Nurse Educator Clinical Laboratory - University Hospital, (1851)
About The Position
The Nurse Educator for Clinical Laboratory Processes develops, implements, and evaluates educational programs that connect clinical nursing practice with laboratory operations. The role helps nursing staff understand and follow laboratory protocols for specimen collection, labeling, transport, and result interpretation to support safe, efficient patient care. The educator partners with laboratory leadership to strengthen cross-disciplinary collaboration, quality outcomes, and regulatory compliance. The position develops training and competency programs, supports improvements to laboratory-related workflows, and helps address knowledge or compliance gaps across nursing units and clinics. It also supports point-of-care testing education and readiness, quality investigations, and transfusion services training. The work is based in a standard hospital or clinic setting and may involve travel between health-system locations.
Requirements
- Registered Nurse licensed in New Mexico.
- Bachelor’s or associate’s degree in nursing.
- Three years of acute care clinical experience, including point-of-care testing and laboratory specimen collection.
- Experience in clinical education or staff development.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills to influence cross-functional teams.
- Analytical skills for performance data review and process improvement.
- Adaptability and innovation in teaching methods, including classroom, virtual, and simulation formats.
- Proficiency in adult learning principles and education theory.
- Strong understanding of clinical laboratory operations or demonstrated experience in laboratory-related nursing workflows.
- Provide proof of immunity to Hepatitis B, receive immunization, or sign a waiver refusing Hepatitis B immunization.
- Provide documentation of a PPD test conducted within 90 days before hire or undergo a PPD test.
Nice To Haves
- Certification in Nursing Professional Development (NPD-BC) or a similar credential.
Responsibilities
- Design and deliver evidence-based training on specimen collection and delivery, labeling standards, point-of-care testing, transfusion medicine, and anatomic and surgical pathology practices.
- Collaborate with clinical and laboratory teams to standardize laboratory-related workflows in nursing units and clinics, including order management, specimen collection, and labeling.
- Design onboarding and competency validation for new nursing staff on laboratory processes.
- Coordinate policy and procedure updates in TriCore and the hospital document control system when appropriate.
- Participate in Division new employee orientation training as requested.
- Conduct gap analyses to identify knowledge or compliance issues related to laboratory procedures across care teams.
- Review hospital system non-conforming events and TriCore exceptions to identify improvement opportunities.
- Lead educational initiatives to reduce specimen rejection rates and improve turnaround times.
- Participate in quality assurance projects involving laboratory and nursing collaboration, including specimen identification, processing, and stabilization.
- Ensure training aligns with regulatory standards, including CLIA, CAP, and The Joint Commission, and with institutional policies.
- Educate staff about pre-analytical errors and strategies to mitigate them.
- Support point-of-care testing education, competency, and audit readiness in coordination with the POCT or Lab Manager.
- Participate in quality assurance processes, including root cause analysis and non-conforming event investigations.
- Serve as a liaison between nursing units, clinics, and laboratory departments to foster mutual understanding and operational alignment.
- Attend interdisciplinary meetings to represent nursing education needs in laboratory-related topics.
- Provide real-time coaching during audits, investigations, or workflow changes.
- Collaborate with nursing leadership on training to improve identification of transfusion reactions.
- Educate staff on correct specimen identification for type and screen and crossmatch to prevent Wrong Blood In Tube events.
- Establish training to support nursing adherence to blood product storage, transport, verification, and infusion timelines and reduce blood product wastage.
- Assist with mock codes, emergency release protocols, and massive transfusion protocol training.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
