Senior Nurse Consultant

JOB PURPOSE:

Senior Nurse Consultant serves as a member of the clinical and region team, to assist centers in achieving clinical excellence. She/he is responsible for planning and directing clinical operations and quality improvement practices for designated centers.    The senior nurse consultant provides education, mentoring and validation of required systems and processes for each center, including ongoing analysis of clinical operation outcomes to determine priority needs/opportunities. She/he recommends utilization of resources in an efficient and economical manner to enable each center to achieve and sustain compliance with all applicable regulations and quality outcomes.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

•    Annually in collaboration with the region/division team, administrator, director of nursing and other key center leaders formulates operation strategies and center objectives.   To facilitate the development of the plan, reviews and analyzes clinical, regulatory, customer-satisfaction, workforce outcomes.    Confirms, with area vice president & administrator, center goals and needs including improvement goals, new program development, program refinement.   The plan includes goals, milestones, stakeholders and expected outcomes.  The plan defines the role of the senior nurse consultant and center leadership in development, implementation and evaluation.    The plan is reviewed during each monthly visit with center leadership and revised as needed.

•    Conducts center support visits per company standards to ensure ongoing progress of clinical operations goals and improvement plans. Communicates to the division vice president of clinical services if a monthly visit cannot be conducted so that coverage can be arranged if necessary.  Completes all reports according to schedule and communicates center visit findings to the area vice president of operations and the region team & the division vice president of clinical services.  Collaborates with specific team members to assure appropriate resources are provided to ensure center success.  Partners with area vice president of operations and region team to conduct root cause analysis, joint focus center visits and conference calls as needed.

O    Ensures the center RAI (assessment and care planning) process is interdisciplinary and comprehensive to meet the needs of the individual resident.

O    Assures that each center Quality Assurance Performance Improvement meets regulatory requirements and company standards, including: meeting agenda, quality of the data presented, analysis of trends, action planning and follow-up.

O    Reviews clinical denials for admission to assess appropriateness and identifies and provides center clinical competency training or program development needs.

O    Partners with area vice president of operations to address any resident specific or clinical services equipment or supply needs and keeps division director of clinical services informed of progress in resolving.

•    Assures that each center has current resources for all regulatory requirements, provides frequent education of current and new regulatory requirements, interpretive guidelines, and the survey process for all center personnel.  Partners with directors of education to design and provide regulatory education for region teams and, as appropriate for center teams. Participates in survey preparation calls, regulatory review calls and survey support activities and provides support to assigned centers in correcting outstanding issues to ensure positive survey outcomes. Following any survey, resulting in non-compliance assists with plan of correction development, implementation and monitoring of the QAPI plan related to survey outcomes.

•    Develops a pro-active education and support plan, consistent with/based on the comprehensive quarterly clinical systems review and clinical outcomes to ensure center effectiveness of resident care processes.  Communicates to the division vice president of clinical services if a quarterly clinical systems review cannot be conducted so that coverage can be arranged.  Communicates center visit findings to the area vice president of operations & members of the region team, the division vice president of clinical services.  Collaborate with specific team members to assure appropriate resources are provided to ensure center success.  Partners with area vice president of operations and regional team to conduct joint focus center visits and conference calls as needed.

•    Assumes the key leadership role in mentorship and education for the director of nursing to ensure competency for position responsibilities, professional development and retention.  Keeps division vice president of clinical services informed of potential director of nursing turnover and status of recruitment and retention efforts for director of nursing openings.

•    Provides clinical expertise and supports implementation of policies and procedures for workplace safety including infection prevention/control procedures, universal precautions for blood borne pathogens, use of personal protective equipment and handling of hazardous materials.

•    Serves as a member of the region quality assurance performance improvement team: collects and organizes clinical data for each  center: SNC checklist, staffing PPD (consistent staffing according to budget), ABAQIS, PointRight/readmissions, smart charting, quality measures, data integrity scores-- provides a summary report of clinical operations that identifies trends and strategies for improvement; progress on action plans.

•    Participate in center/agency surveys (Licensure / JCAHO) and any subsequently required reports.

•    Honor patients/residents’ rights to fair and equitable treatment, self-determination, individuality, privacy, property and civil rights, including the right to wage complaints.

•    Comply with corporate compliance program.

•    Report job-related functions/tasks that involve occupational hazards including exposure to blood and body fluids and others as necessary.

•    Follow established safety regulations, to include fire protection & prevention, smoking regulations, infection control, etc.

•    Follow established safety procedures when performing tasks and/or working with equipment.

•    Perform other related duties as necessary and as directed by supervisor.

Communication:

•    Communicates to area vice president of operations, region/center engineer and division vice president of clinical services any identified environmental hazards impacting resident care or visitor/staff safety.

•    Represents clinical operations at professional clinical services organizations and consults with industry experts for current state or practice and trends in the provision of resident care and services.  Attends corporate conferences/seminars for continuing education.

•    Pro-actively uses AHT occurrence module to review resident and visitor events for each center and communicates timely to the division vice president of clinical services the status of  center survey activity and any significant patient events i.e. accidents or incidents resulting in harm, elopements, etc.

•    Functions as a company leader and change agent by providing feedback to supervisor and director of policy management regarding policies & procedures, forms, initiatives, etc. Assures, once policies/procedures, materials or initiatives are finalized, that implementation is completed at each center. Assists center staff and peers in understanding and positively embracing company goals and strategies for success.

•    Follows appropriate lines of communication and endorses the concept of “no surprises” for the company and region team, contacts other interdisciplinary team members as appropriate.

•    Exercises professional judgment in evaluating center/regional/divisional quality issues and notifies the senior vice president, vice president of clinical services, chief operating officer and/or chief executive officer (CEO) if issues are not resolved timely.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES:

•    Attend and participate in continuing educational programs to keep abreast of changes in your field as well as to maintain current license/certification, as required.

• Attend and participate in mandatory in-services.