Interim Director of Nursing – Skilled Nursing
Extensive Multi-State Travel | Venza Care
Venza Care is seeking an experienced Interim Director of Nursing to provide temporary clinical leadership support across our skilled nursing centers in all eight states where we operate. This highly visible role is responsible for stepping into centers during DON vacancies, leadership transitions, survey readiness needs, or periods requiring focused clinical stabilization.
The Interim DON will oversee nursing operations, support regulatory compliance, mentor facility nursing teams, strengthen clinical systems, and help drive quality outcomes. This role requires extensive travel, flexibility, strong skilled nursing expertise, and the ability to quickly assess priorities and lead teams through change.
The ideal candidate will have prior DON experience in skilled nursing, strong knowledge of CMS regulations, survey readiness experience, and the ability to build trust quickly with facility teams. Multi-site or regional clinical experience is preferred.
Key areas of focus include:
- Interim DON coverage and nursing leadership
- Survey readiness and regulatory compliance
- Quality measure and Five-Star improvement
- Risk management and resident safety
- Clinical documentation and PointClickCare oversight
- Staff coaching, mentoring, and accountability
- QAPI and performance improvement
- Stabilization of clinical systems during leadership transitions
Requirements:
- Active RN license in good standing
- Prior skilled nursing DON experience required
- Ability to obtain licensure in multiple states as needed
- Strong knowledge of CMS regulations and survey process
- Experience with PointClickCare or similar EHR
- Ability to travel extensively across multiple states
- Strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills
This is an excellent opportunity for a seasoned skilled nursing leader who enjoys problem-solving, mentoring teams, improving systems, and making a meaningful impact across multiple centers.
Interim Director of Nursing (DON) – Skilled Nursing
Venza Care | Multi-State Travel Role
Position Summary
Venza Care is seeking an experienced Interim Director of Nursing (DON) to provide short-term clinical leadership support across our skilled nursing centers. This role is designed for a highly capable nurse leader who can step into centers during leadership transitions, stabilize clinical operations, support regulatory readiness, strengthen nursing systems, and mentor facility nursing teams.
This position requires extensive travel across all eight states in which Venza Care operates and is ideal for a strong, hands-on clinical leader who is comfortable entering complex environments, quickly assessing needs, building trust, and driving measurable improvement.
The Interim DON serves as a temporary facility-level clinical leader and works closely with Regional Clinical Leadership, Operations, Compliance, Human Resources, and center leadership teams to support quality outcomes, survey readiness, staff development, and resident-centered care.
Key Responsibilities
Clinical Leadership & Operations
- Serve as Interim Director of Nursing in assigned skilled nursing centers during vacancies, transitions, or periods of increased clinical need.
- Provide direct oversight of nursing operations, including licensed nursing, certified nursing assistants, restorative nursing, infection prevention, wound care, and clinical documentation processes.
- Assess center clinical systems quickly and identify immediate priorities related to resident care, staffing, compliance, documentation, and risk.
- Support daily clinical operations, including morning clinical meetings, risk review, 24-hour report, new admissions, changes of condition, falls, infections, wounds, rehospitalizations, and high-risk residents.
- Partner with the Administrator and interdisciplinary team to ensure clinical priorities are aligned with operational goals.
- Promote a culture of accountability, professionalism, resident safety, and service excellence.
Regulatory Compliance & Survey Readiness
- Support ongoing survey readiness and ensure compliance with federal, state, and company standards.
- Assist centers with preparation for annual surveys, complaint investigations, focused infection control surveys, and other regulatory reviews.
- Review and support systems related to CMS requirements, including but not limited to resident assessments, care planning, quality of care, quality of life, infection prevention, abuse prevention, accidents/supervision, unnecessary medications, and documentation standards.
- Assist with Plans of Correction, audit completion, evidence gathering, and follow-up monitoring as needed.
- Identify regulatory risk areas and partner with regional and corporate leaders to develop corrective action plans.
- Reinforce compliance with facility policies, nursing standards of practice, and state-specific requirements.
Quality Outcomes & Performance Improvement
- Support improvement in clinical quality measures, Five-Star performance, rehospitalization reduction, infection prevention outcomes, falls, wounds, antipsychotic utilization, and successful discharge processes.
- Participate in QAPI activities and help centers identify trends, root causes, and sustainable improvement strategies.
- Review clinical dashboards, PointClickCare reports, quality measure data, survey trends, incident trends, and other key performance indicators.
- Assist centers in developing action plans that are practical, measurable, and sustainable.
- Promote strong clinical systems that support consistent resident outcomes across shifts and departments.
Staff Development & Team Support
- Provide coaching, mentoring, and support to facility nursing leadership, including ADONs, Unit Managers, Infection Preventionists, MDS nurses, wound nurses, and charge nurses.
- Support onboarding, education, and competency validation for nursing team members.
- Reinforce expectations for documentation, resident monitoring, physician notification, family communication, follow-up, and escalation of concerns.
- Help stabilize nursing teams during leadership transitions by creating structure, clarity, and consistent communication.
- Model professional communication, calm leadership, and solution-focused problem solving.
- Partner with Human Resources and facility leadership to support recruitment, retention, performance management, and accountability as needed.
Documentation & EHR Oversight
- Support accurate, timely, and complete clinical documentation in PointClickCare or other applicable systems.
- Monitor documentation related to skilled services, changes of condition, falls, wounds, infections, antibiotics, psychotropic medications, incidents, physician notifications, family communication, and care plan updates.
- Assist with review of Point of Care documentation, open risks, UDAs, progress notes, care plans, orders, and clinical follow-up.
- Ensure documentation supports resident care needs, regulatory expectations, reimbursement requirements, and quality outcomes.
- Identify documentation gaps and coach facility teams on sustainable correction.
Risk Management & Resident Safety
- Support investigation and follow-up of incidents, accidents, allegations, grievances, changes of condition, and high-risk clinical events.
- Ensure timely reporting and escalation of concerns according to company policy and regulatory requirements.
- Assist with root cause analysis and implementation of corrective action plans.
- Promote proactive identification of resident risk related to falls, elopement, wounds, infection, medication concerns, behavioral health needs, and hospitalization risk.
- Partner with facility and regional leadership to reduce preventable adverse outcomes.
Qualifications
Required
- Current Registered Nurse license in good standing.
- Ability to obtain licensure or temporary practice approval in multiple states as needed.
- Minimum of 5 years of nursing leadership experience in skilled nursing, long-term care, or post-acute care.
- Prior Director of Nursing experience in a skilled nursing facility strongly required.
- Strong knowledge of CMS Requirements of Participation, survey process, nursing standards, and skilled nursing operations.
- Demonstrated ability to lead teams through transition, survey readiness, clinical improvement, and regulatory correction.
- Experience with PointClickCare or similar electronic health record system.
- Ability to travel extensively, including overnight travel and extended assignments.
- Strong communication, organization, prioritization, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to work independently while maintaining alignment with regional and corporate leadership.
Physical & Travel Requirements
- Ability to travel extensively by car and/or air across multiple states.
- Ability to work in skilled nursing facility environments for extended periods.
- Ability to participate in walking rounds, clinical observations, meetings, and resident care area reviews.
- Flexibility to work varying schedules based on center need, including early mornings, evenings, or weekends when necessary.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced healthcare environments.