DIRECTOR OF NURSING@SIMMONS

Position Summary
The Director of Nursing@Simmons (FNP-BC MSN, DNP, and RN-MSN) is a 12-Month Contract Faculty position, open to both Boston based and remote candidates. This individual is employed by the College and reports to the Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences (SNHS) and Chair of Graduate Nursing. The Director is responsible for supervision of the online MSN (FNP-BC), Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and RN-MSN programs, as well as the oversight of the Assistant Director and Coordinators. The Director of the Nursing@Simmons Program will have administrative, teaching and advisement responsibilities. Collaborating with the Dean of the SNHS and the Chair of Graduate Nursing, the director ensures academic rigor and curricular alignment with the face-to-face Simmons Graduate FNP program and DNP program, while meeting the needs of current and prospective students and aligning with the overall vision and standards of the SNHS and the standards of the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
The Director of Nursing@Simmons is responsible for overall program design, development, and delivery, with the goal of creating the optimal student experience and desired student outcomes. In collaboration with a core team across several functional areas of the college (Strategic Initiatives, SFS, Registrar, Technology, Finance, Legal and THCS) and in collaboration with Simmons strategic partner, 2U, the Director must focus on several areas of the program to ensure quality: marketing, curriculum, content, faculty, student support, operations and profitability.

Curriculum/ Content: The Director is responsible for the overall quality and delivery of the program, evaluating materials and instructional plans, and ensuring credentialed content experts design courses with rich syllabi and relevant, current content.

• Responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of research-based evaluative criteria in the assessment of online courses in collaboration with the Dean of SNHS and the Graduate Chair.
• Ensuring that the academic rigor and curriculum of the onsite program are replicated in the online medium, including selecting appropriate clinical experiences to meet the stated course objectives with the appropriate clinical faculty, in collaboration with the 2U Clinical Placement Team.
• Evaluating that translation of appropriate level of clinical training is meeting the development of the student needs.
• Attending Immersion Weekend; a high impact experience critical to the clinical component of the program and overall student experience. The Director will approve and oversee the academic and clinical design, development and delivery of the weekend agenda, delivery and leadership of the Coordinators and the Assistant Director of Operations.

Faculty: The Program Director oversees all faculty vetting and hiring nationally in conjunction with a Nurse Faculty Recruiter, with specific attention to credential and experience needs by course. The Director will be responsible for:

• Hiring, managing, and leading the team of full/part time faculty Coordinators/Special Project Managers. The Director will manage all full/part time faculty to ensure successful outcomes through each content expert role, and will be responsible for conducting annual evaluations as well as periodic reviews as needed
• Recruiting and approving faculty for 1) course design (Course Designer), and specific content expert needs by course 2) leading in course coordination (Course Lead), and 3) individual course instructors (Section Instructors) and 4) Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for quality control in course content
• Ensuring adjunct faculty readiness through Faculty Orientation by (oversight of onboarding conducted by Nursing@Simmons Coordinators), programmatic training and touch-points, mentoring around the use of online teaching and learning methods for both synchronous and asynchronous components of the courses, and continuous quality improvement efforts around faculty retention and development. These observations and responsibilities are communicated through the Coordinators, Director of Special Projects/Program Development, Course Leads and the interviewer response;
• Serving as a resource for the development of faculty with a focus on improving synchronous teaching skill
• Updating current online faculty of any curricular or programmatic changes, such as course iteration
• Ensuring formative assessments of faculty for online teaching abilities, recommending opportunities for improvement,
• Leading the online Academic and Core Team leadership meetings between the Director and Coordinators as well as evolve the academic infrastructure through the organizational design
• In collaboration with Simmons Online and 2U production staff, informing Simmons Community about new developments and research in online education and national standards that pertain to online education, to SNHS,
• Facilitating and participating in ongoing faculty continuing education including exploring the initiatives of the Academic Quality and Sustainability Committee student concerns meeting, their priorities and exploring what projects are appropriate for the development at the academic or programmatic level

Student Support: The Program Director collaborates with all Nursing@Simmons Operations, Department of Student Affairs, Office of Student Disabilities and Academic Advisors to leverage the Core Team and ensure appropriate student support, and protocols in place i.e. Library, Writing Center, tutoring support/direction and student support with the Coordinator of Special Projects and 2U's network, etc. The Director will enable a process for:

