Nurse Director, Brockton Behavioral Health Center (Full-time)

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Nurse Director contributes to and implements the vision for nursing practice through the delivery of safe, timely, efficient, equitable and patient-centered care. Working within a collaborative and interprofessional environment, the nurse director develops and implements strategies to improve the nurse practice environment and the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction outcomes), improves the health of populations and strives to reduce the cost of health care.

The Nurse Director commits to excellence, monitors and drives improvement in nurse sensitive metrics, builds a culture of service, utilizes succession planning and mentorship to create and develop leaders and staff, focuses on employee satisfaction, builds individual accountability, aligns behaviors with strategic goals and values, communicates on all levels, and recognizes and rewards success.

Position: Nurse Director    

Department: Brockton Behavioral Health Center

Schedule: Full Time

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES / DUTIES:

Knowledge of the Healthcare Environment: The Nurse Director is knowledgeable about the responsible healthcare specialty in order to effectively support the delivery of clinical practice information to employees. This responsibility ensures all patients receive appropriate care and that employees follow evidence-based practices and hospital policy in order to optimize outcomes and prevent patient harm.

In collaboration with the health care team; directs, coordinates, supervises, and provides clinical care to patients. Develops and sustains a practice environment that supports evidence based clinical practice through planning and implementing programs that contribute to positive patient outcomes. Promotes integration of evidence-based research into practice at the unit level. Assures appropriate care delivery model considering the skill mix necessary to provide quality care and fluctuations in unit(s) activity and acuity levels. Collaborates with the interprofessional team to develop, revise and update clinical priorities and care management plans. Sets priorities for appropriate and efficient management of patient care that reflects cost effective management of time, available human resources, supplies, and equipment. Maintains knowledge of regulatory and accreditation standards and ensures compliance. Maintains knowledge of patient safety and implements the hospital’s Quality and Safety Plan through the timely and accurate completion of review of RL incident reports, conducting follow-up investigations and initiating corrective action as needed.

Communication and Relationship-Building: The Nurse Director utilizes expert communication strategies that facilitate productive relationships with others within the organization and influences employee behavior.

Interviews, hires, trains, supervises, evaluates performance and implements corrective actions as necessary and seeks feedback and guidance as appropriate and according to established personnel policies and procedures. Ensures that hiring and supervising practices and promotion recommendation actively support the organization’s affirmative action and equal opportunity policy. Actively embraces, engages and promotes diversity, equity and inclusion activities. Acquires, maintains, and utilizes knowledge of current labor contracts and personnel polices and procedures for all clinical staff. Works collaboratively with Human Resource/Labor Management staff as needed. Initiates timely and appropriate management interventions inclusive of coaching, counseling, and progressive discipline for the clinical staff. Conducts independent investigation of employee incidents involving clinical practice issues, including review of employee personnel file, discipline record, and evaluations. Imposes appropriate disciplinary action as needed. Utilizes data from staff engagement surveys to develop action plans and improve outcomes. Embraces recognition and reward tactics. Recommends employees for promotion or other incentives/programs/rewards. Evaluates probationary employees’ work performance and recommends employment continuation or discharge. Employs and encourages interprofessional communication and collaboration to positively impact patient safety, teamwork and achievement of strategic goals. Is accessible and visible using a variety of communication strategies; regular staff meetings, daily huddles and leader rounding.

Leadership: As a transformational leader, the Nurse Director views issues globally, creates a vision of what might be, inspires others, tolerates chaos and ambiguity, does not fear taking risks, and works with others in a more connected way.

