Associate Chief Nursing Officer-Nursing Professional Practice

The Associate Chief Nursing Officer-Nursing Professional Practice is accountable for leadership and management of the performance of the various nursing teams supporting patient care services and administration in the Department of Nursing Services and Patient Care within the University of Iowa Health Care.

The ACNO- Nursing Professional Practice is accountable to enhance the organization’s capacity to perform by addressing the strategic leadership, change management, quality management, relationship management, information knowledge management, resource management and personal/professional development objectives that follow.

Human Resource Management

·         Provide leadership and supervision of daily operations of staff in areas of responsibility providing service throughout the organization.

·         Develop and retain qualified area leadership staff. For direct reports, assure performance expectations are clearly understood.

·         Hold staff in areas of responsibility accountable to meet or exceed patient needs/expectations as well as maintain standards of collaboration and respect within and among multi-disciplinary teams.

·         Build an effective divisional/cross divisional leadership team. Prepare leadership staff in areas of responsibility to lead/participate/serve as effective members of the multidisciplinary team.

·         Demonstrate commitment to people; coach/mentor staff to participate in team decision-making.

·         Actively seek participation from staff on decision-making and customer service improvement activities.

·         Adhere to all UI Health Care guidelines and respective collective bargaining agreements.

·         Participate in collection, analysis, reporting and strategizing of human resource related metrics for the Department of Nursing Services and Patient Care.

·         Partner with Health Care Human Resources to support and enhance comprehensive HR support to the department.

·         Lead the assessment, evaluation, dissemination, and action planning surrounding staff engagement for areas of responsibility. 

Financial and Data Management

·         Assume responsibility for development, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of budget for areas of responsibility.

·         Utilize and analyze metrics to drive value to assure cost effective allocations of resources.

·         Benchmark with academic medical centers to determine best practices related to, quality metrics, staff and patient satisfaction, and other indicators, including Magnet® required metrics, as needed.

·         Optimize skill mix, scope of practice and operational efficiency.

·         Participate in annual budget preparation, continuous monitoring of divisional budget and justification of variances as needed.

Operations, Standards of Care, Regulatory Compliance, Quality and Patient Satisfaction

·         Participate in daily safety brief and assist as needed with identified issues.

·         Lead or partner with other departments on organizational or Magnet®-related initiatives to optimize quality and nurse-sensitive outcomes, patient satisfaction, and staff engagement.

·         Monitor outcome metrics: quality, safety, and satisfaction across nursing units.

·         Support nursing and multidisciplinary leadership to design efficient/effective and safe systems and processes to ensure patient safety and optimize patient outcomes.

·         Ensure and support compliance with regulatory standards are met and understood by staff.

·         Ensure standard of care delivery and competency of staff across units and services. 

Patient Care/Service Delivery

·         Identify and address opportunities for improvement related to patient care.

·         Seek and evaluate best practices, benchmark with like institutions to continuously improve patient care outcomes. 

·         Improve communication and collaboration across disciplines by developing working relationships.

·         Lead nursing informatics, nursing education, nursing quality, nursing research and evidence-based practice (EBP), Magnet, department nursing practice leaders, and Emergency Medical Services Learning Resource Center (EMSLRC) staff to enhance the support and optimization provided by these teams to the department and organization.

Planning and Goal Management

·         Prioritize and manage strategic goals. Achieve alignment amongst areas of responsibility of goals around strategic intent/aim.

·         Achieve quality improvement in relation to assigned/delegated pillars of the organizational and Department of Nursing’s strategic plan.

·         Oversee daily administrative operations of areas of responsibility. 

·         Identify hospital operations strengths and weaknesses and act on opportunities for improvement for quality/ nurse-sensitive indicators, staff engagement, patient engagement, and overall operational efficiency. 

·         Sustain Magnet designation and other mission-critical accreditations relevant to areas of responsibility. 

Communication/Collaboration

·         Develop effective working relationships among leadership from nursing, other departments, providers, and hospital administration s.

·         Develop effective working relationships with medical and advanced practice provider leadership as appropriate to areas of responsibility.

·         Receive and disseminate information about strategic initiatives, process improvements, best practices, and innovation within and between the Department of Nursing and UI Health Care and serve as a key l liaison to the UI College of Nursing and other nursing and community partners.

Education Programs

·         Maintain a climate of learning that promotes collaborative learning and research for nursing students from the University of Iowa and other collegiate programs.

·         Provide staff with tools to learn and apply skills related to change management/work redesign.

·         Provide structure and process to implement research and EBP that benefit patients across the health care system.

·         Support initial and ongoing nursing staff education including but not limited to competency assurance and professional development/mentorship.

·         Provide oversite to the Magnet Program staff to ensure continual Magnet Recognition Program® designation for UI Health Care.

·         Provide oversite to Nursing Education staff to ensure continual accreditation for the Nurse Residency Program and the Experienced Nurse Fellowship Program.

·         Provide oversite to the EMSLRC to ensure continual accreditation for Emergency Medical Technician and Paramedic training programs with the state of Iowa and relevant accrediting bodies.

Research Administration

·         Support and promote Nursing research and EBP and their staff’s availability to the Department of Nursing and organization’s staff, benchmark best practices with comparable settings.

·         Ensure development and implementation of a comprehensive nursing research program, promoting research activities that support program, departmental and organizational objectives.

·         Ensure/provide resources for development of nursing research grant proposals, and the acquisition and administration of grant funds.