Nursing Practice Leader - Stead Family Children's Hospital Quality and Safety

Position Specific Summary:

The Children’s Surgery Program Manager (CSPM) at UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital (SFCH) is a recognized leader in pediatric surgical quality improvement and patient safety. This role is vital to the hospital’s commitment to achieving and maintaining Level I Pediatric Surgery Center Verification status as granted by the American College of Surgeons (ACS), and to advancing the six domains of high-quality children’s surgical care as defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The CSPM initiates and coordinates process improvement and patient safety initiatives for all pediatric surgical patients while fostering teamwork, a robust safety culture, and service excellence. This individual oversees quality outcome and process measures, supervises the collection, analysis, and reporting of surgical safety data, and contributes to the design, implementation, and evaluation of system-level and patient care improvements. The CSPM, Medical Director of Children’s Surgery/Chief of Surgery, Medical Director of Children’s Anesthesia, and the Associate Director of Nursing for Quality, Safety, and Evidence-Based Practice, works in close partnership to support the quality of pediatric surgical care and the ongoing achievement of ACS Level I Pediatric Surgery Center Verification.

The CSPM serves as a strategic partner in the vision and execution of pediatric surgical quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, leading efforts to maintain Level I Pediatric Surgery Center Verification and ensure compliance with ACS CSV standards. The role provides oversight of projects and programs across all phases of care, coordinating clinical management, implementing protocols and guidelines, and monitoring patient outcomes. The CSPM supports data collection, ensures high-quality reporting for ACS NSQIP Pediatric, and leads multidisciplinary performance improvement efforts. This position also supports education and outreach, facilitates staff development, and promotes evidence-based practices across the region. Administratively, the CSPM manages operational, personnel, and quality aspects of the program, serves as a liaison to integrates pediatric surgical services within broader institutional systems. Additionally, the CSPM contributes to research/EBP, protocol design, and scholarly activities, while engaging in community, state, and national efforts to advance pediatric surgical care systems.

Key Areas of Responsibility

·         Serve as a quality improvement leader by promoting and supporting use of QI principles, methods, and tools to improve processes and patient outcomes

·         Identify clinical outcome and process compliance trends, prioritize, and recommend improvements

·         Develop and support system-wide dashboards and scorecards incorporating clinical process and outcome metrics tailored to strategic or operational quality improvement and patient safety goals

·         Design solutions to address opportunities based on benchmarking, networking, goal comparison, data analysis and corrective actions

·         Provides guidance, facilitate, and work cooperatively with physicians/clinicians, administration, allied health, and support staff involved in the quality and performance improvement process to improve pediatric patient safety and clinical quality throughout the enterprise

·         Lead and support a culture of patient safety, clinical improvement, and evidence-based practice, including appropriate process measures to decrease frequency and severity of patient safety events

·         Assists with serious safety event review and root cause analysis, including subsequent action plan development, implementation, and evaluation