Clinical Manager Job Description

A Registered Nurse in Clinical Governance

You'll be a trained healthcare professional. You will be leading a team of your peers or a multidisciplinary team where a mix of professionals work together to deliver care. You may be managing a function.

You need to have a good knowledge of clinical governance and clinical audit, along with the ability to interpret and implement changes from national and local initiatives. You will be responsible for developing a system that places clinical quality at the heart of all healthcare delivery by working closely with the head of clinical governance, the clinical director for clinical governance and the team of clinicians and managers. You will need to have senior management experience to be a nurse.

A willingness to work as part of a range of multidisciplinary teams will be important. You will be responsible for delivering governance development initiatives within local delivery teams. The lead nurse will be supported in delivering the professional nursing agenda.

You might be based at a hospital trust that employs 5,000 staff and you'll be responsible for delivering the infrastructure to support the trust's clinical governance and risk management agenda. You will need to understand the principles of clinical governance, risk management, complaints and controls assurance to effectively manage the process. It would require excellent communication, leadership and influencing skills to work effectively with a wide range of contacts.

You can use your medical judgement to assess callers, either over the phone or face to face. You can make referrals and give health advice if you use a clinical decision support system. A multi-disciplinary urgent care team includes clinical advisers and senior clinical advisers, as well as non-clinical staff such as nurses, doctors, allied health professionals, and dentists.

The Salaries of Clinical Managers in Health Care Organization

Clinical managers have years of experience and education to supervise the delivery of health care in both the public and private sectors. Most clinical managers start their careers in medicine and then add a higher degree in a related field to broaden their management experience. Medical professionals can transition into management with online courses.

A clinical manager needs experience in a specific medical field. Managers will work in their specialty for a while before adding management. A clinical manager in nursing will work many years as a nurse and then take on the responsibility of health administration or public health, if they have a degree in that field.

A master's degree in healthcare administration is required for clinical managers in larger hospitals or medical facilities. Managers in a large hospital will focus on how their department works as a component of the overall patient care, while managers in a smaller facility will focus on how to manage day-to-day operations. Clinical managers have different salaries because of their previous work as surgeons, nurses and therapists.

A surgeon working in a large urban hospital will make more money than a physical therapist in a small outpatient clinic. The median salary for clinical managers was over $80,000 in May of 2006 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The medical field is expected to grow faster than average because of the baby boomer population.

The Clinical Project Manager

The clinical project manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the activities of personnel involved in clinical research projects to make sure they are in line with general clinical goals and objectives. The manager is in charge of the management of the trial and the selection of vendors so as to guarantee the safety of patients, non-breaching of contract, procedures, and data integrity. The manager in charge of clinical projects must make sure that required resources are available for any given project and that they can resolve any issues that may arise during the project's execution.

The role of management in determining the needs and budgets for healthcare

Like a hotel or restaurant manager, healthcare managers must determine what resources they need to operate efficiently, and price them accordingly. They must communicate with staff to determine their financial needs. A good manager can determine what needs are absolute and where they can be cut back.

The room for error in healthcare is very small, says Alam Hallan, director of pharmacy at the Guelph General Hospital. Scheduling and scribing are important when patient health is at stake. Managers need to review their facilities' operations to make sure they are safe.