Unit Manager - Adult Co-Occurring Disorders

The Adult Co-Occurring Disorders Unitis a 22 bed unit offering rapid evaluation with medical and psychiatric intervention. A track for adults with concurrent chemical dependency provides brief crisis intervention with a physician until the patient can be transferred to a lower level of care. 

As a Unit Manager you will:

• 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; is proactive and responsive to changes in patient acuity and census and makes 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. 

Responsibilities:

• Customer Relations
  • Actively seeks to provide quality services that meet the needs of patients as well as other customers - families, visitors, staff, referrers, and payers. 
• Operational/Milieu Management
  • Provides for the 24-hour management of the milieu and operational concerns of assigned unit. 
  • Maintains clinical environment and staffing strategy that enable program to maintain or exceed budgeted census.
  • Ensures the maintenance of a safe and therapeutic environment. 
  • Monitors unit staffing on a 24-hour basis to meet patient care needs and regulatory requirements.
• Budget Management
  • Collaborates with Director, Division of Clinical Services to develop expense budgets for assigned programs. Collaborates with Service Chief and program Medical Director to evaluate the budgetary impact on clinical programming.
  • Manages budget activity to assure compliance with fiscal targets.
  • Provides updates and reports as requested. Keeps Service Chief apprised of budget issues.
  • Develops strategies to improve budget performance.
• Delivery of Clinical Services
  • Ensures the delivery of quality nursing services, that are based on an understanding of the special needs of the patient population served. Applies knowledge of normal growth and development of adults through the use of accepted conceptual principles, e.g. Erikson.
  • Ensures that clinical services meet internal and external standards.
  • Utilizes clinical expertise in the provision of direct patient care, consultative activities, staff development, and treatment planning.
• Staff Supervision/Training
  • Selects, participates in assuring adequate orientation to the job, appraises job performance (with input from Service Chief), and as necessary, disciplines and discharges assigned nursing, and program support staff. Provides ongoing clinical and administrative supervision.     Ensures that staff demonstrate competency in specified clinical skills and that duties are assigned on that basis.
  • Provides input into the development of in-service education and ensures that staff attend required in-service programs.
  • Identifies individual/group issues and concerns and develops strategies for action which assist in promoting and maintaining team morale.
• Program Planning and Evaluation
  • Collaborates with the Service Chief(s) in the development and implementation of clinical programming. 
  • Provides effective liaison between assigned unit/clinical program(s) and Division of Clinical Services. 
  • Actively participates in the determination of core staffing, staffing mix, and appropriate acuity indicators for assigned patient population(s); reevaluates and recommends modifications based on changes in patient population and clinical programming. 
  • Investigates and follows through on project assignments.  Formulates unit-based quality improvement plan and collaborates in the development, implementation, and evaluation of hospital quality improvement activities.
• Documentation/Compliance
  • Evaluates and monitors nursing, documentation and initiates corrective action to ensure compliance with internal and external standards.

Requirements:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Work requires clinical and managerial skills, knowledge of psychiatric nursing, and ability to meet the core competencies (as defined on the competency assessment form) required for working with the specific patient population - acquired through three to five years' of progressively more responsible inpatient psychiatric nursing experience.  In addition, 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.
4. 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).
5. 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.
6. 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 withing 60 days.

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.

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