As one of the nation's Top 15 Health Systems, recognized by Premier and Modern Healthcare, Valley Health is a place where excellence, compassion, and purpose come together. This distinction reflects our commitment to exceptional patient care, clinical quality, and the caregivers who make it all possible.

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Job Description

The Manager, Clinical Education & Professional Practice serves as a key operational leader within Valley Health's Clinical Education & Professional Practice Center and is responsible for the implementation, oversight, and continuous improvement of system-wide clinical education, competency management, onboarding, professional practice, and caregiver development programs. This position operationalizes Valley Health's centralized education strategy by translating system standards, educational priorities, competency expectations, and professional practice initiatives into consistent, measurable outcomes across hospitals, ambulatory settings, and clinical service lines.

The Manager provides leadership and direction to assigned educators, professional development specialists, and clinical education personnel while fostering strong partnerships with nursing leaders, operational leaders, quality, regulatory, human resources, academic partners, and clinical teams. Working within a centralized governance structure, this role ensures education programs are aligned with organizational priorities, patient safety goals, accreditation requirements, professional practice standards, and caregiver development needs.

This position supports a centralized design and regional delivery model by ensuring consistency in onboarding, competency validation, transition-to-practice programs, continuing education, preceptor development, and professional growth initiatives while maintaining responsiveness to local operational and clinical practice needs. The Manager works collaboratively across the health system to reduce variation, eliminate duplication, strengthen clinical readiness, and support a consistent caregiver experience.

Through effective leadership, governance, resource management, and data-driven decision-making, the Manager advances professional practice, competency compliance, onboarding effectiveness, retention, caregiver development, and clinical excellence. The role is accountable for achieving measurable outcomes that strengthen workforce capability, support nursing excellence, promote evidence-based practice, and improve organizational performance across the continuum of care.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership & Operations

• Leads implementation and sustainment of system clinical education, onboarding, competency management, professional practice, transition-to-practice, and caregiver development programs.
• Provides direct and/or matrix leadership to professional development specialists, clinical educators, facility-based educators, and assigned personnel.
• Establishes operational priorities, goals, work plans, and performance expectations for assigned teams.
• Conducts performance evaluations, coaching, mentorship, and professional development activities for assigned staff.
• Promotes a culture of accountability, continuous learning, professional growth, collaboration, and service excellence.

Clinical Education & Professional Practice

• Leads standardized implementation of onboarding, orientation, competency validation, continuing education, preceptor development, nurse residency, and professional advancement programs.
• Supports development and execution of professional practice initiatives that strengthen evidence-based practice, nursing excellence, certification, clinical advancement, and professional governance.
• Collaborates with nursing leadership to support Magnet®, Pathway to Excellence®, and professional practice initiatives through educational infrastructure, outcomes measurement, and caregiver development activities.
• Ensures alignment of educational programs with clinical standards, regulatory requirements, organizational priorities, and patient safety goals.

Governance & Standardization

• Supports governance processes for education priorities, competency standards, annual education requirements, and new education requests.
• Ensures standardized implementation of system education programs, tools, workflows, and reporting processes across assigned areas.
• Promotes consistent competency expectations, onboarding pathways, validation processes, and professional practice standards throughout the organization.
• Identifies unnecessary variation, duplication, and inefficiencies and develops recommendations for improvement.

Program Management

• Oversees assigned clinical education and professional practice programs from planning through implementation, evaluation, and sustainment.
• Conducts learning needs assessments and utilizes quality, safety, operational, and regulatory data to identify educational priorities and opportunities.
• Coordinates educational resources to support strategic initiatives, clinical practice changes, new program implementation, and organizational priorities.
• Supports integration of simulation-based learning, skills validation, and team training activities in collaboration with simulation personnel.

Technology, Data & Continuous Improvement

• Supports implementation and optimization of learning management systems, competency management platforms, educational technologies, reporting systems, and approved learning resources.
• Utilizes dashboards, performance metrics, competency data, learner feedback, and outcome measures to evaluate program effectiveness and drive improvement activities.
• Develops and monitors key performance indicators including onboarding effectiveness, competency completion, residency outcomes, certification growth, compliance rates, and caregiver development outcomes.
• Leads continuous improvement initiatives focused on effectiveness, efficiency, scalability, and user experience.

Collaboration & Relationship Management

• Partners with operational leaders, service line leaders, educators, quality leaders, regulatory teams, Human Resources, and academic institutions to align educational efforts with organizational needs.
• Collaborates with regional and local educators to support implementation of system standards while addressing local practice needs.
• Serves as a resource and consultant for educational strategy, competency management, professional practice, and caregiver development initiatives.
• Builds effective partnerships that support education, professional growth, and operational excellence.

Education

Master's degree in Nursing, Nursing Education, Healthcare Administration, Organizational Leadership, Education, or related field, required.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) is required if master's degree is not in nursing.

Graduate preparation in Nursing Professional Development, Leadership, Education, Healthcare Operations, or related specialty, is preferred.

Experience

Minimum three (3) years of Registered Nurse clinical experience is required.

Minimum three (3) years of experience in clinical education, professional development, competency management, onboarding, leadership development, or related healthcare education functions is required.

Demonstrated experience managing projects, programs, or teams is required.

Experience in a multi-hospital or integrated healthcare system is preferred.

Experience with competency management, nurse residency, preceptor development, professional practice, accreditation readiness, or professional governance programs is preferred.

Experience leading teams and supervising educators is preferred.

Experience utilizing educational technologies, learning management systems, and data analytics to improve outcomes is preferred.

Benefits

At Valley Health, we believe everyone is a caregiver, and our goal is to create an environment where our caregivers thrive physically, financially, and emotionally. In addition to a competitive salary, our most popular benefits for full-time employees include:

• A Zero-Deductible Health Plan
• Dental and vision insurance
• Generous Paid Time Off
• Tuition Assistance
• Retirement Savings Match
• A Robust Employee Assistance Program to help with many aspects of emotional wellbeing
• Membership to Healthy U: An Incentive-Based Wellness Program

Valley Health also offers a health savings account & flexible spending account for childcare, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability, and professional development. In addition, several perks come with working for the largest employer in the region, such as discounts to on-campus dining, and more.

To see the full scale of what we offer, visit valleyhealthbenefits.com.