Nurse Residency Professional Development & Retention Specialist - Augusta, GA

How would you like to work in a place where your contributions and ideas are valued? A place where you can serve with compassion, pursue excellence and honor every voice? At Wellstar, our mission is simple, yet powerful : to enhance the health and well-being of every person we serve. We are proud to have become a shining example of what's possible when the brightest professionals dedicate themselves to making a difference in the healthcare industry, and in people's lives.

Work Shift

Day (United States of America)

• Job Summary :

The Nurse Residency Program (NRP) Nurse Residency Professional Development & Retention Specialist uses personal expertise, additional subject matter experts from within the system and, when appropriate and feasible, external presenters to meet the educational needs of team members across Wellstar Health Systems. The specialist serves as a resource person and role model for New Grad Nurses and creates a direct connection between individual facility and system educational efforts. He / she promotes evidenced based practice in the integration of Patient-Centered Care practices and guiding principles, and promotes the vision, values and philosophy of Wellstar Health Systems. This individual seeks to influence the professional role, competence, and growth of nurses in a variety of settings, and supports lifelong learning of nurses by fostering an appropriate climate for the adult learning process. He / she assumes a leadership role, provides guidance and knowledge to facilitate professional growth in others, and advances the nursing profession and Nurse Residency Program (NRP).

The person in this role will develop and implement programs and services to support nurses and patient care and evaluate strategies to assure attainment of operational and strategic goals in collaboration with nursing leadership and key stakeholders. They will collect and assemble required data for residency related projects and maintain all records necessary to verify successful completion of residency program. He / she will establish relationships with student nurses, new grad nurses, preceptors, unit leadership, and academic partners to gather and analyze system needs and assess available resources and enact optimal solutions upon consultation and collaboration with key stakeholders. The person in this role will provide additional support to unit-based leadership, nurse externs, preceptors, new grad RN residents, and department committees as assigned.

The Nurse Residency Professional Development & Retention Specialist naturally acts as a transition to practice manager formally or informally by providing an essential stabilizing presence and beneficial interventions for the pre and post licensure nurse to help bridge the expectation-reality gap. Within scope, he / she demonstrates the qualities inherent to nurse residency leadership, such as, educator, administrator, scholar, and evaluator during engagements with nurse externs and nurse residents. The learning environment may be the physical classroom, bedside, and simulation laboratory settings as well as the independent self-directed learning and virtual environments.

The ideal candidate has knowledge and understanding of the ANCC scope and standards of the New Graduate Residency Program and the professional development educator / specialist including knowledge of laws, rules and regulations, standards and guidelines of certifying and accrediting bodies, hospital and department / unit standards, protocols, policies and procedures governing the provision of nursing care applicable to the area of assignment, team dynamics / building and strong interpersonal, written and communication skills.

Core Responsibilities and Essential Functions :

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required :

Concise knowledge and understanding of clinical protocol, procedures, and standards within area of nursing practice and individual scope.

Highly developed verbal and written communication skills and the ability to present effectively to small and large groups.

Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively at all levels in a collaborative team environment.

Ability to plan, implement, and evaluate individual patient care programs.

Mirroring the nursing process to assess educational needs, identifies issues and trends among the organization and learners, and then, works with all stakeholders to ascertain desired outcomes.

Knowledge of related accreditation processes and certification requirements in area of specialty.

Engagement in the NRP Accreditation process through the maintenance of program structure, goals, and accreditation standards. Identification of accreditation standard exemplars and supports the accreditation renewal process.

Acts as a natural change agent within the organization with the potential to influence the community. Keen awareness of current healthcare issues, educational trends, and organizational factors which prompt the need for change within the program and enables him / her to devise solutions to program challenges.

Consideration of safety, effectiveness, cost, and impact for learning activities and outcomes; human, financial, and materials resource allocation.

Engages in ongoing quality improvement of nursing practice through utilization of the nursing process, current research, creativity, and skills.

Encourages and supports nurse residents in the engagement of evidence-based practice process and utilization.

Directly influences research utilization and attitudes toward research among nurse residents.

Uses current evaluation methods involving patient narratives to determine learner-centered program. Involve learners and stakeholders using valid evaluation methods to measure attainment of outcomes.

Collaboration with nursing leadership and Talent Acquisition teams in recruiting efforts of pre-licensure nursing students practicing within Wellstar Health System and through engagement outside Wellstar Health System.

Partner with nursing leaders to identify and recruit experienced RNs capable of supporting the NRP as small group facilitators, mentors, and subject matter experts.

Engage current and new nursing leaders in the NRP through ongoing updates, outcomes data, orientation to the program, and solicitation of feedback.

Partner with system NRP leaders to communicate nurse resident and site-specific needs, updates, changes, outcomes, and initiatives.

Observes and validates staff adherence to best practice : standard work, clinical care skills, polices, procedures and orders sets.

Ability to assess educational needs of the NG and to design and develop appropriate learning tools to facilitate adult learning by integrating a variety of teaching methods.

Assesses and implements interactive education techniques that provide opportunities for critical thinking, best practice utilization and competency validation.

Review individuals competencies and jointly determine progression plan.

Provides constructive feedback and coaching as needed to promote learning to achieve expected outcomes.

Support the internationally educated RN in their transition to practice within a new cultural environment.

Engage in leadership rounds with all nurse residents to support their transition to practice, well-being, and professional development, escalating concerns to appropriate leadership when necessary.

Whether in class or during clinical rounds, assessing learning needs and validating clinical competence and program outcomes, while fostering a positive learning climate.

Evaluate care team interaction and performance through precepted clinical and simulated experiences identify opportunities to improve and address real-time.

Facilitates goal planning, evaluation, and weekly debriefing or as needed.

Assist unit leaders with new grad (NG) RN orientation to new equipment and technology systems as appropriate and acts as a performance coach and mentor of the NG.

Working knowledge of the use of established clinical and preceptorship models in the development of clinical education programs.

Provides clinical preceptorship development by teaching critical reasoning strategies for nurse resident interactions.

Administrative :

Updates department leadership on employee progress & competencies.

Partners with system Nurse Residency Program leaders to communicate nurse resident and site-specific needs, updates, changes, outcomes, and initiatives.

Collaborates with key stakeholders to formulate effective orientation and onboarding programs.

Assesses the competencies of new graduate RN staff, using clearly defined guidelines.

Participate in facility hand-off and communicate ongoing needs to additional support staff.

Professional Development

Maintains proficient level with core clinical competencies including EMR documentation processes

Compliant with all applicable WellStar Health System policies, procedures and job requirements

Participates in training and development for Faculty role, formal and informal

Identifies personal learning needs and acquires knowledge to ensure competency

Evaluation of own practice via personal reflection and solicited feedback from learners, peers, and supervisors; establishes goals based on feedback

Performs other duties as assigned

Complies with all Wellstar Health System policies, standards of work, and code of conduct.

Required Minimum Education :

Bachelors Nursing

Required Minimum License(s) and Certification(s) :

All certifications are required upon hire unless otherwise stated.

Required Minimum Experience :

Minimum 2 years clinical nursing required and coordination / facilitation of multiple and varied activities

Ability to work with diverse groups and multidisciplinary health professionals at all levels. Literate in various computer application skills

Required Minimum Skills :

Ability to proficiently read, write and speak the English language.

Ability to provide professional written and verbal communication, group facilitation, educational planning and presentation.

Ability to provide and receive constructive feedback that promotes learning.

Must be self-motivated and self-directed with strong customer service, problem solving, interpersonal communication and conflict resolution skills.

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