Director, School Of Nursing

Director Of The Mercy School Of Nursing Altoona Branch Campus

Join UPMC Altoona in shaping the future of nursing education! UPMC Altoona is proud to announce an exciting opportunity for a visionary leader to serve as Director of the Mercy School of Nursing Altoona Branch Campus. This role offers a unique chance to build a nursing education program from the ground up, making a lasting impact on future healthcare professionals.

In this dynamic role, you will lead the development and administration of the nursing program, including hiring and onboarding faculty, overseeing admissions and student success, and fostering staff development. The Director serves as a member of the Schools of Nursing Executive Leadership team to ensure compliance with system policies and accreditation and approved regulations while developing strategies for continued educational excellence and coordinating operational and functional activities within the appointed school. You'll also maintain and strengthen our academic partnership with St. Francis University, ensuring excellence in non-nursing coursework.

We're seeking a passionate educator with hands-on clinical teaching experience, strong leadership capabilities, and a deep commitment to academic excellence. This role will work Monday Friday but will have 24/7 oversight responsibility. If you're ready to shape the next generation of nurses and contribute to a legacy of compassionate care, we invite you to apply.

Responsibilities:

• The Director holds leadership positions in professional organizations pertinent to the educational mission of the school, nursing practice, health care policy, trends, research and nursing administration.
• The Director exhibits a high level of initiative, works independently and establishes priorities to meet school and system goals.
• The Director initiates change reflective of constructive feedback and input from partners, communities of interest and customers.
• The Director collaborates with other schools of nursing leaders to develop new models of educational delivery and redesign work to meet the system's future needs for nurses.
• The Director contributes to the advancement of the science of nursing by integrating existing evidence into program development, generating new evidence and contributing to the science of nursing by including technology and innovation, participating in evidenced based projects, nursing research and or quality improvement projects, submits abstracts to local, regional, state and national presentations and submits articles for publication in relevant journals.
• The Director participates in community initiatives and fosters an environment in which students, faculty and support staff are encouraged to be involved in Community Initiatives that support the Schools of Nursing and the System's missions.
• The Director engages in leadership roles and projects with educational partners and communities of interest.
• The Director serves as a consultant and participates in the work of interdisciplinary teams in their local business units as well as on a system-wide level to meet the goals of the system.
• The Director leads the Systematic Program Evaluation process to comply with Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing Standards (ACEN).
• The Director participates in school-wide program evaluation initiatives.
• The Director initiates formal articulation/affiliation agreements with local, state and national universities to develop efficient, effective and innovative career pathways for new graduates and alumni of the school.
• The Director leads and implements curriculum and policy development to be consistent with Schools of Nursing standards, requirements of the respective regulatory and accrediting agencies and system-wide quality standards.
• The Director is accountable for faculty development and performance appraisal and is expected to counsel and guide faculty and staff in formulating and fulfilling professional goals.
• The Director maintains consistent, attainable expectations of performance for faculty and collaboratively sets goals that foster creativity, innovation and leadership development.
• The Director is accountable for collaborating and sharing best practice in the development of standardized student policies including recruitment, admissions, satisfactory academic progress and counseling services as well as branded promotional and marketing materials.
• The Director demonstrates expertise and commitment to implementation of a standardized curriculum design based on integration of current nursing education knowledge and evidence and the predicted competencies required of newly licensed nurses.
• Curriculum design includes new models of implementation and evaluation to support program outcomes that meet or exceed State and National benchmarks.
• The Director leads curriculum and policy development to be consistent with Schools of Nursing Standards, requirements of the respective regulatory and accrediting agencies and system-wide quality standards.
• The Director is accountable for collaborating and sharing best practice in the development of standardized student policies including recruitment, admissions, satisfactory academic progress and counseling services as well as branded promotional and marketing materials.
• The Director is accountable for the development and implementation of a faculty orientation, competency and mentorship program so that faculty are developed as course leaders and committee chairs.
• The Director supports faculty promotions via My Nursing Career and establishes sound succession planning based on the needs of the Schools of Nursing for continued growth and evaluation.
• The Director promotes innovative teaching-learning strategies through full integration of Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) into the standardized curriculum.
• The Director generates and implements creative and innovative strategies to solve complex problems in the delivery of a nursing program that meets regulatory standards and State and National benchmarks.
• The Director role models professional behavior and represents the schools and the system in a positive manner.
• The Director demonstrates an interactive leadership style that supports the development of trusting and collaborative relationships among co-workers, students, community partners and other system colleagues with the goal of providing a student-centric culture and learning environment.
• The Director assumes a leadership role in major schools, hospitals, system and community projects.
• The Director holds the final authority for implementation of the approved curriculum and school policies within the School of Nursing.
• The Director is accountable for monitoring individual faculty workload to ensure compliance with school-wide standards for equitable faculty workload standards.
• The Director contributes to the Schools of Nursing dashboard by providing individual schools data to the Associate Executive Director for Business Operation. Data includes standardized metrics related to student attrition, student graduation, faculty retention, tuition loan forgiveness, participation, faculty workload, admission standards as well as other relevant measurements.
• The Director monitors and reports on Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) and ensures compliance with State and Federal financial aid regulations.
• The Director conducts location-specific root cause analysis of student attrition; creates remedial strategies and measures and reports outcomes of remediation.
• The Director is accountable for the strategic planning and overall direction and scope of the school in accordance with and support of the strategic goals of the organization and the shared vision for the UPMC Schools of Nursing.
• The Director is accountable for the operational and functional activities of the educational programs sponsored by the school.
• The Director has direct responsibility to hire, lead, evaluate and terminate direct subordinates in accordance with system policies and procedures.
• The incumbent guides faculty and staff in overall policy making, decision making and problem solving in relation to major activities and critical operations.
• The Director functions as chair of the Faculty Organization Committee and participates as a member of the Schools of Nursing committees as well as other relevant school committees.
• The Director is responsible for collaborating to create qualitative and quantitate measurement tools and rubrics to evaluate student performance based on QSEN KSA's (Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes).
• The Director is accountable for maintaining first time NCLEX pass rates and graduation rates at or above national benchmarks
• The Director is accountable for creating and supporting an educational environment that enhances student learning and professional development and utilizes contemporary teaching strategies.
• The Director supports an educational climate that empowers students as learners and creates a student governance structure that supports student participation in relevant decision-making processes in the school.
• The Director uses rapid cycle process improvement and test of change methodology to create an innovative educational milieu in which new ideas are freely shared, tested and adopted.
• The Director role models respectful and professional interpersonal relationships with school leaders, faculty, support staff and students by consistently practicing excellence in customer service, open honest communication, transparency and interpreting system and school standards while holding others accountable for service excellence and the promotion of dignity and respect.
• The Director promotes an inclusive, civil, student-centric environment that is respectful of individual differences.
• The Director supports the system's commitment to a culture of safety by creating a safe environment reflective of the system's commitment to a Just Culture.
• The Director develops and maintains working relationships with key stakeholders (affiliate universities, alumni and community leaders) to promote a climate of collaboration.
• The Director is accountable for fiscal management of the school to ensure that system-wide standards of cost-effectiveness and re-direction of waste are met.
• This includes the accountability for salary, operational and capital budgets as well as the internal, state and federal student loan program and student financial aid regulations.
• The Director is accountable for ensuring A133 and other internal and external audits are free of adverse findings
• The Director is accountable for initiating and monitoring outcomes of testing due diligence