Nurse Ethicist, Full-time, Days

At Northwestern Medicine, every patient interaction makes a difference in cultivating a positive workplace. This patient-first approach is what sets us apart as a leader in the healthcare industry. As an integral part of our team, you'll have the opportunity to join our quest for better healthcare, no matter where you work within the Northwestern Medicine system. At Northwestern Medicine, we pride ourselves on providing competitive benefits: from tuition reimbursement and loan forgiveness to 401(k) matching and lifecycle benefits, we take care of our employees. Ready to join our quest for better?

Benefits

• $10,000 Tuition Reimbursement per year ($5,700 part-time)
• $6,000 Student Loan Repayment ($3,000 part-time)
• $1,000 Professional Development per year ($500 part-time)
• $250 Wellbeing Fund per year($125 for part-time)
• Annual Employee Merit Increase and Incentive Bonus
• Paid time off and Holiday pay

Description

The Nurse Ethicistreflects the mission, vision, and values of NM, adheres to the organization’s Code of Ethics and Corporate Compliance Program, and complies with all relevant policies, procedures, guidelines and all other regulatory and accreditation standards.

The Nurse Ethicist is a core member of the NMH Ethics Program which has a robust clinical consultation service (~400/year), promotes ethical competency of providers through innovative education, and increasingly embraces a “preventive ethics” model by embedding in high acuity units and specialty clinics and developing policies and approaches to promote ethical care for cutting edge medical technologies. The Nurse Ethicist has special responsibilities for nursing ethics education, oversight of the Clinical Ethics Resource Nurse Program, and efforts to mitigate nursing moral distress/promote moral resilience, in addition to contributing to other core functions of the Medical Ethics Program.  While the NMH ethics team is focused solely at this hospital, it is our vision that it will ultimately serve as the hub or leader of a well-resourced system-wide ethics model. The Nurse Ethicist will have the opportunity to collaborate with the Medical Director, Program Director, Clinical Ethicist, 40+ member Medical Ethics Committee, and NM leadership to help design and shape this future.

Responsibilities:

• Provides healthcare ethics consultation throughout the continuum of care, working collaboratively with healthcare providers, patients, and proxy decision-makers to deliver high quality and sensitive consultation to patients and their loved ones.
• Develops and provides multidisciplinary ethics education for staff, including physicians and house staff.
• Develops, reviews and revises system policies and guidelines requiring ethical guidance or oversight.
• Engages in preventive ethics activities and initiatives in collaboration with leadership and/or appropriate stakeholders, consistent with established mechanisms for documentation and reporting.
• Evaluates and improves healthcare ethics consultation methods, approaches, and ethics quality improvement.
• Contributes to system-wide medical ethics problem-solving as needed.
• Serves as a liaison and provides ethical guidance to relevant committees and high priority initiatives as needed.
• Collaborates with Nursing leadership to identify ethics concerns of members of the nursing workforce at NMH/NMG.
• Develops and implements ethics education for NMH and NMG nursing workforce (Nurse Residency Program for all new NMH and NMG hires and Oncology Nurses; Ethics Grand Rounds for Nursing Week, Nursing Professional Development Fair).
• Oversees the Clinical Ethics Resource Nurse (CERN) Program.
• Promotes nurse well-being and retention through the expansion and implementation of programs designed to mitigate moral distress and promote moral agency/resilience, in collaboration with the Medical Ethics Director, Nursing Leadership, and the NM Office of Well-being.
• Conducts high quality independent and collaborative ethics research and scholarship. Contributes nationally.

Qualifications

Required:

• Current Illinois Nursing License (or eligible) in good standing.
• Master’s Degree in Nursing, Public Health, Business, or related field.
• Master’s degree in Medical Ethics, or 1–2-year full-time Fellowship in Bioethics or Clinical Medical Ethics, or equivalent.
• 3 years’ clinical healthcare experience in nursing preferably in an acute care, academic hospital setting.
• 3 years' experience as the primary consultant in conducting healthcare ethics consultations (could include clinical ethics fellowship years)
• Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification (HEC-C) or eligible for certification within 1 year of hire.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; effective communication with diverse groups; ability to facilitate meetings; ability to manage conflict and build consensus.
• Sensitivity to diversity, bias, cultural responsiveness among workforce and patients / families / community.
• Critical thinking; creative problem solving; expertise in moral reasoning; appropriate personal attributes such as compassion and prudence.
• Strong skills in teaching, research, writing and professional presentation.
• Team-oriented professional with proven ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a complex interdisciplinary environment to achieve program goals and deadlines.

Preferred:

 

• Doctorate in Ethics or in Nursing with Ethics Concentration.
• 5 year’s clinical experience in nursing, preferably in an acute care, hospital setting.
• At least 5 years ethics consultation experience in a high-volume setting.
• Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification completed.
• Academic productivity demonstrated; Experience in curriculum development.

Equal Opportunity

Northwestern Medicine is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of age, sex, race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected status.