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Associate Director Practice & Professional Development - Center for Nursing Excellence

UNC Health Care

Chapel Hill, NCFull-time$51.5–74.01/hrSeen 5 days agoSeen in employer's feed 5 days ago

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At a glance

Compensation
$51.5–74.01/hr
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Schedule
Full-time
Work Authorization
Not specified

Olive lists jobs from US employers, including remote roles you can work from the United States.

Requirements

Credentials this posting asks for.

North Carolina RN LicenseAdministrative Or Specialty Certification Within One YearBachelor's degree

Job overview

The Associate Director assists the Director of the Center for Nursing Excellence with daily and long-term department oversight, management direction, and achievement of department goals. The role leads nursing practice and professional development initiatives, including education, orientation, residency programs, and accreditation. It also oversees personnel and fiscal management, communication, customer service, and quality improvement. The position is onsite at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill.

Skills & qualifications

RequiredNice to have

Skills

Nursing EducationNursing Professional DevelopmentNursing ManagementHealthcare Staff ManagementWritten CommunicationVerbal CommunicationWord ProcessingSpreadsheet Programs

Qualifications

Master's in Nursing or Related FieldBachelor's and Master's Degrees, One in NursingNorth Carolina RN LicenseSpecialty CertificationAdministrative or Specialty Certification Within One Year5 Years Nursing Experience2 Years Leadership Experience1 Year Clinical or Management ExperienceAcademic Medical Center or Health Care System Experience

Full job description

Description

Your passion belongs at UNC Health. Join more than 56,000 teammates working together to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve across North Carolina.

This position will be onsite at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, NC.

The ideal candidate will have a strong foundation in nursing education or nursing professional development. The individual hired into this role will be leading a team that is firmly rooted in nursing practice and professional development that ranges in overseeing teaching methodologies to competency based education, orientation, and regulatory accreditation and expectations.

Summary:

Responsible for assisting the Director of the Center for Nursing Excellence for UNC Hospitals through daily and long term oversight of department activities. Provides management direction to nursing practice and professional development leaders and team members. Assist the Director in ensuring the successful attainment of department goals and objectives. Accountable for departmental personnel management, fiscal management, communications, customer service, and quality/ process improvement initiatives to attain high level of quality outcomes consistent with organizational standards. Reports to the Director – Center for Nursing Excellence.

Responsibilities:

1.Nursing Practice - Assists with the direction of planning, designing, coordinating, and evaluation of educational and professional practice initiatives for the Nursing Department (in collaboration with nursing leadership and shared governance councils). Ensures that all components of nursing education are consistent with quality standards and benchmarks. Facilitates all residency programs and ensures that residency programs address strategic priorities of UNC Hospitals and prepare candidates to make an effective transition to their primary role.

2.Nursing Practice & Policies - Ensures nursing practice and policies are in accordance with accreditation requirements. Collaborates with quality leaders to meet educational demands that address knowledge deficits leading to sentinel events or patient safety concerns.

3.Professional Development Maintains familiarity with standards of appropriate discipline/professional work group. Seeks opportunities for professional growth. Attends required orientation prior to initiation of new systems. Participates in appropriate educational opportunities.

  1. Human Resource Management: Effectively recruits, selects, hires, coaches, and uses appropriate corrective actions with staff in accordance with UNCHCS policies and procedures. Creates an environment conducive to retaining staff. Provides input to Director regarding staff annual performance feedback and the opportunity to set developmental goals. Participates in and leads as needed regularly recurring staff meetings at which pertinent information such as policy and procedure changes are communicated. Encourages staff to celebrate successes, express concerns and identity opportunities for improvements. Implements strategies to improve employee satisfaction inclusive of strategies to involve employees in decision making.

  2. Leadership: Collaborates with Director to establish goals for the department that are congruent with hospital goals. Reviews overall department performance to ensure staff are meeting or exceeding target outcome goals. Leads in change efforts for improvement in work quality. Aligns work unit goals with organizational strategic direction. Demonstrates corporate citizenship by participating in activities external to assigned work unit/departments. Demonstrates active support of organizational initiatives. Accesses and utilizes appropriate administrative/clinical/financial systems. Acquires and maintains quantitative skills for data analysis. Creates an educational environment conducive to learning.

