Professional Development Specialist; VHS Surgical Services
About The Position
The Professional Development Specialist is an advanced Nurse Professional Development practitioner accountable for designing, standardizing, and evaluating system-wide educational strategies, programs, and competency frameworks. The role develops and operationalizes education governance to promote consistency, quality, regulatory compliance, and efficient use of resources across the health system. The Specialist partners with leaders, subject matter experts, frontline educators, and other stakeholders to translate organizational priorities into scalable learning and workforce development solutions. These solutions support clinical quality, patient safety, workforce readiness, and staff retention while reducing variation, duplication, onboarding inefficiencies, turnover, and regulatory risk. Operating at a systems level, the Specialist leads education innovation and large-scale workforce and practice initiatives, including standardized onboarding, competency validation, and professional development processes. The role uses data to evaluate educational initiatives' impact on organizational, clinical, and workforce outcomes and leads continuous improvement efforts that support high-reliability care and operational efficiency.
Requirements
- Master’s degree in nursing or a related field.
- At least 5 years of recent clinical, educational, or nursing leadership experience.
- Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.
- Must be licensed or eligible to practice pending licensure as a Registered Nurse in Virginia with a multi-state license, or in West Virginia with a multi-state license, in accordance with applicable Board of Nursing regulations.
- Nursing Professional Development Board Certification (NPD-BC) is required within 18 months of hire.
Nice To Haves
- At least 3 years of NPD or nursing education experience.
- Nursing Professional Development Board Certification (NPD-BC) at the time of hire.
Responsibilities
- Lead the development and sustainment of system-wide education strategies, frameworks, and governance structures.
- Define and maintain standardized educational models, curricula, and competency frameworks.
- Establish standards for instructional design, delivery, and evaluation to reduce redundancy and promote consistent learning experiences.
- Partner with executive and clinical leadership to identify enterprise learning needs and create education plans aligned with workforce and financial objectives.
- Collaborate with educators, leaders, and frontline staff to develop education content and programs that meet organizational standards and the needs of diverse settings, disciplines, and patient populations.
- Facilitate effective and efficient education and development delivery across the health system.
- Design, implement, and improve system-level programs, including onboarding, transition to practice, competency validation, leadership development, and specialty pathways.
- Develop and maintain standardized educational content, tools, and resources.
- Ensure educational programming aligns with regulatory, accreditation, and professional standards.
- Provide system-level oversight of competency programs and align them with clinical practice standards, organizational priorities, and regulatory requirements.
- Standardize initial and ongoing competency validation, assessment, and documentation processes.
- Integrate clinical judgment, critical thinking, and evidence-based practice into competency frameworks.
- Establish and monitor key performance indicators and dashboards to assess effectiveness, identify gaps, and inform decisions.
- Apply quality improvement and change management methodologies to reduce variation, improve efficiency, and sustain practice change.
- Evaluate educational initiatives using metrics related to clinical quality and patient safety, time-to-productivity and onboarding efficiency, staff retention and workforce stability, competency compliance, and regulatory readiness.
- Serve in advanced NPD roles, including leader, change agent, consultant, and educator, at a systems level.
- Lead or contribute to system-wide committees, councils, and governance structures.
- Maintain advanced knowledge of trends, evidence, and best practices in nursing professional development and healthcare education.
- Contribute to the profession through program innovation, scholarship, presentations, or dissemination of best practices.
Benefits
- Zero-deductible health plan
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Generous paid time off
- Tuition assistance
- Retirement savings match
- Employee Assistance Program
- Incentive-based wellness program membership
- Health savings account
- Flexible spending account for childcare
- Life insurance
- Short-term disability
- Long-term disability
- Professional development
- Discounts on on-campus dining
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
