Unit Manager - General Adult unit

About the role

Sheppard Pratt is opening a new General Adult Unit providing specialized inpatient treatment for adults 18 and older. The program utilizes an intensive multi-disciplinary treatment approach through individual therapy, milieu therapy, and process-oriented, experiential, and psycho-educational group therapies.

Responsibilities

• Provide 24-hour operational management of assigned unit
• Manage expense budget(s) of assigned clinical programs
• Maintain clinical environment and staffing strategy that enable program to maintain or exceed budgeted census; be proactive and responsive to changes in patient acuity and census and make appropriate adjustments to ensure the maintenance of a safe and therapeutic environment of care
• Be responsible for the provision of clinical services that are based on an understanding of the cognitive and developmental needs of mentally ill adults, are responsive to changing program needs, and that meet internal and external requirements
• Supervise nursing and support staff
• Utilize clinical expertise in the delivery of direct patient care, consultative activities, staff development, and treatment planning
• Participate in promoting effective team-building, quality improvement and strong orientation toward customer relations
• Actively seek to provide quality services that meet the needs of patients as well as other customers - families, visitors, staff, referrers, and payers
• Collaborate with Director, Division of Clinical Services to develop expense budgets for assigned programs
• Collaborate with Service Chief and program Medical Director to evaluate the budgetary impact on clinical programming
• Manage budget activity to assure compliance with fiscal targets; provide updates and reports as requested
• Keep Service Chief apprised of budget issues; develop strategies to improve budget performance
• Ensure the delivery of quality nursing services based on an understanding of the special needs of the patient population served
• Apply knowledge of normal growth and development of adults through the use of accepted conceptual principles, e.g. Erikson
• Ensure that clinical services meet internal and external standards
• Select, participate in assuring adequate orientation to the job, appraise job performance (with input from Service Chief), and as necessary, discipline and discharge assigned nursing and program support staff
• Provide ongoing clinical and administrative supervision
• Ensure that staff demonstrate competency in specified clinical skills and that duties are assigned on that basis
• Provide input into the development of in-service education and ensure that staff attend required in-service programs
• Identify individual/group issues and concerns and develop strategies for action which assist in promoting and maintaining team morale
• Collaborate with the Service Chief(s) in the development and implementation of clinical programming
• Provide effective liaison between assigned unit/clinical program(s) and Division of Clinical Services
• Actively participate in the determination of core staffing, staffing mix, and appropriate acuity indicators for assigned patient population(s); reevaluate and recommend modifications based on changes in patient population and clinical programming
• Investigate and follow through on project assignments
• Formulate unit-based quality improvement plan and collaborate in the development, implementation, and evaluation of hospital quality improvement activities
• Evaluate and monitor nursing documentation and initiate corrective action to ensure compliance with internal and external standards

Requirements

• Work requires written and oral communication skills and comprehensive knowledge of standards of nursing practice - acquired through completion of a bachelor's degree from an accredited nursing program and at least 2 years of progressively more responsible inpatient psychiatric nursing experience. Individuals without a bachelor's degree may be considered if they have completed a diploma nursing program and have at least 4 years of progressively more responsible inpatient psychiatric nursing experience
• Must possess current license to practice as a Registered Nurse in the State of Maryland at the time of appointment and continuously throughout tenure in position
• Work requires clinical and managerial skills, knowledge of psychiatric nursing, and ability to meet the core competencies required for working with the specific patient population - acquired through three to five years of progressively more responsible inpatient psychiatric nursing experience
• Work requires three to six months' orientation to acquire sufficient familiarity with the clinical program, Clinical Services Division policies and procedures, Sheppard Pratt policies, and the requirements of regulatory agencies
• Work requires interpersonal skills sufficient to provide effective leadership for assigned personnel and to interact effectively with adult psychiatrically ill patients, their family members, visitors, and a variety of Sheppard Pratt department staff (51 to 80% of work time)
• Work requires analytical and problem-solving abilities necessary to effectively manage unit/program resources, collaborate in clinical program planning, identify appropriate measures of acuity for assigned patient population, and evaluate the quality of nursing care
• In keeping with the Maryland Board of Nursing guidelines, all nurses must have an active Maryland nursing license to practice in the state of Maryland, or must have an active license in a compact state that allows them to practice in Maryland, if they reside in that compact state. A multistate licensee who changes primary state of residence to another party state shall apply for a multistate license in the new party state within 60 days. The rule requires that a nurse apply for a new license in a new primary state of residence within 60 days of relocating, it does not require the new license be issued within 60 days

Pay

The pay range for this position is $46.53 minimum to $76.66 maximum. Pay for this position is determined on a number of factors, including but not limited to, years and level of related experience.