Instructional Support - Clinical Support Specialist (Nursing)

The mission of The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences is the development of professional health care practitioners through innovation, individualized, and quality classroom, clinical, and distance education.

GENERAL SUMMARY

The Clinical Support Specialist for the Nursing program will provide student centered customer service and clinical administrative support to the clinical faculty and Program Director concerning all aspects of the academic clinical experience and clinical program operations. The individual will serve as the frontline and primary point of contact for students who are entering the clinical placement process of their academic experience, to include answering questions, clarifying processes and addressing immediate student inquiries.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Each of these essential duties and responsibilities require the Nursing Clinical Support Specialist to engage in open and active listening, be available to students (email, office hours, etc., on off hours.), and to remain focused on solutions-based approaches to helping students through academic challenges. The Clinical Support Specialist can overlap at times with other roles such as advising and the clinical education team.

* Serves as the primary point of contact for students for all aspects of their clinical experience.

* Responds to student inquiries; triaging and prioritizing needs, questions, and student issues related to academic and clinical experiences.

* Provides students with appropriate referrals to student support services to answer questions about academic advising, course selection, financial aid, registration, requests for exceptions to policy and understanding options to complete or change their program of study.

* Coordinates with campus student support services and resources to ensure the student’s needs are met and follows up on student requests as needed.

* Helps students navigate their online learning experience and resolve a variety of learning issues and challenges; advises students how to apply online learning success strategies to their day-to-day coursework

* Connects students with opportunities to engage with campus, or with peers taking courses online through creation and maintenance of a virtual campus center.

* Prepares and furnishes relevant information about programmatic requirements including accreditation, reporting, and student satisfaction.

* Assists with clinical faculty site visit scheduling, site development, student placements, ongoing site visits or student remediations.

* Generates reports for Associate Dean, Program Director, and/or clinical faculty to ensure all aspects of clinical curriculum requirements are met.

* Documents and processes academic materials related to clinical education including leaves of absence, incomplete grades, grade changes, hardship requests, student remediation action plans, student evaluation of clinical sites, completion of student performance assessments, and student readiness for clinical placements.

* Coordinates clinical communication to students and clinical partners as directed by clinical faculty including student-specific correspondence and appointment scheduling.

* Collaborates with academic support departments such as Clinical Education, Student Services, Registrar and Compliance to provide students a more comprehensive experience.

* Attends clinical-specific department meetings, prepares agendas, and records minutes and handouts for clinical continuity and consistency. Distributes minutes on a timely basis.

* Assists in the coordination of academic clinical files for the faculty, Program Director, and Associate Dean.

* Interacts with clinical faculty, staff, students, alumni, visitors or outside agencies to relay academic clinical program information regarding clinical policies, procedures and activities. This includes distributing mail, email, and telephone messages to the appropriate clinical faculty.

* Prepares and distributes clinical surveys for students, preceptors, and clinical partners to assure program outcomes success.

* Participates in the Nursing Team Meeting to ensure smooth communication among the various support roles for students.

OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Nursing Clinical Support Specialist will address four general functions for the program:

* Reference – Accumulates and disseminates basic solutions to academic, professional, administrative, and other issues students may encounter. This may include connecting the student with the appropriate representative within the department that can resolve the student’s issue, and subsequently closing the feedback loop to ensure that the issue is resolved.

* Coach – Encourages and motivates students as they proceed through their coursework and guides them in resolving learning-related problems. For example, working with students who are not sure what to do to take a leave of absence (LOA), withdraw, or how to complete their current courses while managing personal and professional demands. This individual will act as a coach and involve the appropriate individuals within the University to help relieve the student’s stress.

* Advocate – Is the voice of online students to the School of Nursing and helps them locate and access the resources they need; keeps data on the types of challenges experienced by School of Nursing (SON) students with an aim to improving systems and communication.

* Capturing Data – Strives for continuous process improvement; evaluates individual data and aggregates data to understand trends and themes that outline student concerns to analyze the data and make system-wide changes to improve the student experience.

POSITION IN ORGANIZATION

Reports to: Academic Program Director

Positions Supervised: N/A

TECHNICAL, MANAGERIAL & PEOPLE SKILLS REQUIRED

To perform this job successfully an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Incumbents will be evaluated, in part, based on performance of each essential function. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

* Excellent communication and customer service skills, both verbal and written, including communicating with tact and discretion.

* Intermediate to advanced experience with Microsoft Office products such as Windows, Word, Excel, PowerPoint,

* Strong problem solving and time management skills; ability to effectively multi-task and adapt to new and rapidly changing situations.

* Ability to successfully resolve student issues from request through resolution.

* Effectively work with multiple databases and student platforms.

* Skilled at connecting and building rapport with students from diverse backgrounds.

* Creative, innovative, able to work independently and in a team environment.

* Ability to maintain confidentiality.

* Willingness to work a flexible schedule when required.

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

* Minimum of one year of experience as an administrative assistant, or in a customer service role; 3-5 years’ experience working in a service-oriented environment or educational setting highly preferred.

* Minimum of high school diploma or equivalent (bachelor’s degree or vocational training in office skills preferred).

* Must have excellent project management skills, the ability to manage competing priorities, and the ability to build and maintain strong partner relationships.

* Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships with the public, supervisors, students, professional staff/faculty, and co-workers.

* Preferred experience with Salesforce and/or EXXAT.

TRAVEL

Position requires minimal travel within the US.

BUSINESS COMPETENCIES

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

* Collaborates - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.

* Being Resilient - Rebounding from setbacks and adversity when facing difficult situations.

* Instills Trust - Gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity.

* Drives Results - Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.

* Innovation - Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful.

* Customer Focus - Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Work is performed primarily in a standard office environment but may involve exposure to moderate noise levels. Work involves operation of personal computer equipment for six to eight hours daily and includes physical demands associated with a traditional office setting, e.g., walking, standing, communicating, and other physical functions as necessary. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.



The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences is an equal opportunity at will employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of age, race, religion, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation or national origin.