursing team to act as coach, mentor, and support to staff of all disciplines and students through utilizing the most current tools to access information, ensuring appropriate assessments of learner needs.
• Work collaboratively with physicians on concurrent denial appeals.
• Coordinate direct communication between the physician and the payors medical director as required.
• Assist Clinical Social Worker and Emergency Department staff to identify the appropriate level of care for the patient by utilizing approved criteria and identify clinical resources to achieve optimal patient outcomes and appropriate reimbursement for ROPH (e.g. Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF), Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) inpatient psychiatric placement, ROPH observation, or ROPH acute inpatient).
• Cultivate and maintain a collaborative relationship with community agencies offering services to discharged patients. Maintain and promote the Rush System for Health ICARE Values as customer service is performed.
Leadership
• Lead activities that evaluate current practice and stimulate change through the dissemination and implementation of latest evidence-based practice to nursing staff and colleagues, writing or revising unit-based or organizational procedures and/or protocols to reflect the latest evidence, implementation of research findings determining costs and client benefits, and through assuming a leadership role in facilitating division-wide innovations in the development, revision and implementation of clinical protocols which transition patient across the continuum of care.
• Mentor other nurses and students regarding nursing practice and career development through providing formal and informal educational opportunities on the unit to improve clinical skills, recommending specific programming to build clinical skill sets, and through effective communication to support staff progress towards identified goals.
• Manage patient services beyond the clinical unit through negotiation of health care resources on behalf of the patient, and through working with team members, other leaders, and physicians to develop and trend performance improvement indicators based on national standards and best practices.
• Evaluate, plan, and have ownership of nursing care for a group of patients for a period of time through outcome management by reviewing consultation notes and/or speaking directly with consultants to discuss patient care and though assessment of patients’ response to treatment and care.
• Communicate and advocate for additional resources when necessary through the maintaining of communication with the Care Management team, Managers and Physicians to ensure appropriate utilization of resources.
• Meet patient care needs through the troubleshooting of complex problems in patient care and by ensuring patient/family preparation for care across the continuum
Provide consultation to physicians and providers to expedite the process of clinical decision-making, diagnostic testing, and treatment.
• Implement and engage in care coordination of specific activities, conferences, strategies, and interventions to move the patient through the continuum of care.
• Establish and maintain a system to identify barriers to efficient and effective care.
Collect and analyze data for presentation to the Utilization Review/Performance Improvement Committee as well as other meetings as applicable.
• Review all direct admissions and transfers from other facilities for appropriate level of care placement, utilizing approved criteria.
• Serve on ROPH Division of Nursing and Professional Nursing Staff process improvement committees as designated.
• Serve and as a role model to nursing staff by demonstrating skilled interpersonal communication while involved in programs at ROPH.
• Oversee and create nursing education programs, utilize the ROPH nursing learner needs assessment to identify gaps in knowledge of nursing staff and deliver education to meet them.
• Collaborate and plan with colleges of nursing to provide progressive educational experience for all levels of nursing students at ROPH.
• Lead initiatives and meet deadlines relative to maintenance of Joint Commission accreditation, ANCC Magnet
• Designation and other specialty designations or certifications within the organization.
• Support and facilitate planning for ROPH based faculty and instructors as well as meaningful student experiences throughout the organization.
Evidenced Based Practice
• Employ nurses science to patient care and environment through utilization of information technology to obtain evidence-based practices and the latest research to provide current best practice information to care providers on the unit.
• Base strategies on successful interventions for given patient population, substantiates procedures, standards, and protocols by research or best practice by exemplars, contribute to body of evidence for best practice by questioning interventions and studying alternatives, and provides a structure for evaluation of evidence and dissemination of best practice through the dissemination and implementation of latest evidence-based practice to nursing staff and colleagues and the writing and/or revising of unit-based procedures, protocols to reflect latest evidence.
• Coordinate and lead formal and informal educational programs based on nursing evidence for staff and students.
