Associate Dean of Nursing, Clinical Excellence

Associate Dean of Nursing, Clinical Excellence

Associate Dean of Nursing, Clinical Excellence
Rasmussen University
Mokena/Romeoville, IL

The Dean of Nursing Clinical Education provides leadership and oversight for clinical relationships and the education components of nursing programs across the market. This role partners with Academic Nursing Directors, nursing leadership, faculty, and external healthcare organizations to ensure the delivery of high-quality clinical learning experiences that support student success, workforce readiness, and clinical excellence.

A key responsibility is cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with clinical partners to secure, expand, and optimize clinical practicum opportunities while ensuring mutual value, regulatory compliance, and alignment with organizational and academic objectives. The Dean is responsible for developing and implementing initiatives to strengthen clinical education quality, evaluating the effectiveness of clinical placements and learning experiences, and identifying opportunities for continuous improvement.

Through collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, the Dean monitors clinical education outcomes, assesses market needs, identifies gaps in clinical learning and site utilization, and leads high-impact initiatives to enhance student placement capacity, preceptor engagement, faculty support, and overall program quality. The Dean must possess a comprehensive understanding of nursing education, clinical practice environments, partnership cultivation, accreditation and regulatory requirements, and performance improvement methodologies to advance clinical excellence and strengthen academic-practice partnerships across the market.

Responsibilities:

Clinical Education & Learning Quality

• Provide leadership and oversight for the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of the clinical learning experience across assigned prelicensure nursing programs and clinical sites.
• Ensure clinical learning experiences align with program outcomes, course objectives, regulatory requirements, accreditation standards, and established clinical education expectations.
• Monitor the quality and effectiveness of clinical instruction and student learning experiences through regular review of clinical outcomes, faculty feedback, student feedback, and site performance.
• Conduct and/or oversee faculty observations in clinical settings to assess teaching effectiveness, student engagement, clinical judgement development, and adherence to program expectations.
• Partner with Deans and nursing leadership to address faculty performance concerns and develop targeted coaching, support, and improvement plans as needed.
• Ensure clinical faculty are appropriately prepared, oriented, and supported to deliver high-quality clinical learning experiences.

Clinical Partner Relationships

• Develop and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with clinical agency partners to support high-quality student learning experiences and long-term clinical placement capacity.
• Serve as a key point of contact for clinical partners, responding proactively to concerns and ensuring timely resolution of issues affecting students, faculty, or clinical operations.
• Collaborate with clinical partners to evaluate effectiveness of student placements and identify opportunities to strengthen clinical learning experiences.
• Monitor clinical site capacity, quality, and utilization in partnership with academic and operational leaders to support current and future enrollment needs.
• Represent the nursing program professionally with clinical partners and cultivate relationships that support student success and workforce development.

Student and Faculty Performance & Concerns

• Monitor student and faculty performance and progression in clinical settings, using data and feedback to identify students or faculty who may require additional support, intervention, or remediation.
• Provide leadership in addressing student or faculty clinical performance concerns, including professionalism, clinical judgement, patient safety, skills competency, and achievement of clinical outcomes.
• Partner with stakeholders to develop and implement individualized plans to address student or faculty performance concerns.
• Ensure student or faculty clinical concerns are documented, communicated, and addressed consistently in accordance with university policies and program expectations.
• Escalate significant student or faculty performance, patient safety, or clinical partner concerns to appropriate academic leadership and support timely resolution.

Clinical Operations & Continuous Improvement

• Collaborate with academic leadership to establish standardized expectations and processes for clinical education across campuses and programs.
• Review clinical performance trends and feedback to identify opportunities for continuous improvement in curriculum delivery, faculty practice, clinical site selection, and student preparation.
• Support the evaluation and onboarding of new clinical…