Clinical Nurse Specialist, Full Time, Operating Room, Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center

Job Description

Quality of Care:

• Supports surgical teams with expert clinical guidance, troubleshooting, and workflow optimization to maintain patient safety, improve Operating Room efficiency, and ensure high-quality surgical care.
• Collaborates with the nursing team to provide direct or indirect patient care based on identified patient needs.
• Advocates for patients, families, and nursing team members to ensure patient rights and an optimal healthcare environment.
• Assists in the formation of quality improvement programs utilizing the framework of structure, process and outcome based on national benchmarks.
• Evaluates quality data and translates evidenced based knowledge into recommendations to improve the quality of care and clinical practice.
• Collaborates with nursing team members to identify interventions that reflect current scientific knowledge, are evidence based and consistent with patient and family needs.
• Supports and implements the principles of a High Reliability Organization (HRO) in daily practice
• Advocates for patient safety by identifying risks, escalating concerns, and ensuring adherence to perioperative safety protocols, sterile technique, and regulatory standards.
• Evaluates the effectiveness of interventions and makes recommendations to enhance quality of care and nursing practice. Participates in performance improvement activities related to perioperative services.
• Maintains strong knowledge of safety and regulatory standards, including AORN, Joint Commission, CMS, and OSHA requirements.
• Demonstrates thorough understanding of Operating Room procedures, sterile technique, and perioperative best practices.

Education:

• Identifies the educational needs of team members, patients and families concerning alterations in health, the disease process, current evidence-based treatment for disease processes, the hospital plan of care, and discharge planning.
• Identifies the clinical and professional development needs of the nursing team and develops and provides educational programs and conferences for the staff.
• Supports the training of novice clinicians by serving as an instructor, role model, and mentor.
• Assists in designing orientation and training curriculums.
• Pursues and participates in formal and independent learning activities to enhance knowledge, clinical competency and professional development.

Administration:

• Participates in performance improvement activities related to area of specialization and/or clinical unit.
• Assists in policy, protocol, order set and competency development and review as needed.
• Participates in hospital and system-wide Shared Governance and assists in the development of clinical goals related to nursing.
• Promotes recruitment and retention by providing guidance, support and professional development opportunities to team members and students.
• Promotes positive hospital image through collaboration and networking.
• Assists and participates in the preparation for regulatory agency visits and disease specific accreditation visits
• Assists with the implementation of policies, procedures and protocols from regulatory agencies and helps to promote and improve the highest standards or care.
• Assists and supports achieving centers of excellence recognition from professional organizations.

Individual Practice:

• Evaluates own clinical and professional performance according to the standards of the appropriate professional and regulatory bodies.
• Seeks feedback regarding own practice from peers and colleagues and takes action to improve practice.
• Actively pursues continuing educational, academic and certification opportunities to maintain ongoing competency
• Maintains membership in national organizations for professional development

Ethics:

• Fosters the establishment of an ethical environment that supports the rights of all participants. Contributes to the resolution of ethical dilemmas.
• Serves as a mentor and role model to peers and team members.

Research:

• Evaluates existing practice based on current research findings and translates this knowledge into practice.
• Promotes evidenced based practice in the clinical and professional environment.
• Supports dissemination of internal EBP and research projects at the local, system, and national level.

Collegiality :

• Identifies and participates in opportunities to share skills, knowledge, and strategies for patient care and system improvement.
• Promotes a learning environment that enables nursing and other healthcare personnel to make optimal contributions that affect the healthcare system.
• Participates in professional organizations, enterprise-wide committees, and Shared Governance to address issues of concern in meeting patient needs and improving nursing practice

Collaboration:

• Collaborates with other disciplines in consultation, teaching, management, and research activities to improve outcomes in nursing practice and enhance the healthcare environment.
• Utilizes the Shared Governance forum to provide support for enhancing education, practice, and quality improvement.
• Collaborates with nurse managers and directors to identify clinical activities to facilitate professional growth of team members and areas of unit scope and role expansion.

Qualifications

Education:

• Masters Degree of Nursing required

License & Certifications:

• Current NJ (New Jersey) Registered Nurse License required
• Basic Life Support required
• CNOR certification required

Experience:

• Minimum 3-5 Years of Operating Room/ Perioperative experience required
• 3 years of previous Clinical Specialist experience preferred

About Us

At Atlantic Health, our promise to our communities is; anyone who enters one of our facilities will receive the highest quality care delivered at the right time, at the right place, and at the right cost. This commitment is also echoed in the respect, development and opportunities we give to our more than 22,000 team members. Headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, we are one of the leading non-profit health care systems in the nation. Our facilities and sites of care include:

• Atlantic Health Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, NJ
• Atlantic Health Overlook Medical Center, Summit, NJ
• Atlantic Health Newton Medical Center, Newton, NJ
• Atlantic Health Chilton Medical Center, Pompton Plains, NJ
• Atlantic Health Hackettstown Medical Center, Hackettstown, NJ
• Atlantic Health Goryeb Children's Hospital, Morristown, NJ
• Atlantic Health CentraState Healthcare System, Freehold, NJ
• Atlantic Medical Group
• Atlantic Visiting Nurse
• Atlantic Mobile Health
• Atlantic Rehabilitation

We have more than 900 community-based healthcare providers affiliated through Atlantic Medical Group.

We have received awards and recognition for the services we have provided to our patients, team members and communities. Below are just a few of our accolades:

• Chosen for 17 years by Fortune as one of the magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For."
• Atlantic Health Morristown and Atlantic Health Overlook Named by Newsweek as two of the "World's Best Hospitals" in 2026.
• Atlantic Health Morristown and Atlantic Health Overlook ranked within the top three hospitals in New Jersey by U.S. News & World Report's 2025-2026 Best Hospital rankings.
• Atlantic Health scored four "A" grades by The Leapfrog Group in its Fall 2025 Hospital Safety Grades, performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries and injections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.
• Atlantic Health Morristown and Atlantic Health Overlook are New Jersey's only hospitals to be named among America's 50 Best hospitals by Healthgrades in 2026.
• Named by Becker's Healthcare as one of the "165 Top Places to Work in Healthcare 2026.
• Atlantic Health Morristown, Atlantic Health Overlook, Atlantic Health Chilton and Atlantic Health Newton all Forbes Top Hospitals for 2026.
• Named by Newsweek as one of America's Greatest Workplaces for Inclusion & Diversity 2025.
• Atlantic Health rated LEVEL 9 - 2025 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired.

Morristown Medical