Director of Nursing

Job Title:                    Director of Nursing
Reports to:                 Clinical Executive Director
Level:                          Experienced
Location:                    Nashville
Classification:            Full time, exempt
Education:                 Degree required
Job Category:            Healthcare
 

Mission:         

The Next Door Recovery provides a continuum of evidence-based substance abuse and mental health services for women in an environment of faith and healing to restore hope and a lifetime of recovery.

Summary:

Build and lead a high-performing nursing and behavioral health technician (BHT) team that delivers safe, compassionate, efficient, and financially responsible care aligned with The Next Door Recovery’s mission and values.

The Director of Nursing is ultimately accountable for:

• Stable and effective nursing operations
• Safe, compliant medical care
• Strong collaboration across admissions, providers, and operations
• Efficient staffing and labor management
• Development and retention of an excellent nursing culture
   

Primary Responsibilities and Duties include the following:

Clinical Leadership & Workforce Management

• Lead all nursing and Behavioral Health Technician (BHT) operations across the Nashville continuum of care.
• Stabilize and strengthen nursing and BHT teams by reducing turnover, dependence on agency staff, and operational inefficiencies.
• Hire, develop, coach, and hold accountable nursing and BHT staff and leadership, including Nurse Manager and BHT leadership.
• Foster a mission-aligned, collaborative, respectful, and high-performing team culture.
• Participate in administrative on-call rotation and provide staffing support during operational emergencies as needed.

Admissions, Staffing & Operations

• Build strong collaboration with Admissions to improve nursing intake responsiveness, medical clearances, and bed placement efficiency.
• Oversee staffing, scheduling, and labor management to optimize productivity, reduce overtime, and ensure appropriate staffing ratios.
• Support organizational growth through efficient admissions support and clinical operations.

Clinical Quality, Safety & Patient Care

• Ensure safe medication administration systems, clinical workflows, and infection control practices.
• Coordinate client care with medical, psychiatric, and clinical teams to ensure quality, continuity, and efficiency of services.
• Routinely assess quality of care and implement improvements to reduce incidents, errors, and documentation deficiencies.

Compliance, Risk Management & Process Improvement

• Maintain compliance and readiness for CARF, OSHA, TDMHSAS, licensure, accreditation, contracts, and professional standards.
• Oversee quality assurance, incident review, medical record documentation practices, and risk reduction initiatives.
• Develop, implement, and revise medical policies, procedures, standards of care, and operational workflows to improve efficiency and clinical excellence.

Collaboration, Strategy & Financial Oversight

• Collaborate closely with Medical Director, providers, compliance, operations, HR, and executive leadership to improve safety, efficiency, and clinical outcomes.
• Assist in development and management of nursing and medical services budgets, including approved labor budgets.
• Establish goals, standards, and objectives aligned with TNDR’s mission, strategic plan, and financial sustainability.

Staff Education & Professional Development

• Ensure ongoing staff training, competency development, continuing education, and maintenance of required licensure/certifications.

Additional Responsibilities

• Perform other duties as assigned.
   

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to inspire client confidence in TNDR Staff and TNDR’s Continuum of Treatment services.
• Ability to consistently demonstrate the stability in conduct and communications is required to effectively assist patients and their family members through TNDR’s Continuum of Treatment services.
• Adherence to CARF standards.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
• Excellent organizational skills with the ability to prioritize workload and meet deadlines.
• Proven leadership skills.
• Must have high level of interpersonal skills.  Position continually requires demonstrated poise, professionalism, tact and diplomacy.
• Must have strong knowledge of a variety of computer software applications in word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint). 
• Demonstrates ability to manage people which includes planning, decision making and facilitating process improvements; takes responsibility for subordinates’ activities; makes self available to staff and provides regular performance feedback.
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of a variety of models and theories of addiction, mental illness, and related issues.
• Understanding of diverse cultures and gender specific issues and ability to incorporate needs of gender and culturally diverse groups into practice setting.

Education and Experience:

• Registered Nurse with minimum 5 years’ experience working with substance use disorders in a detox setting is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (BSN) and/or Master’s degree preferred.
• Appropriate experience may be substituted for educational requirements.   Experience to include three years’ work and supervisory experience in medical practice management.
• Experience in managing in a leadership capacity required.
• Minimum 5 years supervisory experience required.

Work Environment and Physical Demands

• Sits, stands, bends, lifts and moves intermittently during work hours. 
• Must be able to lift, push, pull and/or move up to 40 pounds.
• Position requires some work on the computer requiring manual dexterity and visual acuity.
• A current, valid driver’s license and personal auto insurance is required.
• Due to the 24/7 operational demands, must be available after normal working hours and on holidays to manage emergencies that may arise.
   

All Employees will adhere to the following professional standards:

• Honor the agency mission:  The mission of The Next Door Recovery is to live out our faith by providing a continuum of evidence-based substance abuse and mental health services for women in an environment of faith and healing to restore hope and a lifetime of recovery.
• Consistently treat residents and co-workers with the utmost respect.
• Keep ALL information regarding staff, residents, diagnosis, group information, etc. confidential at all times.
• Work as a necessary part of the team effort.
• Model ethical and professional behavior at all times.
• Participate in ongoing meetings and trainings as required by the leadership of The Next Door Recovery.
• Be creative and assist leadership with ideas for improving the overall quality of the services and environment for the residents of The Next Door Recovery.
• Encourage and live the core values of The Next Door Recovery, Inc., at all times: 
  • Love ~ We demonstrate what love looks like, so our women learn to love others in healthy ways and love themselves.
  • Faith ~ We welcome all people, and all will be cared for with Christ-centered principles.
  • Hope ~ We believe hope is within reach for all women.
  • Wholeness ~ God has a plan and purpose for a woman’s life and that is abundantly good.  She does not have to be defined by her past decisions.  God loves.  God forgives.  Every woman can be whole and complete.
  • Community ~ We are building a healthy community in which our women are contributing members of society.  We need one another.  We care for one another.  We will teach our women how to build their own healthy community.
  • Respect ~ We believe each woman deserves respect from us and from each other.  We believe each woman can learn to respect herself and others.
  • Encouragement ~ We believe that our words and actions should build one another up.  We inspire one another with love and good deeds.