Child Life Manager-Stead Family Children's Hospital en University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

The University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital is seeking a Child Life Manager. The Child Life manager is responsible for leading and managing operations of the child life program at University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. The manager provides managerial and clinical leadership to ensure attainment of functional objectives, serve as a resource to patients, families, staff, and learners, and collaborate with organizational leaders and other key stakeholders to enhance the services and resources provided to patients and families by the child life program. The manager ensures that all staff provide safe care to children and families and have the education, methods, and resources to accomplish their collective and individual performance objectives.

Positions in this job family usually have limited involvement in direct patient care and focus their efforts in planning, organizing, directing, evaluating, and improving health care operations, clinical education programs and research programs of clinical and health service departments.

Leadership and Human Resource Management:

·       Hire, develop, manage, and evaluate the performance of staff in a departmental unit or functional division

·       Plan and carry out staff recruitment, orientation, and development, evaluating performance and competencies of all assigned staff

·       Develop and manage the performance of staff including clinical care delivery, leave management, and interpersonal communication

·       Assure that staff are clinically competent and compliant with policies, procedures, conditions of employment and other internal/external regulations

·       Plan, assign, and schedule work for staff within the program.

·       Work to achieve optimal efficiency and effectiveness of clinical services according to established hospital standards, as well as those of the child life and other therapeutic professions

·       Assure that all program operations, policies, and practices align/comply with collective bargaining agreements, University of Iowa policies, and/or state and federal laws relevant to employee and labor relations

·       Foster a positive work environment conducive to a highly engaged, high functioning, and effective work team

Strategic Planning

·       Develop, implement, and evaluate the child life program’s strategic plan, including standard operating procedures, policies, and guidelines to promote and carry out the goals, objectives, mission, and vision in alignment with those of the organization, department, and CWS division.

·       Lead both long- and short-term strategic planning and expansion for the child life program with full accountability for the results.

·       Collaborate with system, hospital, and divisional leadership to provide input on the development of annual goals and reports. Support the implementation of department goals and objectives.

·       Develop, create, and maintain policies and procedures, as well as standard work for all areas; oversee program performance improvement activities and initiatives.

·       Provide long-range planning and establish annual working objectives for the program

·       Monitor/evaluate progress toward goals, provide periodic reports to PFCS director

Financial Management

·       Assist Director in preparation, management, and evaluation of the annual fiscal operating and philanthropically based budgets.

·       Recommend budget ideas, resources, and cost containment strategies. Manage program to meet budget goals

·       Manage and evaluate monthly finance reports and account reconciliations. Create/implement action plans to take corrective action as needed

·       Oversee all child life financial records including operational and gift accounts

·       Understand financial implications of collective bargaining and other agreements

Quality, Safety, & Patient/Family Experience

·       Foster a work environment that promotes a spirit of inquiry and continuous quality improvement

·       Collaborate with nursing and other departments in hospital-wide patient quality and experience improvement initiatives 

·       Implement and maintain standard QA plans; engage staff in meeting plan goals

·       Recommend, implement and evaluate QA and patient- and family-centered strategies

·       Investigate and resolve problems encountered by patients, families, and other departmental customers

·       Participate with the multidisciplinary team to continuously assess and improve patient care quality and service

·       Assure a safe environment for patients, staff and visitors

Education

·       Plan and conduct innovative educational opportunities to assure continuous growth of staff

·       Coordinate clinical education for child life fellows, interns and practicum students

·       Provide evaluative feedback to students, staff and residents; work with clinical instructors/educators to facilitate clinical education

·       Participate in planning and conducting departmental and divisional continuing education programs through in-service training sessions

·       Participates in the development of innovative clinical teaching activities to meet the learning needs of staff and students

Regulatory Compliance

·       Possess knowledge of healthcare regulating agencies and requirements specific to the care of patients and families. 

·       Monitor program compliance via monthly audits of cleaning checklists, environmental rounds, review of staff compliances and educational communication to all staff. 

·       Assess compliance with accrediting organizations

Clinical Support & Operations

·       Oversees the day-to-day operations of the child life program, including but not limited to the oversight of all child life specialists, assistants, hourly employees, learners, volunteers (and others as appropriate).

·       Ensures the availability of competent staff to provide high quality care to children and families

·       Assure that the clinical practice is of high quality and provided according to established standards (professional, organizational, divisional, program, etc.)

·       Work to achieve optimal efficiency and effectiveness of child life program operations

·       Investigate and resolve problems encountered by patients, families, and other departmental customers

·       Supervise care delivery, maintain competence in child life clinical skills and knowledge base to provide patient care as needed.

·       Develop, maintain, report, and benchmark accurate and meaningful (standard) patient care and other relevant program/professional metrics.

·       Communicate with physicians, staff, and other units/departments on a regular basis to promote effective and efficient operations within the department. Communicate with patients, families, and staff to address and resolve issues

·       Coordinate work and services between departments and assist in resolution of intra-departmental and interdepartmental operating problems

Community/Public Relations

·       Collaborate with Marketing and Communications department to represent the Child Life program with the media and the community/general public.

·       Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders in planning hospital/departmental/divisional/program special events and activities

·       Collaborate with the Director, PFCS, on activities related to program financial resources and support provided by the UI Center for Advancement

Research

·       Encourage/support staff’s participation in evidence-based practice and/or research initiatives. Incorporate best practices into program operations.

·       Master’s degree in child life, child development or related field or equivalent combination of education & experience

·       Minimum five years of experience as a child life specialist in a pediatric child life program within an academic medical center

·       Recent experience as a manager/supervisor in health care (direct reports)

·       Demonstrated commitment to the profession of child life as reflected by sustained and current membership in the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) Member (minimum three consecutive years, without lapse)

Position and Application Details

Successful candidates will be subject to a criminal background check and education/credential verification. Successful candidates will be required to self-disclose any conviction history and will be subject to a criminal background check. Up to 5 professional references will be requested at a later step in the recruitment process.

This position is not eligible for university sponsorship for employment authorization.

In order to be considered for an interview, applicants must upload the following documents and mark them as a “Relevant File” to the submission:

• Resume
• Cover Letter

Job openings are posted for a minimum of 7 calendar days and may be removed from posting and filled any time after the original posting period has ended.

For additional questions, please contact Lydia Messer at [email protected]

Benefits Highlights

• Fringe benefit package including paid vacation; sick leave; health, dental, life and disability insurance options; and generous employer contributions into retirement plans
• The University of Iowa offers a generous benefits package, including paid vacation and paid sick leave. Complete information regarding the full benefits package may be viewed at: Benefits | University Human Resources - The University of Iowa (uiowa.edu)