Candidate Clinical Requirements
Must be proficient in CVICU nursing.
Must be able to work at the bedside when needed (staffing coverage).
Required clinical skills include:
o ECMO, LVAD, Open Heart, Impella, Balloon Pumps.
Candidate must have extensive cardiac background.
o Cannot come from a purely medical ICU without cardiac exposure.
o If strong in CVICU but lacking LVAD experience, this may be workable.
Experience Requirements
Job description states 3 5 years clinical nursing experience.
2+ years of management required (e.g., charge nurse, nurse manager, supervisor).
Interim charge roles not sufficient must have full-time or formal leadership experience.
Education Requirements
BSN required, but:
o If they don t have a BSN, they must be already enrolled, with a completion date.
o Enrollment just to qualify is not acceptable.
MSN preferred.
Hiring leader is flexible if candidate is solid and enrolled in BSN program.
Work Location
Role is at Lovelace Heart Hospital, 504 Elm, Albuquerque.
Heart Hospital is a separate building, but under the same CMS license as Lovelace Medical Center (601 Dr. Martin Luther King Ave).
Walkable distance between buildings (~5 minutes).
Work Schedule
Officially a 40-hour work week.
Leadership roles vary:
o Sometimes exactly 40 hours, sometimes more, depending on hospital needs.
Typically weekends off, but occasional weekend presence may be needed due to hospital circumstances.
Directors often adjust early/late to meet with night shift, observe shift changes, staff engagement, etc.
Day-to-Day Role Focus
Nurse development, retention, and recruitment.
Coordination with service lines:
o CT surgeons, interventionalists, various procedural service lines.
Quality oversight:
o Chart audits, staff education, quality metrics.
Meeting-heavy role numerous recurring and ad hoc meetings.
Operational responsibilities:
o Staffing oversight
o Scheduling
o Timekeeping (charge nurses help but director finalizes/validates)
No nurse manager in unit all manager-level duties fall to the director.
Unit Details
Heart Hospital has 55 beds total, CVICU accounts for 16 beds.
When fully staffed, approximately 50 60 employees, all RNs; no techs on unit.
4 full-time charge nurses, working 3 12s across different shifts.
o They handle initial scheduling balance, staff assignments, and many managerial tasks.
Charge nurses are typically not in staffing because of high acuity.
Unit Strengths / Selling Points
Highly dedicated, engaged team one of the strongest the leader has worked with in 20 years at Lovelace/Ardent.
Nurses are self-motivated, high-performing, push each other.
Recent metrics:
o HCAHPS ~84%, 95th percentile in satisfaction.
o Strong quality outcomes.
Unique procedural exposure cool procedures, cardiac-only population.
CVICU has no mixed medical patients entirely cardiac/vascular.
Unit Challenges
Biggest challenge: erratic census fluctuations.
o Census may drop to 4 patients staff float frustration.
o Then surges with CT surgical cases.
Difficulties managing:
o Productivity
o Engagement
o Staff satisfaction
Leader working with intensivists on lowering admission threshold:
o Accept PCU patients
o Accept some MICU overflow
o Goal is maintaining census of 10 patients.
Early signs of improvement in census consistency.