Director of Nursing

The Director of Nursing (DON) oversees nursing and clinical support functions while appropriately delegating patient care activities to other team members within their scope of practice. The DON ensures the delivery of quality, cost-effective care that meets medical standards of practice, standardization across departments and divisions and that policies/practices/procedures comply with all regulatory requirements. The DON is responsible for recruitment, retention, training, competency assessment, and regulatory compliance for nursing and clinical support functions at all CHP care sites and clinical departments. The DON provides leadership to optimize nursing care and clinical support for the benefit of our patients, our care teams, CHP, and our community. The DON supports CHP’s mission, vision, and values and adheres to compliance protocols and CHP’s policies and procedures.

Director of Nursing Essential Duties and Responsibilities: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Works cooperatively with site leadership, Human Resources, and other appropriate staff to develop, implement, and maintain competency testing and training for all nursing and clinical support staff. Plays a key role in recruitment and selection of nursing and clinical support candidates.
• Responsible for the direct supervision and collaboration with each site’s Clinical Supervisor to review and revise policies and procedures and develop a training program to support clinical practice and professional growth.
• Ensures adequate nursing and clinical support staffing, leads recruitment and retention efforts for these staff, and develops relationships with community training programs.
• Oversees clinical site adherence to regulatory standards including HRSA and Department of Public Health requirements; ensures preparedness for regulatory site visits.
• Develops, maintains, and implements nursing and clinical support policies and procedures that conform to current standards of nursing and clinical practice, CHP operational policies, and state and federal laws and regulations.
• Serves as CHP’s expert on state scope of practice regulations for nursing and clinical support staff, ensuring compliance with regulations while enabling staff to function at the top of their license, certification or training.
• Assists with the development of nurse visit templates and nurse driven clinical protocols, creation of standing orders in conjunction with department clinical leadership; serves as CHP’s expert on state and organizational policies for clinical nursing visits.
• Responsible for the direct supervision of the Manager of Infection Control and Staff Safety and oversees infection control activities of clinical departments in conjunction with site Clinical Supervisors.
• Ensures all nursing staff meet requirements for continuing education.
• Directs, manages, supervises and/or provides opportunities for in-service training to all nursing and other clinical support staff.
• Assists in organizational ACO and quality improvement initiatives, particularly related to clinical staff workflows and documentation.
• Actively participates in community, state and professional organizations that favorably impact the visibility and performance of CHP.
• Provides direct patient services when appropriate.
• Assures the proper functioning of clinical equipment and ordering of clinical supplies.
• Leads Employee Infection Control/Safety programming including vaccine clinics and Worker’s Compensation cases.

Competencies: To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

• Ability to express oneself clearly in conversations and interactions with others. Speaks clearly and can be easily understood. Organizes ideas clearly in oral speech. Expresses ideas concisely in oral speech. Summarizes or paraphrases his/her understanding of what others have said to verify understanding and prevent miscommunication.
• Ability to express oneself clearly in business writing. Expresses ideas clearly and concisely in writing. Organizes written ideas clearly and signals the organization to the reader (e.g., through an introductory paragraph or using headings). Writes using concrete, specific language. Spells correctly. Writes grammatically. Uses punctuation correctly.
• Ability to notice, interpret, and anticipate others’ concerns and feelings, and to communicate this awareness empathetically to others. Understands the interests and important concerns of others. Notices and accurately interprets what others are feeling, based on their choice of words, tone of voice, expressions, and other non-verbal behavior. Understands the unspoken meaning in a situation. Says or does things to address others’ concerns.
• Ability to demonstrate concern for satisfying one’s external and/or internal customers. Quickly and effectively solves customer problems. Talks to customers to find out what they want and how satisfied they are with what they are getting. Informs customers that they are willing to collaborate with them to meet their needs. Helpful, positive manner with peers, subordinates, and customers.
• Ability to demonstrate depth of knowledge and skill in key work process areas. Is sought out as an expert to provide advice or solutions in their area. Is knowledgeable in the tools used to support key work processes. Can train and coach key work processes to staff in their area. Is aware of and follows agency policy and procedures consistently.
• Takes initiative, identifying what needs to be done and doing it before being asked or before the situation requires it. Seeks out others involved in a situation to learn their perspective. Takes independent action to change the direction of events.
• Ability to focus on the desired results of one’s own work, setting challenging goals, focusing efforts on the goals, and meeting or exceeding them. Maintains commitment to goals in the face of obstacles and frustrations. Finds or creates ways to measure performance against goals. Has a strong sense of urgency about solving problems and getting work done.
• Ensures one’s own work and information are complete and accurate. Set up procedures to ensure a high quality of work (e.g., review meetings). Verifies information. Checks the accuracy of own work. Develops and uses systems to organize and keep track of information or work in progress. Carefully prepares for meetings and presentations.
• Ability to continue to function effectively when under pressure and maintain self-control in the face of hostility or provocation. Remains calm under stress. Can effectively manage several problems or tasks simultaneously. Controls response when criticized, attacked, or provoked.
• Demonstrate concern that one is perceived as responsible, dependable, and trustworthy. Takes responsibility for own mistakes; does not blame others. Conveys a command of the relevant facts and information.
• Demonstrate clinical skills. Ability to effectively teach, direct, motivate and retain staff. Must demonstrate excellent organizational and communication skills, high level management skills, mathematical computation skills, and familiarity with all patient care equipment and products. Computer skills and data management skills required.
• Bilingual ability is desirable.

Experience:

• Minimum ten (10) years’ experience in ambulatory care nursing required.
• Minimum of three (3) years’ management/administrative experience in a health care setting required.
• Solid understanding of quality improvement.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and budgetary management skills.

Education and Training:

• Must be a graduate of an accredited school of nursing
• BSN required; MSN preferred.

License/Certification:

• Must have a current nursing license in the State of Massachusetts.
• Must have current Basic Life Support/CPR Certification.