Clinical Educator vs. Staff Developer

[mistygwenrn]

I work in a large medical center, which is part of a larger health system. There are 8 Clinical Educators in my department. We have been asked to evaluate our role. While doing research, I have found that our role is quite different from most Clinical Educator roles in other hospitals. Although we have the title of Clinical Educators, we really focus more on staff development. We are not under unit managers, but are part of the Learning and Organizational Development department. We each have two or three "focus units" that we round on and tend to, but we are also responsible for organizing programs such as the RN Residency, Preceptor programs, mentoring programs, onboarding, annual skills fairs, etc. I would love to have feedback from others about how your hospitals function with Clinical Educators or Staff Developers. Are they the same at other facilities as they are here? It seems as though we're being pulled in two different directions and we are having difficulty meeting the needs of the unit managers while also meeting the global organizational needs. Thank you.

[staceyp413]

Hi-- I'm new to my role after being in staffing and leadership my first 16 years. The clinical ed role has been changing and we are now located in the Org Learning Dept (there are 5.5 of us now). Each of us has different floors/specialty areas we oversee and help develop but each of us have very different roles. For example: I cover OR, SPD, PACU, SSC, and Radiology. Radiology has a well formed ed plan and nurses who teach so I don't do much w/them except for house-wide ed and changes. Surgical Services (the 4 other areas) is where I came from as a leader in the OR and I'm starting from almost the ground up. Right now making orientation manuals and competency lists for the year; met with all staff and developing a annual education plan; just finished orienting the new OR leader who is taking my old role (sounds strange but went great and she'll do a wonderful job) and now am back to orienting myself:)

The other educators and I are going to meet monthly to continue our overall education and progresses, especially when it comes to annual house wide competencies. All of us sit on the nursing nucleus council developed by a leader that has/is looking at the orientation, preceptor, and nurse residency classes. A fellow ed and I were part of the preceptor team and recently taught our first class of 12 nursing preceptors and have 6 more classes coming up and then will create a non-clinical class too. I'm also honored to be asked to do a monthly self development 'class' required of all hospital staff starting later this year.

So far I have found it very overwhelming only because I like order and I am organizing areas that had no educator or little time on it as well as getting familiar w/the role. Its also tough as everyone from the top to the side and down has an agenda and everyone has little or no time so there is a lot of delegating.

Hope this helps and let me know if you need or want more info.

Stacey