Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Accomplishments
Certification
Affiliations
Timeline
Generic

Sharon Ernst

Cincinnati,Ohio

Summary

Dynamic and results-driven Clinical Education Consultant with over 20 years of experience in healthcare education, training, and program development. Expertise in designing and implementing evidence-based training initiatives that enhance clinical knowledge, improve patient care, and ensure compliance with industry standards. Proficient in conducting needs assessments, creating customized educational content, and delivering engaging training sessions for healthcare professionals across diverse settings. Skilled at collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, analyzing educational outcomes, and leveraging data to optimize learning experiences.

Overview

2026
2026
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Sr. Clinical Consultant

VillageCare Of New York
02.2022 - Current
  • Collaborate with clinical operations and IT to manage the implementation of new technologies and update existing systems, ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.
  • Collaborate and partner with operational and quality leaders to identify educational needs such as on-boarding, staff proficiency / competency, and continuing education programs to ensure compliance with consistent clinical processes and deficiencies during internal audits and external surveys.
  • Serve as an expert in learning needs assessments, identification of educational gaps, development and execution of programs to meet identified needs and evaluation of the effectiveness of training efforts while utilizing the ADDIE framework (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation).
  • Design, implement and facilitate learning and developmental programs, consistent with best practices and innovative approaches to address staff development, new hire on-boarding, new role transitions, staff proficiency and competency building for utilization management and case management.
  • Schedule and ensure training is scheduled based on the need of business operations for both care management and utilization management.
  • Monitor training personnel records to ensure staff have met all company training requirements for company, quality, and regulatory compliance.
  • Demonstrate commitment to providing outstanding customer service in a manner that is reflective of organizations mission, vision, organizational context, code of conduct and customer standards.
  • Foster communication and collaborative practices between disciplines and serve as a role model to promote professional practice. Use extensive leadership, research, listening, questioning, and clarifying skills to take highly complex information and create solutions to meet the identified business need.
  • Collaborate with leadership to ensure compliance with established safety, governmental and regulatory agency guidelines, including but not limited to insurers, CMS, Department of Health and NCQA.
  • Formulated and implemented 5 innovative operational and educational strategies in case management.

Assistant Director Adherence, Learning & Development

UnitedHealthcare, Community Plan
02.2021 - 02.2022
  • Collaborated with IT and clinical teams to manage the implementation of new technologies and updates to existing systems, ensuring minimal disruption to daily operations.
  • Directed a team of twenty-six, which included managers, delivery trainers, instructional designers, and instructional design consultants. Mentored one-two staff per quarter at various levels of the organization through the Center for Clinician Advancement Inspire Mentoring Program.
  • Designed the infrastructure for twenty-six learning and development programs by establishing standardized procedures for content development, delivery, evaluation, measurement and reporting. Designed, implemented and facilitated enterprise-wide learning and developmental programs, consistent with best practices and innovative approaches to address staff development, leadership development, new hire on-boarding, new role transitions, staff proficiency and competency building for utilization management and case management.
  • Directed the assessment of performance gaps to drive identification of the business need; translated business needs into business requirements; identified non-training solutions to address business needs/performance gaps when the root cause of the performance gaps were not training related.
  • Collaborated with enterprise wide cross-functional program and project teams to plan, execute, monitor, and control implementation projects, ensuring solutions were delivered on time and within budget while meeting business results.
  • Utilized extensive leadership, research, listening, questioning, and clarifying skills to take highly complex information and create solutions to meet the identified business need.
  • Effectively interacted daily with leaders of the national clinical operations and adherence teams, IT, human capital partners, and federal / state regulators to ensure compliance with national policies, procedures and federal / state contractual requirements, mandates, and regulations. Designed process maps and maintained national standard operating procedures (SOPs) and job aids.
  • Oversaw the recruitment, hiring, and on boarding process for six new educators to maintain a high-quality teaching staff.

