Clinical Nurse Leader; CNL; Pediatric ICU

In pediatric critical care, some of the most meaningful contributions happen beyond the bedside. This is an opportunity to drive quality, safety, and evidence-based practice initiatives that directly impact outcomes for critically ill children while partnering with clinical leaders across one of the region’s premier children's hospitals.

As the dedicated Clinical Nurse Leader for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), you will serve as a trusted quality and improvement resource, helping frontline teams translate data into action and innovation into measurable patient outcomes.
This newly structured, PICU-exclusive role offers the rare opportunity to shape the future of quality improvement efforts within a high-acuity pediatric environment while collaborating with experts across nursing, quality, and operational leadership.

The Clinical Nurse Leader serves as a catalyst for continuous improvement within the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Working closely with nursing leadership
, interdisciplinary teams, and quality professionals, you will help advance patient safety, evidence-based practice, and performance improvement initiatives that support exceptional care for critically ill pediatric patients.

In this highly visible role, you will maintain a strong presence within the PICU, building relationships with frontline staff while guiding improvement efforts across the continuum of care. Although this is not a direct patient care position, your influence will be felt in every aspect of the patient and family experience through your impact on quality outcomes and clinical practice.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading and supporting evidence-based practice initiatives within the PICU
• Driving quality improvement and patient safety projects from planning through implementation
• Analyzing clinical and operational performance data to identify opportunities for improvement
• Collaborating with nursing leadership, physicians, analysts, and quality improvement professionals
• Facilitating change management efforts and supporting adoption of best practices
• Serving as a trusted resource for frontline staff and interdisciplinary teams
• Participating in unit huddles, operational meetings, and collaborative improvement activities
• Helping connect quality metrics, patient outcomes, and performance improvement strategies
• Supporting care initiatives involving high-acuity critical care pediatric, pediatric cardiology, and pediatric heart transplant populations
• Partnering with fellow Clinical Nurse Leaders across Women's and Children's Services to share best practices and advance system-wide improvements

At UVA Health, you'll join an academic health system known for innovation, clinical excellence, and a commitment to advancing patient care through collaboration and discovery. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the mission of improving outcomes for some of the most medically complex pediatric patients in the Commonwealth.

Our Clinical Nurse Leaders use their certification how it was intended: influencing practice, building strong relationships, using data to guide decisions, and bringing teams together around a common goal of improving care for children and families.

• Newly dedicated PICU-exclusive Clinical Nurse Leader position
  , offering the opportunity to help define and shape the role's long-term impact
• Direct partnership with nationally respected pediatric cardiology and heart transplant teams
• Opportunity to influence care delivery for critically ill newborns, infants, children, and adolescents
• Membership in a supportive and growing Women's and Children's Clinical Nurse Leader cohort
• Strong alignment with organizational priorities focused on quality, safety, and evidence-based practice
• Collaboration with experienced quality leaders, analysts, nursing leadership, and interdisciplinary teams
• Exposure to complex improvement initiatives that create measurable outcomes across the health system
• Opportunities for professional growth through leadership visibility and participation in hospital-wide improvement efforts
• A culture that values innovation, inquiry,…