Participates in strategic planning to establish departmental goals and metrics, cascade goals to the unit, and work to achieve organizational goals. Communicates departmental goals to the staff and fosters a work environment that motivates employees to achieve these goals. Fosters a culture of shared governance, inspiring others to be involved in unit-based councils, departmental councils, implementation of evidence-based practices, innovation, and quality improvement activities. Establishes unit-based goals for quality and satisfaction metrics, educational progression and specialty certification, and encourages staff participation in professional organizations. Utilizes the performance appraisal process as a tool to seek feedback, encourage growth, inspire others, and establish and achieve individual goals. Embraces the Magnet culture, enculturating the tenets of a Magnet organization at the unit level and contributes to the development of the Magnet document and preparation for site visit. Participates as a committee member and/or chairperson when requested.

Professionalism: The Nurse Director consistently demonstrates the BMC core values to achieve optimal outcomes in patients, workforce, and communities by wisely applying principles of altruism, excellence, caring, ethics, respect, communication, and accountability. The Nurse Director empowers others to demonstrate accountability, values and ethical concepts in decision making and patient care.

Embraces the BMC Nursing Professional Practice Model and communicates the impact of model on nursing department core values and patient care practices.

In collaboration with the interdisciplinary team, analyzes systems, trends, and variances, and implements strategies to improve outcomes. Serves as a resource/mentor to staff regarding professional development encouraging continuing education, formal study, and individual learning opportunities as appropriate. Provides the tools and feedback to staff to grow and develop as professionals. Identifes opportunities for quality improvement by evaluating the efficiency and cost-effectiveness interprofessional and interdepartmental efforts, collaboratively identifying, implementing, and evaluating strategies to improve systems and monitoring the outcomes of interventions, quality and patient and staff satisfaction outcomes.

Identifies own learning needs and assumes responsibility for maintaining current knowledge, competency, and expertise in area of specialty.

Assures completion of annual mandatory educational requirements, e.g., safety review, infection control standards, departmental/specialty competencies, and maintains appropriate credential status for self and direct reports

Business Skills: Ensures nursing teams' compliance with the Department of Mental Health 104 CMR, Department of Public Health, and The Joint Commission related to operational standards of inpatient mental health facilities, including reporting, staffing standards, and patient safety.
 

The Nurse Director understands the business aspects of healthcare and is intimately involved in the financial and administrative aspects of the facility.

Assists in the development and monitoring of annual financial goals for area of responsibility.

Assists in the evaluation of results relating to resource utilization before and after planned changes occur.

Assists in the planning and implementation of strategies to improve cost-benefit for patient care and workflow.

Collaborates with appropriate departments to assure that clinical documentation is complete, accurate, and maximizes reimbursement and external reporting requirements.

Other duties as required.

(The above statements in this job description are intended to depict the general nature and level of work assigned to the employee(s) in this job.  The above is not intended to represent an exhaustive list of accountable duties and responsibilities required).

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION:

The Nurse Director is a Registered Nurse who holds a master’s degree or will receive a master’s degree within 6 months of hire. Either the Master’s degree or baccalaureate degree must be in nursing.

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED:

Licensed to practice professional nursing as a Registered Nurse in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in good standing, required or ability to obtain MA reciprocity license prior to start.

Professional certification preferred, required within 2 years of hire.

EXPERIENCE:

Minimum 5 years nursing experience. Must have 1+ year(s) recent clinical experience in the assigned specialty. 

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Broad-based health care operational experience; Demonstrated knowledge of various health systems and cost reduction strategies.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills appropriate to the patient populations served.
• Self-directed, self-starter and able to implement new programs.
• Demonstrated ability as an effective leader.
• Demonstrated ability to apply principles of adult learning to provide education to staff, physician, and auxiliary staff.
• Analytical ability to solve clinical nursing issues and conduct quality improvement and research projects.
• Organizational skills to set priorities and efficiently to complete assigned workload.
• Physical ability to meet core job responsibilities in accordance with practice setting demands for the patient populations regularly served
• Ability to manage stress due to critical patient care issues, changing organizational climate and personnel issues.
• Multi-lingual skills (beyond that of English) in languages appropriate to patient populations served by the Medical Center is highly desirable.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Disabled/Veterans