  3. Communication: Identifies key customers and needs. Develops and maintains positive, effective relationships with key individuals and team both internally and externally. Monitors unit(s) performance and ensures scores are showing improvement using LEAN methodology. Maintains accountability for annual competency assessment of staff. Works with Director to ensure a high level of patient and customer satisfaction.

  4. Quality and Regulatory/Accreditation Issues: Maintains familiarity with applicable rules, regulations, and accreditation issues, including Magnet related activities. Ensures work unit is in compliance with applicable accreditation issues. Participates in activities designed to monitor and improve compliance.

  5. Financial Stewardship: Works with Director to develop and submit budgetary requests on or before stated deadlines for UNC Hospitals cost centers; assists in monitoring and analyzing budgetary trends. Implements strategies to increase revenue/decrease costs and cost-effectively manage personnel, supply and equipment resources. Makes necessary adjustments to ensure goals are achieved and/or meet budget projections. Recognizes opportunities for increases in productivity, cost savings, and revenue generation.

Other Information

Other information:

Education Requirements:

  • Master's degree in Nursing or related field; Applicant must have a Bachelor's and Master's Degree, at least one of which is in Nursing (if BSN is held degree, Master's in Education, Nursing, or other applicable field required).

Licensure/Certification Requirements:

  • Registered Licensed as a Registered Nurse in the State of North Carolina; Certification in area of specialty preferred; must obtain certification in administrative or specialty area within one year of hire.

Professional Experience Requirements:

  • Requires a minimum of five (5) years’ experience in nursing. Demonstrated progressive experience in nursing management with a minimum of two (2) years in leadership role required; one (1) year clinical or management experience.

  • Previous experience in an academic medical center and/ or health care system preferred.

Knowledge/Skills/and Abilities Requirements:

  • Understands and applies principles, procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise.

  • Proven track record of effective management of health care staff in an acute care setting. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Basic computer skills in word processing and spreadsheet programs.

Job Details

Legal Employer: STATE

Entity: UNC Medical Center

Organization Unit: Center of Nursing Excellence

Work Type: Full Time

Standard Hours Per Week: 40.00

Salary Range: $51.50 - $74.01 per hour (Hiring Range)

Pay offers are determined by experience and internal equity

Work Assignment Type: Onsite

Work Schedule: Day Job

Location of Job: US:NC:Chapel Hill

Exempt From Overtime: Exempt: Yes

This is a State position employed by UNC Health Care System with UNC Health benefits. If, however, you are presently an employee of another North Carolina agency and currently participate in TSERS or the ORP, you will be eligible to continue participating in those plans at UNC Health.

Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran or political affiliation.

UNC Health makes reasonable accommodations for applicants' and employees' religious practices and beliefs, as well as applicants and employees with disabilities. All interested applicants are invited to apply for career opportunities. Please email [email protected] if you need a reasonable accommodation to search and/or to apply for a career opportunity.

Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

How this job compares

Set against the 591 open Nursing Leadership jobs on Olive Jobs, counted October 27, 2026.

Pay
  • This posting$51.5–74.01/hr
  • US median$48–76/hr91 hourly ranges

This range's midpoint, $62.76/hr, is close to the US median midpoint ($63/hr) — in the middle half of Nursing Leadership hourly ranges across the US.

Openings
Olive Jobs lists 23 open Nursing Leadership jobs in North Carolina and 591 across the US. 1% of them nationwide are listed as remote or flexible.
Hiring the most in North Carolina
Experience
This posting asks for at least 5 years of experience; Nursing Leadership postings that state a minimum ask for 3 years at the median (449 postings).
Education
This posting asks for a bachelor's degree; 243 of the 591 open Nursing Leadership jobs (41%) ask for a bachelor's degree or higher.

Counted across the open, public US postings on Olive Jobs on October 27, 2026. Pay medians are the middle values of the low ends and of the high ends of postings that list both ends of a range in the same cadence (a yearly salary or an hourly rate); a range's midpoint is halfway between its ends. Pay and experience figures resting on fewer than 20 postings are left out.

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