About North Park

Founded in 1891, North Park University is a Christian university affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church of over 3,200 students from around the country and the world. Located for over 125 years on the land of the Miami and Potawatomi tribes in what is today Chicago’s northside, NPU has recently been designated a Hispanic Serving Institution and is committed to serving diverse populations. Elevating North Park University’s core distinctives of Christian, city-centered, and intercultural, NPU values diversity among its faculty and is committed to building a racially and culturally diverse intellectual community, and strongly encourages the nomination and candidacies of persons who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color regardless of gender.

North Park University is located in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago, one of the most ethnically diverse zip codes in the United States. It is nine miles from downtown Chicago. The North Park campus has often been referred to as an oasis in the heart of the city – a place where students from urban, rural, and suburban backgrounds alike can call home. And all of this within the major metropolitan backdrop of Chicago: one of the world’s largest and most diversified economies, renowned for its museums and music, and voted best large city in the U.S. for four years in a row by Condé Nast Traveler.

Mission

The mission of North Park University is to prepare students for lives of significance and service through education in the liberal arts, professional studies, and theology.

Vision

Building on our core institutional identity—Christian, city-centered, intercultural—our vision is to create a university of uncommon character and enduring excellence, where faith, learning, and service meet.

Position Summary

The Direct-Entry MSN (DEMSN) degree track is a pre-license program with a concept-based teaching-learning strategy. Come and be a part of this exciting program. The role of the Clinical Learning Specialist (CLS) is to work full-time with the clinical course and adjunct faculty to prepare students for clinical readiness. The CLS is a full-time, year-round position. The CLS ensures quality improvement and standardization with internal and external processes and ensures clinical education for clinical faculty is based on the most recent evidence in the literature. The CLS interfaces with several stakeholders within the school of nursing and the healthcare environment and is the connection point for the school of nursing, clinical faculty, students, and clinical partners.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities to the School of Nursing include:

• Collaborating with lab and classroom faculty to develop improved connections between clinical, simulations, and didactic learning
• Participating on standing committees: program, school, and university
• Obtain and review course, faculty, and clinical site evaluations for course quality improvement
• Collaborates with Senior Clinical Learning Specialist and Program Director in assigning students to clinical groups
• Clinical or didactic teaching assignments as needed.
• Designing and maintaining each clinical course through the Canvas LMS consistently across the program. The CLS is the “faculty on record” for assigned clinical course.
• Serving as a resource to clinical faculty by making weekly site visits, course announcements, and coaching faculty in the use of remediation contracts
• Ensures midterm and final evaluations are completed electronically and uploaded to course LMS
• Validates Clinical faculty are completing grades
• As faculty of record enters final grades in course

Responsibilities to Clinical Faculty include:

• Prepare and disseminate Skills Day and Sim Lab materials to clinical faculty
• Coordinate lab and simulation schedules with Director of Simulation Education
• Collaborate with clinical faculty for pre-brief and debrief processes
• Facilitate evidence-based pedagogy for clinical faculty in simulation and skills lab
• Point of contact for clinical faculty for assigned courses

Responsibilities to Students include:

• Standardizing the processes for evaluating clinical competencies, including the use of clinical evaluation tools and remediation contracts
• Managing clinical absences and assigning equitable makeup work in keeping with the clinical absence/makeup policy
• Addressing any student issues (academic misconduct, dress code/professional conduct violations, clinical failure, etc.) both indirectly by coaching faculty and directly by meeting with students, depending on the severity of the issue

Open Rank, tenure/non-tenure - based on experience, certification, and education

• RN, MSN, 2-years’ clinical experience as an RN required
• Eligible for or hold IL unencumbered RN license

Preferred

• Teaching accelerated nursing students
• Experience with concept-based teaching
• Nursing education experience
• DNP, or EdD, or Ph.D., or DNSc
• Certified as Nurse Educator or Clinical Nurse Educator

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Prescription Plan
• Flexible Spending Account
• Commuter Benefit
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Retirement Plan
• Tuition Remission
• Helwig Recreation Center