Clinical Nurse Specialist - Emergency Department

UK St. Claire•Morehead, KY

5d•Onsite

About The Position

The Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) provides staff-development expertise as an educator, quality-improvement consultant, facilitator, change agent, leader, and researcher in inpatient care settings. The CNS promotes high-quality outcomes and innovative practice in accordance with the Kentucky Nursing Practice Act and hospital policies. In the Emergency Department, the CNS supports bedside nurses and fosters their ability to deliver excellent, evidence-based nursing practice through education, competency assessment, continuing education, and leadership development. The position is accountable for the quality of nursing services delivered by the CNS and those under their direction, including through participation in quality-assurance and performance-improvement initiatives. The CNS takes a leadership role in coordinating the interdisciplinary team and collaborating with other health-team members to enhance patient outcomes. As a professional role model, the CNS helps create a professional nursing climate at UK St. Claire. The CNS reports to the Nursing Director of the service line, with a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Director of Nursing Education. The role assesses educational and practice needs; designs, delivers, and evaluates evidence-based learning; coordinates orientation and professional-development activities; and provides consultation and mentoring to nurses. It also supports quality improvement, patient safety, evidence-based practice, clinical standards and policies, shared governance, regulatory and accreditation requirements, and related nursing education and practice initiatives. The position is full time, on the evening shift, and based in the Emergency Room in Morehead, Kentucky.

Requirements

Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), APRN, or Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) qualification required.
At least 3 years of bedside nursing experience required.
Current Kentucky RN license or a valid multistate RN license recognized by Kentucky required.
BLS, ACLS, PALS, and other certifications as required for the assigned clinical area or patient population.

Nice To Haves

At least 1 year of experience as a clinical educator or nursing instructor preferred.
Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) certification preferred.

Responsibilities

Conduct needs assessments and analyze clinical, quality, and performance data to identify education, competency, and practice gaps.
Plan, develop, implement, and evaluate evidence-based educational programs using adult-learning principles and strategies suited to learners and clinical settings.
Coordinate nursing orientation, onboarding, continuing education, competency validation, remediation, certification, nurse residency, and other professional-development activities.
Develop and maintain educational materials and resources supporting patient-population-specific care, leadership development, clinical competency, and safe nursing practice.
Provide education, consultation, mentoring, and individualized learning support to nurses throughout their professional development.
Lead and support quality-improvement and patient-safety initiatives through data analysis, clinical audits, gap assessments, root-cause evaluation, and monitoring practice standards.
Collaborate with nursing leadership, physicians, infection prevention, quality improvement, and other healthcare professionals to address educational, clinical, regulatory, and patient-care needs.
Translate research and best evidence into clinical practice, educational programming, policies, procedures, protocols, and practice guidelines.
Support the development, implementation, and evaluation of clinical standards, policies, procedures, and practice changes to improve quality, safety, and patient outcomes.
Serve as a nursing professional-development and clinical-practice resource to staff, leaders, committees, task forces, councils, and interdisciplinary teams.
Support shared governance, professional practice, frontline staff engagement, leadership development, and unit-based quality-improvement activities.
Coordinate and support continuing-education, clinical-affiliation, life-support-training, accreditation, and regulatory requirements.
Participate in or lead committees, work groups, departmental initiatives, research activities, and projects related to nursing education, professional practice, quality, and patient safety.
Demonstrate advanced clinical knowledge, effective interdisciplinary communication, ethical practice, lifelong learning, and professional role modeling.
Maintain required educational and clinical competencies, promote a safe and healthy work environment, support departmental operations and leadership as needed, and perform related duties as assigned.