The Unit Lead Nurse is responsible for assisting with clinical management and assisting with the administrative coordination of the nursing unit. The position is a combination of clinical (direct care) and assisting with administrative unit responsibilities to ensure effective delivery of evidenced based clinical patient care. Assists with ensuring compliance with administrative and clinical policies and procedures.
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;The key components of the Quality-Caring Model (QCM) are interwoven throughout the delivery of care within nursing and nurses are expected to utilize the QCM and a framework for providing excellent nursing care to their patients, developing collegial relationships with the healthcare team, and implementing self-care and self reflective behaviors to restore balance to ones' self.
Core Competencies
- Evaluates current practices, promotes evidenced based practice to achieve patient outcomes
- Utilizes experience, in-depth knowledge and an intuitive grasp of patient's condition to effectively focus on the most significant patient problems
- Identifies staff competencies, educational needs and readiness to learn
- Provides ongoing clinical support and supervision
- Provides staff with guidance in developing the patient's plan of care
- Provides in the moment coaching and modeling of effective problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and team building skills and maintain a harmonious and collaborative atmosphere on the unit
- Ensures that floats, travelers, registry staff and volunteers are oriented to the unit
- Consistently keeps current on clinical, unit, department and medical center changes; shares information and coaches staff members about their responsibility to be well informed
- Completes an initial unit assessment at the beginning of the shift
- Makes formal rounds to include patient assessment as needed, serving as an intermediary to staff for specific patient care issues
- Ensures a safe environment for staff and patients
- Ensures and matches staff competencies to patient needs
- Identifies and documents subtle changes in the patient's condition
- Interprets policy, procedures, guidelines and standards and assists compliance by staff
- Provides and receives report on unit status while collaborating with healthcare team and sets priorities for patient transfer along the continuum
- Utilizes experience and in-depth knowledge to effectively modify and document changes in nursing care and/or the plan of care to address patient care problems
- Reviews documentation as needed throughout the shift and provides in the moment follow up
- Ensures and facilitates staff's prompt patient call light response and response to patient needs as appropriate
- Creates a welcoming environment for the patient's family and other interdisciplinary team members
- Demonstrates enthusiasm and commitment to the organizational mission and goals
Department Specific Competencies
- Utilizes professional, respectful, effective communication to delegate and direct unit activities and patient assignments
- Ensures optimal customer service/patient experience by role modeling excellent customer service
- Utilizes lead rounding to communicate with patients and families to enhance the patient experience
- Meets with patient and family regarding feedback and follows up on their issues using effective service recovery techniques
- Initiates, directs, assigns, and coordinates duties to be performed by staff responding to drills, emergencies, or disasters
- Utilizes chain of command to report adverse clinical outcomes, patient perception and disruptive behaviors
- Models compassion, understanding, problem solving and conflict resolution skills in coaching and mentoring staff to assist patients and families having difficulty coping with their illness and/or hospitalization and maintains good public relations
- Ensures staff observance of the National Patient Safety Goals.
- Monitors and ensures compliance with organizational quality dashboard/benchmarking goals.
- Participates with unit manager and other unit members in developing action plans to achieve identified performance improvement objectives: implementation of patient safety goals and research protocols/evidence based practice, cost reduction/control, improving quality of care, efficient and timely patient throughput and improving the patient experience.
- Assesses ongoing unit and patient needs.
- Oversees coordination, communication and facilitation of the patient plan of care in a timely manner, while involving the physicians, staff and other healthcare team members
- Identifies trends in unit quality of care issues and reports to unit manager and clinical nurse specialist/educator
- Follows up and provides ongoing feedback on staff performance and provides feedback to the unit manager.
- Attends the huddle meetings as appropriate.
- Develops a plan with the unit manager and/or the nurse staffing office to meet unit staffing needs
- Determines unit priorities for shift with regard to patient care, patient flow, staffing and distribution. Makes patient care assignment based on patient needs/acuity, staff competencies, skill mix and staffing matrix. Facilitates staff breaks.
- Assists with the management of efficiencies of unit activities to meet established productivity standards Serves as liaison between other nursing departments to expedite admissions/transfers; receives report and facilitates transition Accommodates admissions and transfers to full bed capacity with minimum delay; notifies Unit Manager of potential resource issues
- Takes a patient assignment as needed and provides meal and break relief coverage.
Education
DegreeProgramBachelorsNursing
Additional InformationExperience
Number of Years ExperienceType of Experience22 years in your area of practice
Additional InformationN/A
License / Certification Requirements
BCLS or ACLS CertificationNRP certificationCertification in area of specialty
Compensation Range:
$59.93 - $91.02 / Hour
