Excellent Care to Patients and Families The Best Staff In the Safest Environment

Nursing at Brigham and Women's Hospital is known for their excellent clinical practice and for keeping patients and their families at the center of all they do. We understand that great care is shaped by relationships with patients and their families. That's why we're committed to knowing our patients on a deeper level not just as patients, but as individuals to ensure that they, and their families, feel known and cared for.

At BWH, we proudly work together with a spirit of inquiry and a deep commitment to providing the highest quality, evidence-informed and theory-guided care in an inclusive environment. We work each day to achieve our vision to provide excellent care to patients and families, with the best staff, in the safest environment.

Just as we have been able to reinvent health care, we have also transformed health care careers. Whether measured in terms of lives saved, awards earned, or the personal satisfaction of stretching your talents - a career with BWH is unlike any other in the health care field. Here you'll find a workplace where collaboration and teamwork are the norm, not the exception - physicians, nurses, technicians, staff and management form a close-knit bond, based on mutual respect and devotion to our patients. If you want an enormously fulfilling career, there's no better place to be.

GENERAL OVERVIEW:

The Assistant Nurse Director (AND) is an important member of the unit-based leadership team in clinical practice environments to extend leadership presence and provide clinical support.

Under the leadership/direction of the nurse director, the assistant nurse director is a representative of the Department of Nursing and supports the nurse director in translating the vision and values of the department at the unit-level for the purpose of meeting the needs of patients and families and in creating a therapeutic, healing patient/family centered practice environment.

The assistant nurse director helps to develop the very best staff, assists with assessing clinical patterns within populations, and facilitates mobilization/allocation of resources to meet the immediate needs of patients and families. The AND may perform leadership functions as developmentally appropriate under the mentorship and coaching of the nurse director and may be assigned the management of specific projects.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

A.Professional Practice Environment

1. Provides support in the environment to facilitate excellent nursing practice
2. Promotes and supports the Department of Nursing vision as well as unit based mission, values, and goals
3. Facilitates true collaboration and effective communication and respect for diverse perspectives through role-modeling and coaching clinical staff and members of the interprofessional team
4. Participates in daily huddles/rounds with clinical staff for the purpose of clinical consultation, coaching, and problem-solving

1. Manages day to day staffing based on unit-based guidelines approved by the nurse director
2. Manages resources in a changing environment by allocating resources to respond to dynamic changes in patient census and acuity
3. Provides guidance to clinical staff on patient assignments with continuity of care and knowing the patient as a core value in addition to facilitating the development of clinical staff
4. Participates in scheduling and approving requests from clinical staff under the direction of the nurse director
5. Participates in the investigation and administration of corrective action under the direction of the nurse director/nurse administrator
6. Provides nurse director with recommendation for corrective action and performance improvement plans
7. Provides nurse director with recommendations for evaluations for clinical staff
8. Provides support to staff in clinical support roles under the direction of the nurse director
9. Performs evaluations of support staff under the direction of the nurse director
10. Develops education and training for support staff and works with nurse director to integrate these groups into the larger interprofessional team

1. Functions as a clinical expert emulating the vision and mission of the Department of Nursing
2. Interprets policies and procedures for staff members
3. Implements and monitors unit-based standards
4. Facilitates and expedites patient flow to ensure that patients and families receive appropriate and timely care

1. Participates in self-performance appraisal in ongoing manner.
2. Seeks feedback from his/her respective nurse director and other colleagues
3. Shares strengths and areas to be developed with others
4. Identifies opportunities to continue to develop leaderships skills and expertise

1. Understands stages of nursing practice development
2. Provides developmentally appropriate coaching and clinical consultation to clinical staff
3. Supports all staff in identifying and participating in professional developmental activities

1. Provides leadership and participates in unit-based projects under the direction of the nurse director
2. Promotes and assists with the implementation of clinical practice changes and quality initiatives on the patient care unit
3. Engages clinical staff in the implementation and evaluation of clinical practice changes on the patient care unit

F.Patients and Families

1. Facilitates all patients and families feeling known by clinical staff
2. Guides clinical staff in the development of a plan of care that is culturally sensitive and honors the uniqueness of each patient and family
3. Provides coaching and mentoring with clinical staff to facilitate the development of partnerships with patients and families
4. Provides consultation to clinical staff in the management of challenging patients and families
5. Participates in family meetings with the nurse director
6. Facilitates family meetings in the nurse director's absence in consultation with executive director/nurse administrator or available leadership

Qualifications:

1. Current nursing licensure in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
2. 5 years experience as RN required.
3. Professional certification preferred, or must complete certification within 1 year of hire
4. Previous and/or current leadership experience required.
5. MSN preferred.

Skills and abilities required:

1. Demonstrates clinical expertise in assigned area
2. Demonstrates ability to utilize management concepts in the direct supervision of nursing and non-nursing personnel
3. Demonstrates effective decision-making ability and provides leadership to nursing and non-nuring personnel
4. Demonstrates effective interpersonal communication skills