Patient Navigator Clinical 4

Involves the clinical expertise, coordination, and advocacy to assist pregnant and postpartum patients and their families in navigating the complexity of the hospital and health care system across the perinatal continuum. Primary goals are to optimize care, outcomes, and the patient experience through nursing-led clinical support, culturally responsive patient navigation, and coordinated transitions across prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum settings. Acts as a communication liaison to understand each patient's individual clinical needs, desires, and concerns. Guides patients and families to a broad range of clinical services, community resources, and information to promote healing, safety, and satisfaction with the patient care experience.

Serves as a clinical resource and liaison for pregnant and postpartum patients and their families enrolled in the EMBRACE Perinatal Integrated Care Program. Provides nursing-led clinical psychoeducation and consultation to prepare families for labor, birth, and post-labor recovery; conducts clinical assessments and perinatal screenings within the RN scope of practice, including perinatal mood and anxiety disorder screening, vital signs, and lactation assessment; and co-facilitates EMBRACE Group Prenatal Care cohorts. Coordinates clinical care transitions between prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum settings, ensuring continuity of care, warm handoffs between providers, and culturally affirming experiences for Black birthing families; assists with labor sitting when complications arise, providing presence, advocacy, and clinical communication with the Labor and Delivery team during high-acuity moments.

Manages patient referrals, intake, orientation, and assignment to EMBRACE services; delivers culturally responsive patient navigation and advocacy; and connects patients to community resources such as WIC, housing support, behavioral health services, pediatric care, SisterWeb, and Black Infant Health. Supports day-to-day operations of EMBRACE clinical perinatal services, integrates culturally rooted birthing practices into prenatal and postpartum programming, and maintains timely, accurate clinical documentation in APeX (UCSF EMR), REDCap, and other program systems. Serves as the lead member of the EMBRACE patient navigation team; mentors junior patient navigators; leads recurring care coordination and group prenatal care facilitation meetings; and serves as the escalation point for complex cases requiring clinical judgment.

DEPARTMENT DESCRIPTION:

The EMBRACE Perinatal Integrated Care Program at UCSF delivers equity-centered, culturally responsive perinatal care to pregnant and postpartum individuals and their families. Operating within an Integrated/Collaborative Care Model and grounded in the Sankofa framework, EMBRACE integrates clinical perinatal services (including individual and group prenatal care, labor sitting, lactation support, perinatal mental health, and women's primary health care) with community-based navigation, birth worker partnerships, and traditional birthing practices that affirm birthing families. The program operates across three UCSF sites with an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, navigators, and community partners.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from an accredited program and minimum five years of experience or equivalent experience/training
• Active, unrestricted Registered Nurse (RN) licensure in the State of California.
• Current BLS (Basic Life Support) certification.
• Strong clinical nursing knowledge across the perinatal continuum (prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and lactation). Ability to provide patient education, clinical consultation, and culturally responsive support during pregnancy, labor and delivery, and postpartum recovery.
• Knowledge of trauma-informed care, reproductive justice, and the mental health, social, and cultural intervention needs of Black and African American communities.
• Advanced skills in assessing patient grievances and quickly locating appropriate resources to get issues resolved. In-depth knowledge of UCSF systems and how to move issues through the organization.
• Excellent customer service and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate and resolve issues effectively with a diverse population of patients, staff, and physicians.
• Ability to work in a complex, multi-divisional healthcare environment; strong skills to establish priorities, set objectives, and achieve stated goals. Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Clear, concise, and culturally responsive communication skills to teach patients and families about complex, sensitive clinical topics across pregnancy, labor, and postpartum.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor, delegate to, and develop junior clinical staff.
• Proficiency with APeX (UCSF EMR), REDCap, and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook), Zoom, and Microsoft Teams.

PREFERRED:

• Additional coursework or training in perinatal nursing, maternal-child health, or community health.
• Lactation peer counselor or IBCLC certification.
• Doula or birthworker training.
• Training in trauma-informed care or perinatal mental health.
• Familiarity with the Sankofa framework, integrated/collaborative care models, and community-centered birthing practices.
• Bilingual proficiency.
• Lived experience and/or deep community connection to the populations EMBRACE serves.
   

Budgeted Job Salary Range: 121,900-277,100