Registered Nurse - Head Nurse

Under the general supervision of the Director of Nursing, the Head Nurse is responsible for overseeing and supervising medical services, including medication dispensing and medical visits across all clinics. This role ensures that regulatory compliance, fiscal accountability, productivity, and quality standards are maintained to deliver high-quality patient care. The Head Nurse promotes and restores patients' health by directing and developing nursing staff and collaborating effectively with members of the multidisciplinary team to provide comprehensive care. This position requires strong leadership skills, clinical expertise, and the ability to work collaboratively in a dynamic healthcare environment.  

This is a multi-site role rotating between our East Harlem and Washington Heights clinics. 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS 

Staff Supervision and Scheduling 

• Promotes use open-door policy to communicate with all staff and fosters team building and behavior across all disciplines.  

• Performs all duties of their managerial role of LPN and CMT staff, including but not limited to, training, supervision, coaching, career development, evaluations or appraisals, team meetings, maintenance of licensure and certifications, and hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline.   

• Develops the monthly LPN and CMT schedule, including communicating Paid time off (PTO) requests and callouts to the Director of Nursing at least one month prior to the scheduled month.  

• Manages direct reports’ time and attendance and schedules lunch breaks to ensure coverage during all times operations.   

• Assures the adequacy of direct reports’ deployment for the dispensary and medical unit ensuring the best workflow for the benefit of the patients START serves. 

• Schedules and ensures all LPN and CMT participate in interdisciplinary collaboration and case conferences. 

Clinical Duties 

• Primary clinical duties include performing patient assessments and sorting patients into priority groups.  

• Initiates emergency interventions when needed, communicates patient status to the medical team, and maintains medical documentation.  

• Administers care to patients who are ill, injured, or disabled and provide guidance to patients on health maintenance and disease prevention. 

Continuous Improvement  

• Supports development of new policies and procedures and identifies improvements to existing policies and procedures.  

• Ensures consistency in practice and protocols across clinics.  

• Trains Nurses and CMTs on new/updated clinical practices across clinics.  

• Conduct reconciliation and ensure monthly accuracy of controlled substances in the electronic medical records system. 

• Review competency skills of all direct reports annually. 

Quality and Compliance Assurance 

• Reporting: Ensure the accuracy and timeliness of all daily, weekly, and monthly reports.  

• Compliance: Report any deviations from dispensing or medication accountability procedures promptly to the Medical Provider and Director of Nursing.  

• Performance Monitoring: Monitor clinic performance monthly and collaborate with the Medicine team to develop and implement improvement plans.  

• Incident Review: Review Incident, Medication Error, and Discrepancy/Exception Reports, developing Corrective Action Plans as needed.  

• Equipment Maintenance: Oversee regular maintenance and inspection of medical and dispensary equipment, such as emergency kits and oxygen tanks.  

• Log Management: Complete monthly medication expiration and refrigerator logs, as well as other required reports.  

• Documentation Audits: Audit clinical documentation in the medical record system to ensure proper clinical care.  

• Supply Management: Conduct weekly inventory assessments and ensure timely re-stocking orders, maintaining a three-week supply of medications.  

• Audit Preparation: Prepare and present required documents for internal and external audits.  

• Inventory Management: Conduct monthly inventories of medications and controlled substances, ensuring a three-month supply is maintained.  

• Treatment Plans: Participate in the review of Treatment Plans and Case Conferences.  

• Works with clinical team members to plan and facilitate emergency preparedness drills; drafts and submit after action reports.  

• Participates, if assigned, in agency’s standing management committees such as Health & Safety and Continuous Quality Improvement. 

• Communicates proactively, openly and constructively with management and non-management colleagues. 

• Performs other duties as assigned by the Director of Nursing or Chief Medical Officer.  

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Current New York State Registered Nurse Licensure 

• Bachelor’s degree in a registered nursing program 

• Three (3) years’ experience preferred in a substance abuse treatment setting. 

• Minimum of one (1) year managerial experience. 

• Phlebotomy and BLS certifications and proficiency. 

• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office suite of applications. 

• Within 3 months after hire, must be competent in use of agency software. 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• Master’s Degree 

• Bilingual in Spanish. 

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES 

• A strong evidence-based/data-driven mindset with an aptitude for analytics; demonstrated ability to structure, visualize, and analyze data. 

• Deadline-focused and able to understand the need for a quality product delivered on time. 

• Enterprising individual, well-developed emotional intelligence, generational savvy, and be energized by innovation and change management in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment with some level of ambiguity.  

• Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills are needed to effectively share and engage the entire organization.  

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS 

• Able to travel occasionally to other facilities around NYC and Brooklyn  

• Able to work outside the traditional clinic hours upon request by the DON.  

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES 

• This position supervises the Licensed Practical Nurse and Certified Medical Technician. 

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS 

These physical demands are representative of the physical requirements necessary for an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodation can be made to enable people with disabilities to perform the described essential functions of the position which are reviewed in each individual case.  

While performing the responsibilities of the role, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to sit and use his or her hands and fingers, to handle or feel. The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands, climb or balance, and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee may be required to lift an object weighing up to 50 lbs., with or without assistance. The vision abilities required by this job include close vision. 

LIMITATIONS & DISCLAIMER 

The above job description is meant to describe the general nature and level of work being performed; it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required for the position. 

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT  

START provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. 

This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.