Nursing
Specialty Nursing & Diverse Roles
As a teaching hospital, a referral centre for patients from across
the province, downtown Toronto's designated trauma centre for adults
and the regional stroke centre for southeast Toronto, St. Michael's
Hospital offers exciting career development and learning and growth
opportunities for registered nurses in the following specialty areas:
- cardiovascular nursing
- child birth and gynecology
- critical care:
- cardiovascular intensive care
- coronary care
- medical surgical intensive care
- neonatal intensive care
- trauma and neurosurgical intensive care
- diagnostic imaging
- emergency
- gerontology
- IV service
- infection control
- mental health
- general medical surgical nursing
- nephrology
- neurology
- neurosurgery
- nursing informatics
- employee health
- oncology
- orthopedics
- palliative care
- perioperative nursing
- trauma
- respirology
- cardiology
- gastroenterology
Our Diverse Roles
We have a diverse range of roles within the nursing profession. Examples
Staff Registered Nurse
A staff Registered Nurse (RN) is responsible for delivering patient-focused care through the following eight domains of nursing practice:
- diagnostic and patient monitoring
- administering and monitoring therapeutic regimens
- managing increasing complex and rapidly changing situations
- creating a climate for and establishing a commitment to healing
- teaching and coaching
- leadership and professional practice
- building and maintaining a therapeutic team and managing in a changing environment
- using evidence based practice and clinical judgment
St Michael’s Hospital participates in the Nursing Graduate Guarantee initiative supported by HealthForceOntario, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
Nurse Practitioner
Nurse Practitioners (NPs), registered in either the Primary Health Care, Adult or Pediatric specialties, work within collaborative teams in many programs within St. Michael’s to provide advanced care to patients and families that optimizes patient outcomes and enhances safety, efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility to care within defined populations. NPs work within a scope of practice that allows them to autonomously diagnose, order and interpret diagnostic tests, prescribe pharmaceuticals and perform procedures and demonstrate the following competencies:
• Professional role, responsibility and accountability (including Knowledge Translation, Scholarship, and Leadership).
• Advanced Health Assessment and Diagnosis
• Therapeutic Management
• Health Promotion and Prevention of Illness and Injury.
Clinical Nurse Specialist
Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) are registered with the College of Nurses of Ontario in the general class. They hold either a master’s or doctoral degree in nursing and have expertise in a clinical nursing specialty. The CNSs demonstrate advanced knowledge, skill and judgment in providing care to patients that is consistent with the College of Nurses of Ontario. At St. Michael’s, CNSs:
- support the delivery of quality care to diverse patient population, and facilitate the development of comprehensive care plans in conjunction with the interprofessional team to enhance patient safety, outcomes, access to care, and experience
- blend clinical expertise with education, knowledge translation, leadership and research skills to serve as consultants and resources to nurses, nursing leadership, interprofessional teams and external partners in the process of decision-making, developing clinical guidelines and protocols, promoting the use of evidence, and facilitating system change
Clinical Nurse Educator
The Clinical Nurse Educator provides orientation and ongoing education to staff to support professional development and promote safe and effective practice. The Clinical Nurse Educator teaches, facilitates education, guides, supports and evaluates staff learning to maximize their potential as learners and to enhance their care capabilities.
Clinical Leader/Manager
The Clinical Leader Manager (CLM) provides leadership and direction at the unit level to interdisciplinary teams to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of high quality patient care. The CLM, using their teambuilding and change management skills, is primarily accountable for the quality of patient care, utilization of resources, professional practice and staff development, customer and staff satisfaction, and developing innovative, team-based approaches to the day-to-day management of the unit and to the delivery of service.
Patient Flow Manager
The patient flow manager is responsible for facilitating the movement of patients to the appropriate unit, assessing the suitability and availability of beds and services, problem solving with staff in various units and facilitating discharge planning and co-ordination. The patient flow manager works to reduce wait times for patients and backlogs in the emergency, recovery and admitting departments.
