Quality Improvement and Safety | Job Family Group

These roles are responsible for preventing and managing the spread of infections within the university’s healthcare facilities. Infection control staff develop and implement protocols, monitor infection rates, educate staff on best practices, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards to protect patients, staff, and visitors.

These roles are responsible for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating risks to ensure a safe environment for patients. Patient safety staff collaborate with healthcare providers to implement safety protocols, monitor incidents, and promote a culture of safety, aiming to reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes.

These roles are responsible for evaluating and enhancing existing protocols and processes within the university’s healthcare system. Process improvement specialists analyze workflow efficiency, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to optimize operations, reduce waste, and improve the quality of care and services provided.

These roles are responsible for overseeing various aspects of quality improvement and safety initiatives across multiple departments. Staff and leaders in these positions manage a range of responsibilities, including infection control, patient safety, and process improvement, adapting to the evolving needs of the institution.

A career stream is a category in the Career Journeys Job Framework that describes the general type of responsibilities a position has. It reflects the nature of the work—such as professional, clinical, operational, managerial, or executive—and helps clarify the kind of contribution the role makes to the University. Career streams, combined with job families, help employees understand how their work fits into the organization and identify potential paths for growth, whether within the same stream or by moving to another.

Career Streams in Career Journeys Job Framework Include:

• Professional
• Management
• Operations and Service 
• Clinical Professional
• Clinical Technician 
• Senior Administrator
• Executive
• Athletics

Yes — you can move from one career stream to another if your job responsibilities change and align with the new stream.

For example, someone in the Operations and Service stream could move into the Professional stream by gaining the necessary education, training, or experience, or into the Management stream by taking on people-leadership responsibilities. Career streams aren’t fixed for life—they’re a way of describing your current role, not limiting your future opportunities

No — you don’t have to become a manager to reach the top of your career stream.

In Career Journeys, each stream has its own progression path. For example, in the Professional or Clinical Professional streams, you can advance in roles in a higher "level" that carry significant increases in influence, responsibility, and compensation without managing people.

Management is just one type of career stream, not the “top” of all streams. You can build a high-level career without shifting into people leadership—unless that’s the direction you want to go.

Levels reflect the typical knowledge, skills, and experience needed for roles at that stage. Within a career stream, several different jobs may share the same level, and not every level will always have an active position in every stream.

The differences between career levels are determined based on the scope/complexity of the position. Specifically, this means the jobs within a job family will differ in level based on duty and responsibility differences between profiles.  Factors include the nature and scope of influence, the level of autonomy the position has to make decisions at various levels of impact, the nature of communication and audience, supervisory responsibilities and number/type of teams, and the level of expertise needed to fulfill position responsibilities. 

Yes — you can move to a different job family group or job family if you apply for and are selected for a position in that area.

For example:

• You might move from the Information Technology job family group into Finance if you gain relevant skills or education and are hired into a finance role.

• Or you could shift from the Digital Media job family to Graphic Design within the Communications job family group if your work focus changes.

It’s not an automatic change — it happens when your role and responsibilities align with the requirements of the new job family group or job family, and you successfully secure that position through UVA’s traditional hiring process.

If most of a position’s responsibilities fall within one functional area, the position is assigned to the matching job family group or job family. If the work is more evenly spread across different areas, the job family group or job family is chosen based on which set of duties would be most important to highlight when recruiting for the role.

• Business Title is how you present your role day-to-day.
• Job Profile is how UVA classifies your role within the Job Framework for consistency and career planning.

Faculty and student positions are not included in the Career Journeys Job Framework. However, they still receive a unique job profile and can use Career Journeys to explore jobs that are part of the framework.

Other positions not included are: Classified Staff, Temporary Employees, Professional Research Staff, Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs), Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), Student Workers, Residents and House Staff, UVA Physicians Group, and UVA Community Health.

To be classified in the management stream, a job’s main focus needs to be leading people. In most cases, this means supervising at least two team members and overseeing a distinct department as a core part of the role.

We welcome all employees to take some time to explore the Career Journeys Job Framework and get familiar with its key concepts before requesting more information or changes to their job profile. For example, it is good to know that your job profile title may not always match the business title you use every day, and supervising one employee does not automatically place a role in the management stream before reaching out.

You can learn more about your job profile and how it relates to other roles by reviewing the Job Framework resources on this page and on the training webpage. If, after doing so, you’d still like to know more about your classification, please email the HR Solution Center with a brief description of your questions and any relevant details. Our HR team will review your message and connect you with the right person to guide you through the next steps for understanding—or, if appropriate, reevaluating—your job profile.

If you have more questions, there are plenty of resources to help. Your manager is a great first stop, and you can also email the HR Solution Center for assistance. If your questions are about your personal career path, consider scheduling a meeting with Career Navigation.

Explore your Career Journeys details and jobs in your Job Family

Whether you want to learn how to use the Dashboard or navigate the Job Directory, create a new Job Requisition, or understand how Career Journeys affects specific operations in your area, this page serves as your go-to guide.

Ready to explore your path?