Clinical Nurse Manager - Adolescent Unit

Job Summary

The Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM) provides strategic, clinical, and operational leadership for the Adolescent Inpatient Unit, an acute psychiatric stabilization program serving youth experiencing significant mental health crises. The CNM is responsible for daily operations, staff management, and coordination of nursing services in alignment with the Hospital’s mission, values, and evidence-based practices for trauma-responsive adolescent mental healthcare.

The CNM ensures a safe, developmentally appropriate, and therapeutically structured treatment environment and fosters a cohesive, culturally respectful workforce that includes staff from diverse professional backgrounds and levels of experience. In collaboration with interdisciplinary leaders, the CNM upholds quality care standards, promotes patient and staff safety, supports continuous performance improvement, and engages in hospital-wide initiatives.

Qualifications

Required:

• Registered Nurse with Vermont licensure (or eligibility for licensure).
• Minimum two years of leadership experience in a hospital or inpatient healthcare setting.
• Demonstrated two years of experience working directly with adolescents in a mental health, social services, or related healthcare environment.
• Demonstrated ability to supervise, mentor, and support staff with diverse backgrounds, training levels, and roles.
• BLS- CPR certified (or ability to obtain)
• CPI certification (or ability to obtain)

Preferred:

• BSN or MSN (or equivalent experience combined with education).
• Prior leadership experience in an adolescent psychiatric or acute behavioral health program.
• Certification in Psychiatric–Mental Health Nursing (or willingness to pursue).

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Leadership & Management

• Develops and executes unit-specific goals aligned with organizational priorities for quality, safety, patient experience, and fiscal responsibility.
• Provides leadership that promotes a therapeutic milieu tailored to the developmental needs of adolescents in acute psychiatric crisis.
• Creates and sustains a positive work culture that supports inclusivity, professional respect, teamwork, and equitable treatment for staff from a wide range of cultural, educational, and experiential backgrounds.
• Demonstrates effective personnel management, including recruitment, selection, coaching, mentoring, performance management, corrective action, and retention.
• Ensures appropriate staffing levels and staff skill mix based on clinical acuity, regulatory standards, and patient safety needs.
• Conducts timely and comprehensive performance evaluations and supports staff growth through ongoing feedback and development planning.
• Leads, supports, and communicates organizational initiatives related to trauma-informed care, patient safety, quality improvement, and evidence-based adolescent psychiatric treatment.
• Leads unit-level cultural and operational change initiatives, ensuring transparent communication and staff engagement.

 Clinical & Operational Oversight

• Directs nursing care practices consistent with trauma-responsive, recovery-oriented, non-coercive approaches to adolescent inpatient psychiatry.
• Ensures adherence to all clinical policies, procedures, regulatory requirements, and documentation standards.
• Maintains responsibility for the physical environment, including safety standards, infection prevention, equipment needs, and risk mitigation.
• Collaborates with interdisciplinary partners (psychiatry, psychology, social work, milieu staff, education services) to support coordinated and developmentally informed care.
• Oversees unit-level quality and performance improvement initiatives, including data collection, analysis, reporting, and implementation of corrective action plans.
• Prepares, manages, and monitors the annual operating budget, ensuring efficient use of staffing and resources.
• Conducts routine staff meetings, ensures transparent communication, and escalates significant issues to senior leadership as appropriate.
• In the absence of the Service Administrator or Director of Nursing, the CNM may assume expanded administrative responsibilities.

 Education, Training & Staff Development

• Plans, implements, and evaluates staff education activities relevant to adolescent mental health, crisis intervention, safety practices, and clinical skill development.
• Works closely with the Nursing Education Department to ensure staff competency, including orientation, mandatory trainings, and age-specific clinical proficiencies.
• Promotes staff participation in internal and external continuing education programs.