Director of Professional Development and Clinical Practice

Job Description

Job Description

The Director of Professional Development and Clinical Practice leads the organization’s clinical onboarding, orientation, continuing education, competency development, preceptor program, specialty certification support, and professional development infrastructure. This role creates consistent, practical, and evidence-based learning experiences that prepare clinical team members to provide compassionate, high-quality palliative care.

This position is responsible for organizing orientation experiences, supporting new hires through the transition to independent practice, conducting or coordinating 30-, 60-, and 90-day evaluations, developing role-specific competencies, and strengthening clinical confidence, role clarity, and professional growth across the clinical team.

Essential ResponsibilitiesOnboarding and Orientation

Develop, maintain, and continuously improve a standardized onboarding and orientation program for clinical team members.

Coordinate orientation schedules, learning experiences, preceptor assignments, and exposure to key clinical workflows, documentation expectations, communication processes, and partner-specific requirements.

Monitor new hire progress throughout orientation and conduct or coordinate 30-, 60-, and 90-day evaluations.

Create individualized learning plans when additional support, coaching, remediation, or extended orientation is needed.

Curriculum, Continuing Education, and Professional Development

Design, implement, and update palliative care education curriculum for new and existing clinical team members.

Develop education related to serious illness care, symptom management, communication, goals of care, advance care planning, interdisciplinary care, ethics, documentation, and patient- and family-centered care.

Organize ongoing learning activities, including in-services, skills labs, case-based learning, simulation, journal clubs, and clinical education sessions.

Promote professional growth by helping staff identify development goals, learning opportunities, mentorship needs, and pathways for advancement.

Specialty-Level Certification Support

Build and maintain a structured approach to supporting role-appropriate specialty certification in hospice and palliative care.

Assist staff with certification readiness through study plans, review resources, group preparation, eligibility tracking, exam preparation, and certification renewal support.

Support specialty certification pathways for clinicians based on role and licensure, including ACHPN, CHPN, or other applicable hospice and palliative care credentials.

Promote certification as part of the organization’s broader culture of clinical excellence and professional practice development.

Competency Development and Validation

Develop and maintain role-specific clinical competencies, competency checklists, validation tools, skills assessments, and evaluation processes.

Coordinate initial and annual competency validation for applicable clinical team members.

Ensure competencies reflect current palliative care standards, organizational workflows, documentation expectations, and scope-of-role requirements.

Maintain accurate records of competency completion, education participation, and professional development activities.

Preceptor Program Oversight

Identify, train, support, and evaluate clinical preceptors.

Develop preceptor expectations, orientation tools, feedback processes, and escalation pathways.

Partner with preceptors and clinical leaders to ensure new team members receive consistent, supportive, and meaningful orientation experiences.

Create opportunities for preceptor development, recognition, feedback, and ongoing improvement.

Workflow and Practice Support

Develop practical education tools, orientation guides, quick-reference documents, workflow resources, and practice supports for clinical team members.

Support the implementation of new or revised clinical workflows, documentation expectations, partner workflows, and service-line processes through staff education and coaching.

Collaborate with clinical and operational leaders to promote consistency, accountability, and ease of use in clinical practice processes.

Relationship Building and Collaboration

Build strong relationships with clinical leaders, staff, preceptors, interdisciplinary team members, human resources, operations, and external partners.

Serve as a trusted education and professional practice resource across the organization.

Promote a positive learning culture that supports engagement, psychological safety, accountability, and excellence.

Required Qualifications

Current clinical New Jersey licensure in good standing, preferably as a nurse practitioner, advanced practice nurse, physician assistant, or other relevant clinical professional.

Strong clinical background in palliative care, hospice, serious illness care, oncology, geriatrics, or complex care management.

Experience in clinical education, staff development, onboarding, precepting, curriculum development, or professional practice leadership.

Ability to develop education, competencies, workflows, evaluation tools, and practical clinical practice resources.

Experience providing feedback, conducting staff evaluations, coaching clinicians, and supporting professional growth.

Excellent communication, organization, relationship-building, facilitation, and project-management skills.

Strong understanding of serious illness care, symptom management, goals-of-care conversations, advance care planning, interdisciplinary care, and patient- and family-centered care.

Active DEA, CDS, ACLS, and BLS.

Preferred Qualifications

Formal background or experience in nursing education, healthcare education, adult learning, curriculum development, simulation, or professional development.

Master’s degree in nursing, healthcare education, healthcare leadership, or related field preferred.

Role-appropriate hospice and palliative care specialty certification preferred. If not certified at hire, the candidate is expected to obtain applicable certification within the first year of employment, when eligible.

ACHPN preferred for advanced practice nursing candidates.

Hospice and palliative care specialty certification preferred for physician assistant candidates, when applicable.

ELNEC training or trainer status preferred.

Experience developing preceptor programs and competency validation processes preferred.

Core Competencies

Palliative care clinical judgment and role modeling.

Teaching, coaching, mentoring, and feedback delivery.

Curriculum design and adult-learning facilitation.

Competency development and validation.

Certification readiness and professional development planning.

Organization, follow-through, and project execution.

Relationship building with staff, leaders, partners, and preceptors.

Ability to support clinicians with compassion while maintaining accountability.

Commitment to person-centered care, professional growth, and clinical excellence.

Key Working Relationships

Chief Clinical Officer; Director of Quality and Clinical Excellence; Director of Clinical Operations; Lead APPs; preceptors; advanced practice providers; other clinical team members; data team; human resources; interdisciplinary team members; and external partners.

Success Measures

Consistent, structured onboarding and orientation experiences for new clinical team members.

Timely completion of 30-, 60-, and 90-day evaluations and individualized learning plans, as needed.

Reliable completion and documentation of role-specific competencies.

Effective preceptor training, support, and feedback processes.

High-impact continuing education and professional development programming.

Increased staff readiness for specialty-level hospice and palliative care certification.

Improved role clarity, clinical confidence, workflow consistency, and staff engagement.

Consistent progression toward productivity standards.