Chief Nursing Officer/Nurse Executive

Job Description

Job Description

The  Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) has overall authority for providing leadership, direction, and administration of direct patient care activities, nursing practice, nursing education, and development across the organization. The CNO is responsible for driving, supporting, and modeling a culture focused on employee engagement, quality, patient safety, fiscal responsibility, and the overall patient experience.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Strategizes and drives process improvements focused on innovative care delivery and/or operational models designed to improve clinical services, outcomes, patient throughput, and patient safety.

• Promotes the use and implementation of technology in the workplace in order to streamline operations, facilitate communications, and optimize work processes.

• Collaborates with other disciplines for the implementation of programs, policies, and procedures that address how patient care needs of the patient population served are assessed, met and evaluated.

• Ensures patient and family-centered care is comprehensive and coordinated and monitored for effectiveness through the quality improvement model that leads to systematic improvements over time resulting in outcomes measures that outperform benchmark statistics of the national database used inpatient and nursing-sensitive indicators.

• Allocates financial, information, and human capital for improvement activities, ensuring efficient delivery of cost-effective and efficient services to patients, physicians, and hospital departments.

• Promotes interdisciplinary collaboration with clear expectations and direction to all practicing nurses about the importance of partnerships with patients and families, and with all disciplines to ensure a comprehensive care plan.

• Enhances quality outcomes by partnering with leadership (CMO and/or Chief Of Staff and/or President of Medical Staff) for shared clinical decision making, but has overall responsibility for all patient care.

LEADERSHIP: • Serves as a member of the executive leadership team, building and supporting effective collegial relationships with applicable internal and external constituents and stakeholders and ensuring optimal operating effectiveness and strategic positioning.

• Assumes an active role with the hospital’s governing body, senior leadership, medical staff, management, and other clinical leaders in the hospital’s decision-making structure and process.

• Communicates expectations, develops leaders, and evolves the organization to meet current and anticipated needs and strategic priorities.

• Promotes relationships among all types of community organizations to improve patient outcomes and the health of the communities served.

• Establishes structures, systematic and equitable processes, and expectations that support lifelong professional learning, role development, and career enhancement.

• Collaborates with directors in hiring, orientation, evaluation, discipline, and education of all clinical staff.

• Regularly rounds on patients, families, employees, and physicians to enhance communication, ensure alignment, oversee operations, and that the experience is exceptional.

PRACTICE:

• Establishes mechanisms to assure nurses throughout the organization are involved in shared–governance and decision-making structures and processes that establish standards of practice and address issues of concern.

• Assures the flow of information and decision-making is bi-directional and horizontal between and among professional nurses at the bedside, the leadership team, and the CNO.

• Establishes and enhances a culture of evidence-based decision–making in clinical and management initiatives.

• Approves nursing policies, nursing standards of patient care, treatment, and services.

• Establishes a Professional Practice Model that illustrates the alignment and integration of nursing practice with the mission, vision, philosophy, and values that nursing has adopted.

• Ensures the care delivery system is integrated within the Professional Practice Model and promotes continuous, consistent, efficient, and accountable patient care.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

•Bachelor's degree in nursing 

•Master's degree in nursing or related field

•5+ years of experience in clinical nurse management or equivalent combination of education and/or experience