Nursing Director

GENERAL OVERVIEW, FULL TIME/ 40 HOURS/ BOSTON MA

* The Nursing Director is the leader of the clinical discipline of nursing with administrative, fiscal, and personnel accountability in the designated clinical area.
* The Nursing Director is responsible for creating and maintaining a therapeutic, healing, patient- and family- centered care environment. S/he participates in the development, refinement, communication and actualization of the BWH Department of Nursing (DON) vision, professional practice model, and relationship-based care delivery system.
* As the clinical leader of the discipline, the Nursing Director is responsible for establishing and maintaining the standards of nursing care and practice.
* The Nursing Director establishes and maintains true collaborative relationships with nursing staff, all disciplines and departments necessary to foster optimal patient outcomes and a professional practice environment. S/he partners with inter-professional and intra-professional leadership to set mutual goals that advance teamwork, interdisciplinary learning, just culture and the environment of care.

At the Brigham, we place great value on being a diverse and inclusive community. Brigham Health and the Department of Nursing are dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion as we aim to reflect the diversity of the patients in our local community. We have a dedicated focus on equity. Thus, we believe in equal access to quality care, employment and advancement opportunities encompassing the full spectrum or human diversity: race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin and all the other forms of human presence and expression that make us better able to provide innovative and cutting-edge healthcare and research.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

I. Scholarship

* Creates an environment that supports and celebrates the professional growth of nursing practice.
* Actively supports the development of new nursing knowledge.
* Assures the use of and adherence to evidence-informed practice/standards for nursing care.
* Assures the practice environment supports reflective practice, e.g. through the use of narratives, and meets the needs of the relevant patient population
* Professional development -self a. Participates in self-performance appraisal process in ongoing manner. b. Seeks feedback from his/her professional colleagues. c. Shares strengths and areas to be developed with associate chief nurse and other colleagues as appropriate. d. Maintains necessary clinical and managerial expertise through evidence-based practice. e. Participates in service- and department-wide developmental initiatives. f. Demonstrates commitment to life-long learning, e.g. through active participation in professional organizations.
* Conducts timely assessments of staff learning needs and assure programs/projects are in place to address them, including collaboration with the Professional Development Managers and the center for Nursing Excellence.
* Facilitates opportunities for staff to precept and teach others.

II. Authentic Leadership

* Serves as a clinical leader/coach /mentor to staff.
* Promotes staff participation in annual goal setting for his/her patient care area[s] and the Department of Nursing.
* Serves as a leader within the community of nursing, in accordance with the standards of the discipline of nursing, including adherence to the ANA Code of Ethics.
* Assures appropriate personnel to meet the needs of the designated patient population.
* Designs and implements staffing patterns responsive to a dynamic care environment.
* Interviews, hires and oversees the orientation of new employees considering departmental, divisional, local and individual employee needs as basis of decisions.
* Provided ongoing formal and informal feedback regarding performance to staff members.
* Delegates authority and/or responsibility to others as appropriate while maintaining 24x7 accountability.
* Demonstrates consistent leadership in the maintenance of a fair and just culture.
* Assures staff participation in local-based decision making, Department of Nursing committees and initiatives.

III. Meaningful Recognition

* Provides formal and informal opportunities for staff to develop personal career goals and plans for their achievement.
* Provides ongoing formal and informal feedback regarding professional development to staff members.
* Encourages and recommends staff participation in unit-based decision making, Department of Nursing committees and organizational initiatives.

IV. Relationship Based Care

* Creates an environment that celebrates the professional growth of nursing practice.
* Responsible for creating and maintaining a caring, therapeutic, healing, patient- and family-centered care environment.
* Assures the presence of interventions to promote/assure a patient and family centered healing environment.
* Assures appropriate staffing plan to meet patient care needs on a continuous basis
* Promotes an inclusive environment supportive of a patient- and family- centered care for a diverse community.

