Mission:

The Shift Director is responsible for coordinating and supervising the day-to-day activities within the Nursing Department when Administrative and Clinical Leaders are not present in the facility. The Shift Director is responsible for leading the department by empowering staff to function to their highest level of competency, ensuring compliance with nursing policies and procedures, and providing support in critical thinking and thorough independent judgment. The Shift Director's duties include providing clinical and managerial links between the nurses and Behavioral Health Technicians, the Director of Nursing, and the Kirkbride Center administrative team, including the Administrator-on-Call, in the absence of the administrative team.

Essential Functions:

• Promote the mission, vision, and values of the Kirkbride Center
• Interpret and ensure adherence to Kirkbride Center’s and nursing’s philosophy, policies, and procedures.
• Develop and implement a staffing plan for each shift based on patient acuity, census, and available staff.
• Assisted nursing staff on the unit in efficiently utilizing resources necessary to meet patient care requirements and other professional responsibilities.
• Serve as a resource for solving clinical problems.
• Act as a resource in identifying and/or solving administrative/operational problems when the administrative team is absent. 
• Anticipate actual/potential problems that may occur on their shift and set shift priorities accordingly.
• Respond to all emergency situations (behavioral and/or medical) and assist as necessary.
• Work collaboratively with nursing and ancillary staff to solve problems fairly and consistently.
• Provide immediate documentation, communication, and follow-up of incidents to the Kirkbride Center Administrative staff and notification, if required, to regulatory agencies.
• Assess patient care requirements on each unit by making rounds on each unit and all other areas of the Kirkbride Center (according to departmental need/activity) 
• Report significant incidents and problems to the Administrator on Call.
• Provide support, guidance, and feedback to staff.
• Identify and communicate staff needs for continuing education to the Assistant Director of Nursing and the Director of Nursing.
• Give staff ongoing, timely verbal and written feedback or anecdotes regarding their performance. This will be given to the Assistant Director of Nursing and the Director of Nursing via e-mail or appropriate Kirkbride Center assessment and evaluation documentation. It may be used as a part of their performance evaluation.

Job Requirements:

• A current RN's license in state of practice. 
• Sound leadership skills and utilize these skills in organizing the activities and schedules for the adult patient's medical and/or non-medical tasks for a given shift. 
• High-quality clinical and interpersonal skills; an exemplary role model to others.
• Knowledge of treatment procedures and interventions common to acute psychosis and abnormal psychology, as well as to non-violent crisis intervention practices, typically found in the adult psychiatric population and application of this knowledge to adult care.
• Familiarity with psychopharmacology and the use of psychotropic medications with the adult psychiatric population. 
• Basic teaching and training skills; problem-solving; organizational and time management; crisis intervention; written and oral communication skills; facilitating and/or co-facilitating process-oriented and didactic groups.
• Eligible for CPR and CPI certification 
• Skills in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships among various clinical and support team members; empathy for patients and their families; flexibility regarding hours. 
• Skills in maintaining information as highly confidential.

Physical and Mental Job Requirements:

• Ability to exercise self-control in potentially volatile situations such as being verbally or physically confronted in a threatening or aggressive manner.
• Must be able to work and concentrate amidst distractions such as noise, conversation, and foot traffic.
• Ability to handle interruptions often and move from one task to another.
• Must be flexible and not easily frustrated in dealing with differences of opinion.
• Ability to stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, reach, stand, walk, push, pull, lift, grasp, and be able to perceive the attributes of objects such as size, shape, temperature, and/or texture by touching with skin, particularly that of the fingertips.
• Ability to express and exchange ideas via spoken word during activities in which they must accurately convey details or important spoken instructions to others, sometimes quickly and loudly. Hearing is to perceive the nature of sound with no less than 40 db loss a Hz, 1000 Hz, or 2000 Hz with or without correction.
• Ability to perceive detailed information through communication and make fine sound discriminations.
• Individuals must be able to exert up to 100 pounds of force occasionally and to be able to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects.
• Work requires a minimum standard of visual acuity with or without correction that will enable people in the role to complete administrative and clerical tasks and visually observe patients on the unit and in therapeutic activities.
• While a worker may possibly be subjected to temperature changes, the worker is generally not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions as the work is predominantly inside.
• Required to travel throughout the city where drug trafficking activity is prevalent.