Clinical Nurse Educator, Registry

Join UChicago Medicine, as a Registry Clinical Nurse Educator (RN) in our NICU Department .

In this role, the Clinical Nurse Educator is a nurse with previous educational experience whose focus is on supporting existing staff development and nursing education. This nurse is an educator, consultant, role model, staff/patient advocate, change agent, leader and cost effective professional. The Clinical Nurse Educator elevates the standard of professional nursing practice at UCM by developing, coaching and mentoring staff to become expert clinicians and leaders.

The Margaret M. and George A. Stephen Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Comer Children’s Hospital provides Level IV NICU care, which is the highest level of newborn care according to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ standards. Comer Children’s is one of only a few children’s hospitals in Illinois that provides Level IV NICU care just steps away from our birth center. Our pediatric surgical subspecialists on staff can perform advanced surgical procedures when needed. We also offer extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a type of life support for infants with heart or lung problems.

Essential Job Functions:

• Utilizes standardized and customized assessment tools and testing methodologies to measure staff knowledge and skill in core nursing practices and within specialty areas.
• Collects data regarding employee learning needs, at least annually, through the methods of observation, interviewing, focus groups and instrumentation.
• Interprets the medical center’s strategic imperatives, policies, guidelines, and other internal demands in order to design education that supports these strategic goals and key objectives.
• Offers recommendations for the deployment of educational resources to enable the achievement of organizational goals.
• Interprets health care trends and incorporates current research into the design of learning needs assessments and the identification of learning needs.
• Collaborates with key staff to develop a comprehensive annual educational calendar.
• Participates in the design of centralized and unit-based preceptor education and development initiatives.
• Prepares educational objectives, lesson plans, handouts, self-learning modules, instructional manuals, and tests for programs.
• Serves as faculty in organization wide education events, as appropriate.
• Evaluates all learning activities using objective performance criteria and recommends corresponding changes in education plans.
• Utilizes appropriate tools and testing methodology for assessing changes in learners’ knowledge, skills, and clinical practice as well as for determining education project/program effectiveness.
• Develops knowledge and skill based measures to collect performance data and integrates measurement activities and findings into quality projects.
• Researches available funding sources and submits funding proposals in order to implement support and expand new or existing programs to meet the educational needs.

Required Qualifications:

• BSN required
• Minimum requirement of three years of clinical practice in specialty area
• Knowledge and previous application of adult learning principles
• Demonstrated leadership skills evidenced by serving as a charge nurse, preceptor or episodic teacher
• Demonstrates complex decision-making skills and problem solving ability

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master of Science in Nursing or related education field preferred
• Certification in specialty area preferred
• Previous experience in a role as an educator preferred
• Previous experience working within multidisciplinary teams or nursing leadership committees preferred

Position Details:

• Job Type/FTE: Registry (0.15 FTE)
• Shift: Evening
• Work Location: Onsite
• Unit/Department: NICU
• CBA Code: Non-Union