• Addressing and escalating student concerns and needs, and at times respond directly to students and lead the appropriate actions.
• Leading a process for advising support to online students in collaboration with Academic Advising, Simmons Online, leveraging best practices from other universities;

Marketing: The Program Director is responsible for ensuring that program information used in marketing and promotional materials accurately reflects the curriculum and quality of the program. This involves ongoing reviews of web copy, promotional materials, blogs, webinar content, etc. as initiated by 2U and AVP of Strategic Initiatives.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Program Duties and Responsibilities:
Administrative:

• Direct the Nursing@Simmons Program: Oversee curriculum development and evaluation
• Hire, manage, and evaluate all full time/part time faculty positions (i.e. Faculty Coordinators)
• Hire, oversee, and evaluate all adjunct faculty and support these processes with the Assistant Director and Coordinators of NURSING@SIMMONS
• Conduct faculty meetings monthly (or as needed)
• Attend monthly SNHS meetings and SNHS leadership team meetings and participate in Program Chairs team and department decision-making
• Participate in CCNE re-accreditation process including preparing the self-study report
• Participate in the national dialogue on nursing education; present at national/international conferences
• Spearhead scholarly programs on issues of concern to nursing and interdisciplinary healthcare efforts
• Participate in the standing committees of the School and College Teaching
• Course planning, implementation and evaluation in the FNP, RN-MSN, and DNP programs
• Participate in the selection of instructional materials, library resources, and equipment for learning resource center.
• Maintain awareness of appropriate clinical experiences to meet the stated course objectives.
• Assist the Chair of Graduate Nursing in preparation of summative evaluations of faculty and student performance
• Act as the department liaison within the Graduate Nursing Department and SNHS at large, in the offering of the online courses within the online curriculum of the College

Ongoing Operations and Profitability: To ensure program quality, scale and profitability, the Director must demonstrate a command of and compliance with all terms of the contract between Simmons College and 2U and create systematic and disciplined approaches to operations. This is achieved as follows:

• Assuring review of student applications, following the established Admissions Criteria Guidelines by the Nursing@Simmons Admissions Committee
• Collaborating with Chair of Graduate Nursing, Dean of SNHS and the VP of Strategic Initiatives to understand budget impact of decisions and operations
• Participating in all aspects of planning and coordinator of the program including meetings and activities across stakeholder groups, to meet the program goals
• Creating a plan and national approach to monitoring sites, preceptors, and students during didactic courses, and clinical preceptorships
• Involved in recommending to the Graduate Chair of Nursing assignments and best practices of faculty to teach online courses and developing real time, cutting edge educational efforts to enhance online teaching efforts for faculty

Qualifications
Candidates for the Director of Nursing@Simmons as an Associate Professor of Practice or Professor of Practice must have:

• An earned DNP or PhD with MS in Nursing (Family Nurse Practitioner) Required
• Must have the ability to obtain MA Registered Nurse License and Certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner;
• A minimum of 5 years of clinical experience as an advanced practice nurse and administrative and/or academic leadership
• Proficiency in teaching online
• Demonstrate leadership and originality in scholarly work across disciplines
• Evidence of continued and progressive professional development in the academic and professional communities.
• A minimum of 5 years of teaching in a nursing program (masters and above preferred), preferred.
• Ongoing scholarly activity that includes research and publication preferred.
• Skill in hybrid and online course design and delivery as well as an interest in the adult learner, preferred.

Skills and Competencies

• A track record of adaptive leadership
• Strong collaborative approach and relationship management;
• Written and verbal communication skills;
• Attention to detail and multi-tasking/prioritizing of competing and complex deliverables;
• Solid business acumen and judgment;
• Accountability for results;
• Strong problem solving and decision making skills; flexible, self-directed, and motivated

Please note that this position is Boston based position and requires travel up to 10%. Remote candidates will be required to travel to the Simmons College campus as needed. The teaching workload of this appointment is to be determined by Dean of SNHS, and overload would be available at the Dean's discretion.

Instructions to Applicants: Please upload the following documents with your application; C.V. (required), a cover letter (required), and a statement of teaching philosophy (optional).
All documents should be uploaded in the Resume/CV section on the 'My Experience' page of the application.


As a College committed to diversity, Simmons encourages applications broadly. Simmons is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to continuing to develop a more diverse faculty, staff, student body and curriculum.


To apply, visit https://simmons.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Simmons-Careers/job/Main-Campus---Boston-MA/Director--Nursing-Simmons_R04610

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