Associate Director, Nursing - Urology

The Associate Director of Nursing is responsible for the management and oversight of nursing practice for assigned clinical areas. S/he has responsibility for the overall strategic plan for program operations, personnel management, annual goals and objectives and fiscal targets. S/he serves as liaison to other clinical services provided, and ensures that personnel issues are managed in compliance with contractual agreements, and supports positive employee-management relationships. The Associate Director of Nursing is responsible for the management of nursing schedules, O.R. case flow (if applicable) service efficiency and physician satisfaction. S/he is responsible for the attainment of patient safety goals, regulatory survey preparation and specialized training initiatives and continuing education.

The Associate Director of Nursing works in collaboration with nursing and physician leadership to ensure that the service maintains the highest standards of patient care and is responsive to the needs of the patient and family and the organization. S/he initiates, develops and implements mechanisms for collaboration between nurses, clinical staff members, physicians and other practitioners.

Patient Experience

1. Leads nursing practice using the tenets of the Professional Practice Model of Relationship Centered Care and the Care Delivery Model of Modified Primary Nursing for the promotion of the patient experience.

2. Demonstrates proficiency in all aspects of Purposeful Hourly Rounding (PHR) and role models expected behaviors.

3. Ensures the integration of PHR into clinical activities to enhance Relationship Centered Care.

4. Confirms that staff members round hourly on all patients by review of rounding validation data and observation of unit rounding.

5. Validates Nurse Manager/Assistant Nurse Manager/Nursing Administrator competency in PHR and provides consistent meaningful feedback with more focused feedback as needed.

6. Synthesizes quantitative and qualitative feedback regarding the patient experience and staff engagement to the Nurse Manager, Assistant Nurse Manager or Nursing Administrator staff and the Interdisciplinary Patient Care Team that leads to the development and implementation of an action plan.

7. Follows up on all patient concerns in a timely manner, provides service recovery as needed and escalates patient concerns as appropriate.

8. Demonstrates caring, respect, compassion, empathy and active listening through dialogue, body language and actions.

Quality and Safety

1. Designs, supports and leads a safe, therapeutic and efficient patient-centered care environment for professional practice.

2. Identifies and investigates issues or variances in practice/operations by participating in the RCA process and develops and implements corrective action plans.

3. Fosters a fair and open culture that encourages error and near-miss occurrence reporting.

4. Leads interdisciplinary quality improvement teams using the principles of high reliability.

5. Communicates with staff and leadership about unit progress, changes, and compliance with quality and safety metrics.

6. Responds to escalations of potential safety hazards or gaps from best practice by correcting concerns following institutional chain of command protocol.

7. Monitors institutional information technology infrastructure and corrects gaps in clinical nurse documentation.

8. Leads staff participation in quality and safety initiatives and mandated compliance measures.

9. Demonstrates accountability for all unit quality and safety practices and compliance, and ensures maintenance of mandatory staff competency evaluations.

10. Reviews unit progress, changes and compliance with quality and safety metrics with Nurse Managers, Assistant Nurse Managers and Nursing Administrators.

11. Coaches/mentors Clinical Nurse Managers/Assistant Nurse Managers/Nursing Shift Managers in the escalation of potential safety hazards and validation of compliance with hospital and departmental policies and procedures and regulatory agency standards.

12. Fosters a professional practice environment through the facilitation of collegial interdisciplinary relationships, peer review, nursing research, innovation and joint practice arrangement through affiliating universities.

OPERATIONS AND ADMINISTRATION

1. Supports implementation of the mission, vision, goals and objectives of the department, throughout the clinical service and individual patient care units.

2. Provides administrative oversight to a service line, department or group of units to ensure that all activity (staffing, support services, interdisciplinary collaboration, resources and financial viability) supports the goals of the organization.

3. Works collaboratively with Nurse Managers, Assistant Nurs