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Find a job description model that works for your organization

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, November 3, 2005

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Writing job descriptions in the ambulatory field can present challenges. Healthcare providers take on more than clinical responsibilities. For example, a nurse manager might cover the front desk for a couple of hours during the week. Nursing staff may also be called upon to help clean the operating room (OR), conduct certification training for first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, handle occupational health files, or check compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration requirements.

With so many job duties, John J. Goehle, MBA, CASC, CPA, chief operating officer at Brighton Surgery Center in Rochester, NY, suggests keeping it simple. "Make your job descriptions generic and let your policies dictate how your staff work," he says.

A simplified approach
Start by determining who will write the job descriptions. In Goehle's facility, he handles the overall administrative jobs and the nurse manager takes care of the clinical jobs.

When crafting a job description, write about the position, not the individual. For example, outline the scrub nurse's responsibilities so anyone who works in that position will be held accountable for those duties.

Don't go into great detail in your job descriptions. If the scrub nurse is responsible for cleaning the OR after procedures, tell him or her to see the policy on cleaning the OR for instructions about how to do it.

"If your policies and procedures are updated regularly and staff are kept educated on them, you should only need to update your job descriptions every couple of years," Goehle says. "But keep in mind that every organization is different."

Using a standardized format
A multiple-group practice in Danvers, MA, reports the same challenges in writing job descriptions. But the organization takes a different approach to drafting them. It uses one common job description for each job title. "We try to make sure the office nurse job description, for example, covers what [the office nurse does] at every site with the knowledge that your nurse may not do all those responsibilities, but everything [he or she does] must be included," says Joan E. Patriakeas, human resources (HR) administrator.

All of the job descriptions sit on Patriakeas' computer desktop, and managers e-mail her with what they need. Patriakeas e-mails the descriptions to the managers so they can add key responsibilities to make the document specific to the site and position.

Writing and updating job descriptions at Patriakeas' facility is a challenge because the organization has 12 sites in the greater Boston area. To keep this process from overwhelming one or two people, form a small group of managers to weigh in on what content to include in each of the job descriptions.

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