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.

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

Responsibilities:

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.

Professional Excellence Leadership

• 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.
• Oversee 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.

Role Transition & Workforce Development

• 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.

Evidence-Based Practice & Research

• 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.

Healthy Work Environment

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

Strategic Planning & Quality Outcomes

• 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.

Core Competencies:

The Director of Professional Excellence performs his/her job by demonstrating technical ability, understanding job expectations, and compliance with organizational policies and procedures.  The Director of Professional Excellence performs the following job responsibilities:

Leadership

• 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.

Budget & Resource Management

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

Strategic Planning

• 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.

Quality & Compliance

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

Education & Mentorship

• Fosters a learning culture that supports professional development and continuing education.
• Mentors’ leaders and clinicians, promoting evidence-based practice and research engagement.
• Facilitate dissemination of internal research and best practices to external audiences.

Human Resources Leadership

• Promotes recruitment, retention, and engagement through mentorship and recognition.
• Develops leadership capacity at all levels through coaching and shared governance.
• Encourages a culture of respect, inclusivity, and high performance.

Communication

• Maintains transparent and timely communication with nursing staff, physicians, and leadership.
• Ensures information from leadership meetings and quality initiatives is cascaded effectively.
• Represents nursing excellence in internal and external forums.

Personal and Professional Development

• Engage in continuous self-development and lifelong learning.
• Seeks feedback and demonstrates adaptability.
• Models UTMB’s values and commitment to excellence.

Marginal or Periodic Functions: 

• Adheres to internal controls and reporting structure.
• Performs related duties as required.
  

Minimum Qualifications:

• Masters degree in Nursing or related field plus five (5) years of progressive nursing leadership experience.
• BSN and a valid Texas RN license or eligibility to apply for a Texas nursing license.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Prior experience as a Magnet Program Director.
• A Doctoral degree in nursing or a related field.

• Advanced certification in nursing specialty/leadership.