V. Outcome Focused Measures

* Serves as a leader of the clinical discipline, committed to excellence in nursing care and positive patient outcomes.
* Accountable for contributions to planning, implementing and evaluating the Department of Nursing Quality Plan, inclusive of nurse sensitive indicators and patient satisfaction metrics.
* Actively participates in Brigham and Women's Hospital quality improvement programs, assuring clear articulation of the quality agenda by all staff in his/her patient care area(s) and/or specialty patient populations.
* Develops local-based quality agenda using performance improvement methodologies in collaboration with department and hospital-based quality leaders assuring an environment of continuous quality improvement, improved patient and systems' outcomes.
* Actively translates quality improvement findings into daily operations and strategic planning for the clinical area.
* Communicates and translates outcomes to staff and interdisciplinary colleagues, assuring staff's active participation in addressing quality improvement opportunities.
* Serves as a resource on clinical matters to assure an environment that promotes the desired patient outcomes.
* Assures all staff members are in compliance with regulatory standards. [For example, required licensure, orientation, ongoing education and annual competencies and screenings for ongoing employment].
* Provides leadership in developing quality-driven and cost-effective plans to deliver patient care, including participation in strategic planning
* Assures the accurate attainment and review of data (complexity, volume, acuity, etc) in relation to staffing effectiveness
* Develops and participates in creating systems to monitor the patient care environment, knowledgeable about and mindful of relevant regulatory compliance.

VI. True Collaboration

* Contributes to nursing as a department/discipline
* Seeks and provides peer consultation and collaboration.
* Contributes to strategy, practice and policy decisions assuring all decisions made include perspectives of constituents to be represented.
* Assures self and staff participation in DON and interdepartmental committees.
* Represents service/DON as requested on various hospital task forces/committees.
* Demonstrates leadership in interdisciplinary collaboration, including participation in the development, implementation and evaluation of joint protocols for patient care.
* Collaborates in department-wide recruitment and retention strategies and initiatives.
* Collaborates with HR staff/leadership re: personnel management as appropriate.
* Seeks resources/serves as a liaison for staff from within the larger nursing and BWH communities.
* Manages patient flow ensuring collaboration with other patient care areas and/or Patient Access Department.
* Establishes and maintain open communication with managers of Support Services and other Department of Nursing resources as needed to assure clean and safe patient care environments.



VII. Fiscal Responsiveness

* Accountable to seek necessary information, including active engagement of staff, to establish trends necessary to determine appropriate personnel and supply budgets.
* Manages to budget and articulates any short or long-term variances.
* Collaborates with Associate Chief Nurse to be fiscally responsive, i.e. managing volume and acuity to hours per workload index (HPWI).
* Develops schedules/ staffing plans that meet patient care needs on a continuous basis.
* Collaborates with nurse leaders and other departments to assure adequate supplies, operational, capital resources are available to staff caring for patients.

Qualifications:

* Current registration in nursing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
* MSN (or) DNP (or) PhD, (or) a BSN with a Master's degree in a related field, required.
* Current certification required or to be attained within two-year period from date of hire. Certification must be maintained while employed in this position.
* Minimum of 3 years nursing experience required.
* Minimum of 3-5 years' experience in nursing administration within an academic medical center (preferred).
* Current nursing licensure in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
* Clinical experience will be evaluated on an individual basis by the hiring associate chief nurse.
* Previous leadership experience with demonstrated management ability is preferred.



Skills and Abilities Required:

* Must have demonstrated clinical competence in nursing practice.
* Must possess analytical abilities necessary to organize, to supervise and to evaluate the work of others; to develop and to administer policies, procedures, budgets, and utilize current concepts of nursing practice.
* Must possess interpersonal skills sufficient to provide effective leadership to staff, and to interact with patients, visitors, physicians, other clinical disciplines and a variety of hospital departments.
* Must possess both management and leadership skills to be effective with multiple levels of staff.