• Initiate and/or participate in the development, implementation, and evaluation of Care and Standards of Practice.
• Lead activities that evaluate current practice and stimulate changes in nursing practice.
• Use the results of quality monitoring data and other evidence-based content to plan and conduct annual competency verification activities that assure compliance with RUMC, ROPH, The Joint Commission, Illinois Department of Public
• Health, and professional association standards.
• Complete continued stay reviews utilizing standardized criteria to justify continued inpatient stay.
• Maintain expertise with utilization review guidelines and regulation and educates interdisciplinary team members where appropriate.
• Coordinate discharge planning and social service functions, ensuring compliance with federal and state laws governing hospitals and in context of current prevailing reporting structures such as IHA and HCAHPS and their associated benchmarks and expectations.
• Utilize best practice and current scientific literature reviews to pursue care coordination, discharge planning, transitions management.
• Pursue regular and frequent education for department and other key groups within ROPH related to case management, utilization review and care coordination.
Create and maintain programs for education that reflect best current practices for nurses, other disciplines and students.
• Maintain standardized organizational as well as unit specialty population specific elements of the CNL role, seeking to update it with any new evidence relative to this job description.
Technical Expertise
• Use technology to deliver effective patient care through the utilization of information technology to obtain evidence-based practices and the latest research.
• Translate purpose of equipment and medical devices for patient and families, coordinate the medication administration process, and coordinate the plan of care through the continuum through the coordination of care of multiple disciplines actively involved in patient care.
• Review specific patient cases to determine compliance with standards for nursing practice and reports findings to unit managers, unit advisory committee, and appropriate NPGO standing committees.
• Develop, implement, and evaluate programs at the division-wide and the department level.
Identify educational needs of nursing staff and interdisciplinary team in order to develop, implement, and evaluate continued education programs, product in-services, and other staff development activities.
• Coordinate the necessary tools, information, resources, and personnel for special programs and projects.
• Serve and lead as an expert in quality improvement processes, tools and methodologies
• Document all clinical reviews in the Electronic Medical Record and include criteria justification.
• Evaluation and documentation of outcomes achieved and identified internal and external barriers.
• Maintain a working knowledge of the UR requirements of each payor within the patient population, perform level of care appropriateness reviews and document review activities in the electronic medical record as indicated.
• Document patient assessments and subsequent discharge plans, continuum of care coordination activities, and associated, individualized action plans in the electronic medical record.
Critical Thinking
• Synthesize information and use reasoned clinical judgment which understand science, assures patient safety, advocates for patient and family, revises plan of care when needed through providing centralized care and the coordination of a caseload of patients at the microsystem level and through the overseeing of the management of patient care through assessment of patient population daily.
• Inquire and ask clarifying questions through communication between caregivers in a timely, continuous, and complete manner.
• Identify issues through interpretation of quality data and assists in the coordination of quality improvement activities for assigned departments as negotiated with the Unit Directors.
• Mentor staff and students in the development and application of critical thinking in order to manage complex patients, care for changing patient conditions, and understand quality improvement data/activities.
• Educate nursing staff in the understanding and interpretation of quality improvement data, activities, and quality tools.
• Communicate and facilitate understanding among patient and others on the clinical team through the facilitation of direct care when appropriate and through the facilitation of full team discussions including patient and family.
• Review new admissions and perform utilization review, discharge planning, outlier case review, psychosocial needs assessment and/or care management.
• Actively screen all patients for being high risk readmitters and create individualized plans of care, collaborating with the interdisciplinary team on strategies to promote their health in the outpatient setting, rather than through a readmission.
• Identify variances related to length of stay and the discharge planning process and develop individualized plans to resolve barriers.
• Conduct follow-up of care of treatment delays, results reporting and actions outcomes in the electronic medical record.
• Appropriately identify, refer and collaborate on cases with the Physician Advisor that do not meet criteria for admission or continued stay, utilizing approved criteria to support timely progression of patients along the healthcare continuum.
Rush is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.