Associate Director Clinical Operations / Learning & Development

UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare / Community Plan
05.2015 - 02.2021
  • Collaborated with enterprise wide cross-functional program and project teams to plan, execute, monitor and control implementation projects, ensuring solutions were delivered on time and within budget while meeting business results.
  • Analyzed business requirements and best practices; engaged stakeholders in workflow analysis sessions to ensure optimal curriculum development to integrate emphasis areas and relevant training content.
  • Contributed clinical expertise to deliver solution design documents in partnership with business system analyst, operations, adherence, and IT.
  • Consulted with clinical operations within twenty-six health plan on the implementation and optimization of electronic health records, advising on best practices to improve system usability and member outcomes.
  • Lead the integration and optimization of the electronic health record across twenty-six health plans, improving user adoption rates within the first two months.
  • Managed and implemented end-to-end training development process, which included needs analysis, instructional design / development, facilitation, and evaluation for approximately one thousand clinical and clinical staff.
  • Audited, reviewed, updated, and deployed national training initiatives to support improved program delivery on a yearly basis.
  • Collaborated with clinical adherence and health plan leadership to oversee process improvement through operational and training delivery processes.
  • Established clear lines of communication with applicable stakeholders and set appropriate expectations.
  • Directed team of twenty-six, which included clinical and non-clinical trainers, instructional designers, and instructional design consultants.

Regional Manager of Clinical Excellence

UnitedHealth Group – Optum Care Delivery
04.2014 - 05.2015
  • Designed, directed and oversaw implementation of clinical quality improvement programs with the guidance of the Clinical Quality Committee for six health plans.
  • Audited, reviewed, updated, and deployed national initiatives to support improved program delivery on a monthly basis.
  • Participated in critical analysis of individual market and regional aggregate of clinical outcome measures.
  • Supported six local health plans in developing and implementing necessary tools and care process changes to improve patient outcomes (HEDIS & Stars).
  • Participated in NCQA accreditation process and Federal / State reviews
  • Defined, developed and documented system requirements to capture data measures for quality reporting.
  • Collaborated with the Director of Reporting on the design, testing and implementation of clinical quality reports.
  • Collaborated with the model office and local health plans to ensure all clinical set-up and workflow development was aligned with the QI program requirements, goals, and objectives.

UnitedHealth Group
  • Instructional Design Consultant – Business Standardization and Advancement (2013-2014)
  • Director of Training & Development – Evercare Hospice & Palliative Care (2006-2013)
  • Manager of Training & Development – Specialized Care Services (2004-2006)
  • Training Consultant – Specialized Care Services (2002-2004)
  • Manager of Care Coordination (Utilization Management) – Specialized Care Services (2002)
  • Supervisor of Care Coordination (Utilization Management) – Specialized Care Services (1996-1999)
  • Inpatient Care Coordinator (Utilization Management) – Specialized Care Services (1995-1996, 1999-2002)

Education

Bachelor of Science - Nursing

College of Mount Saint Joseph
Cincinnati, OH

Skills

  • Clinical data management
  • Clinical process improvement
  • Organization-wide deployment
  • Strategic planning
  • Program development and scalability
  • Project execution
  • Strategic operations alignment
  • Experienced in managing organizational change
  • Interprofessional collaboration
  • Workforce development
  • Operational efficiency improvement
  • Healthcare policy development

Accomplishments

  • Managed clinical training teams ranging in size of 8 to 26.
  • Collaborated with multidisciplinary healthcare teams to create and update clinical guidelines and protocols, improving adherence to best practices and ensuring regulatory compliance.
  • Conducted needs assessments and gap analyses to identify key areas for improvement, customizing educational content to address specific knowledge gaps and optimizing clinical team performance.
  • Mentored and trained 10 new clinical educators, enhancing their ability to deliver effective training and support clinical staff development within a hospice and managed care organization.
  • Implemented simulation-based training programs that improved clinical decision-making skills and decreased the time needed for staff to adapt to new medical technologies and practices.
  • Developed and maintained key relationships with external vendors, industry experts, and healthcare organizations to ensure up-to-date training content and resources, keeping the clinical education program aligned with industry standards.

Certification

Registered Nurse (licensed in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio)

Affiliations

Association for Talent Development

Timeline

Sr. Clinical Consultant

VillageCare Of New York
02.2022 - Current

Assistant Director Adherence, Learning & Development

UnitedHealthcare, Community Plan
02.2021 - 02.2022

Associate Director Clinical Operations / Learning & Development

UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthcare / Community Plan
05.2015 - 02.2021

Regional Manager of Clinical Excellence

UnitedHealth Group – Optum Care Delivery
04.2014 - 05.2015

UnitedHealth Group

Bachelor of Science - Nursing

College of Mount Saint Joseph

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