Director of Nursing - Professional Excellence

Summary

The Director of Nursing - Professional Excellence provides strategic leadership and oversight for nursing excellence across UTMB Health, including the Magnet Recognition Program, centralized education, nursing strategic planning, and professional practice development. The Director plays a key role in advancing the professional practice model, aligning Magnet principles with system goals, and fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and innovation.

The Director of Professional Excellence has strategic influence for nursing practice on the four hospital campuses and over 100 ambulatory clinics.

The Director of Nursing Professional Excellence is directly responsible for the leadership of developing the infrastructure that supports nursing excellence and the outcomes of that infrastructure. Creating a culture of excellence is essential for the best patient, nursing workforce, organizational, and consumer outcomes.

• Provides system-wide leadership in developing and sustaining structures that support Magnet characteristics, including transformational leadership, professional governance, quality outcomes, interprofessional collaboration, evidence-based practice, and innovation.
• Oversees the centralized nurse educator structure to ensure standardized, evidence-based approaches to education, competency management, and workforce readiness.
• Directs systemwide development of nursing competencies, professional development programs, and specialty certification initiatives.
• Leads nursing strategic planning, project management, and internal/external communication initiatives that support organizational goals.
• Identifies gaps and implements new programs to strengthen nursing excellence.

• Oversee onboarding, nurse residency, apprenticeship, and leadership development programs that ensure effective role transition and retention.
• Leads workforce initiatives focused on recruitment, retention, succession planning, and career advancement.
• Strengthens academic partnerships to align clinical education with workforce needs.

• Champions a culture of inquiry and evidence-based decision-making.
• Supports research dissemination, nursing innovation, and integration of best practices into clinical care.
• Collaborates with academic and practice partners to advance nursing science.

• Promotes a culture of respect, collaboration, recognition, and authentic leadership.
• Develops programs that foster mentorship, professional growth, and shared governance.

• Ensures services and programs support optimal patient, workforce, and organizational outcomes.
• Monitors and reports nursing-sensitive indicators, benchmarking performance against national standards.
• Collaborates with leaders in nursing quality, informatics, and education to achieve measurable outcomes.

The Director of Professional Excellence performs the job by demonstrating technical ability, understanding job expectations, and compliance with organizational policies and procedures.

• Serves as a visible, approachable leader who models excellence and collaboration.
• Challenges the status quo to drive innovation and improvement.
• Demonstrates strong communication, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.
• Balances departmental priorities with system-wide objectives.

• Develops and manages operating and capital budgets aligned with organizational goals.
• Builds business cases for financial and workforce investments.
• Ensures fiscal accountability and operational efficiency.

• Participates in developing long-range nursing goals and strategic initiatives.
• Aligns nursing strategy with system priorities to enhance quality, safety, and satisfaction.
• Monitors progress and outcomes of strategic initiatives.

• Leads quality improvement initiatives that enhance patient and workforce outcomes.
• Ensures compliance with regulatory and accreditation standards (The Joint Commission, CMS, Magnet, etc.).
• Uses performance data to inform improvement and…