Nurse Director- Adult Inpatient Services- Full time

About the Job:

The Nurse Director, Adult Inpatient Services provides clinical, operational, financial, and professional nursing leadership for assigned inpatient service areas, including the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CICU), Step Down Unit, and Medical-Surgical units. Reporting to the Vice President of Patient Care Services, the Nurse Director is responsible for supporting the delivery of safe, high-quality, patient-centered care; promoting professional nursing practice; ensuring regulatory readiness; optimizing patient flow and operational performance; advancing workforce development; and achieving departmental goals aligned with organizational priorities. Serving as an operational leader within Patient Care Services, the Nurse Director collaborates closely with physicians, advanced practice providers, nursing leaders, educators, quality and safety teams, Patient Placement, Capacity Management, Nursing Informatics, and other interdisciplinary stakeholders to improve patient outcomes, strengthen workforce engagement, enhance access and throughput, and foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, service excellence, nursing excellence, and continuous improvement while supporting the implementation of organizational quality, safety, and patient experience initiatives.

What You’ll Do:

Leadership & Operations

·    Direct daily operations of assigned inpatient nursing units, including staffing, scheduling, budget oversight, productivity monitoring, resource allocation, and operational performance.

·    Implement departmental goals and priorities that align with organizational strategies and patient care objectives.

·    Develop, implement, and evaluate departmental policies, procedures, care delivery processes, and performance standards in collaboration with nursing and organizational leadership.

·    Ensure compliance with state, federal, regulatory, accreditation, and professional nursing practice standards.

·    Monitor and support operational performance related to patient throughput, admission and discharge efficiency, transfer processes, patient placement effectiveness, and bed utilization.

·    Collaborate with Patient Placement, Capacity Management, Emergency Services, Hospital Medicine, Procedural Services, and physician leaders to support effective patient flow and access.

·    Participate in planning for high census periods, surge activities, staffing challenges, and emergency preparedness efforts.

·    Serve in operational leadership roles during emergency management, incident command, and disaster response activities as assigned.

·    Develop collaborative working relationships with physician leaders and interdisciplinary partners to support clinical, operational, and patient experience goals.

·    Support initiatives that improve operational reliability, efficiency, communication, and care coordination across service lines.

Clinical Excellence & Professional Nursing Practice

·    Maintain current knowledge of acute care, critical care, cardiovascular critical care, step down, and medical-surgical nursing practices.

·    Promote evidence-based practice, professional nursing standards, and consistent nursing care delivery across assigned units.

·    Serve as a clinical and operational resource for complex patient care issues, staffing concerns, and interdisciplinary coordination needs.

·    Promote standardization of evidence-based clinical practices and nursing workflows to support quality and patient outcomes.

·    Support shared governance activities and encourage staff participation in professional practice and improvement initiatives.

·    Partner with educators, advanced practice providers, and nursing leaders to ensure staff competency, orientation, continuing education, and professional development.

·    Encourage specialty certification, professional growth, leadership development, and lifelong learning.

·    Collaborate with Nursing Informatics and Information Technology teams to support optimization of electronic health record workflows, clinical technologies, and operational efficiencies.

·    Support interdisciplinary care models that promote continuity of care, communication, and patient-centered outcomes.

Nursing Excellence, Professional Development & Innovation

·    Support initiatives that promote nursing excellence, professional nursing practice, evidence-based care, and quality outcomes.

·    Participate in organizational nursing excellence efforts, professional practice initiatives, recognition programs, and shared governance activities.

·    Encourage participation in evidence-based practice projects, quality improvement initiatives, and nursing scholarship activities.

·    Support dissemination of best practices and successful improvement initiatives within assigned service lines.

·    Identify opportunities for innovation, workflow improvement, and adoption of practices that enhance patient care, staff experience, and operational effectiveness.

·    Promote an environment of learning, inquiry, and continuous improvement.

Quality, Safety & Performance Improvement

·    Lead and support patient quality and safety initiatives within assigned inpatient service areas, with a focus on reducing preventable harm and improving clinical outcomes.

·    Monitor and respond to nursing-sensitive indicators and quality outcomes, including falls with injury, hospital-acquired pressure injuries, CLABSI, CAUTI, hospital-acquired conditions, sepsis performance, readmissions, patient experience, and other organizational and department-specific measures.

·    Use Lean, A3, PDSA, root cause analysis, standard work, and other performance improvement methods to identify, implement, and sustain improvements.

·    Partner with Quality, Patient Safety, Infection Prevention, physicians, and interdisciplinary teams to address performance opportunities.

·    Promote a culture of safety through event reporting, transparency, teamwork, accountability, learning, and proactive risk identification.

·    Support regulatory readiness, accreditation requirements, audit processes, and implementation of corrective action plans.

·    Ensure timely follow-up on safety events, patient concerns, audit findings, regulatory findings, and identified performance opportunities.

·    Support initiatives that promote equitable care delivery and improve outcomes across diverse patient populations.

Workforce Leadership & Talent Development

·    Recruit, mentor, coach, develop, evaluate, and retain nurse managers, clinical leaders, educators, and staff within assigned service areas.

·    Foster a work environment characterized by respect, accountability, teamwork, inclusion, engagement, psychological safety, and service excellence.

·    Support workforce initiatives related to recruitment, retention, succession planning, leadership development, and professional growth.

·    Monitor workforce indicators, including turnover, vacancy rates, overtime, premium labor, agency utilization, attendance, and engagement metrics.

·    Support initiatives that promote staff well-being, resilience, recognition, and professional fulfillment.

·    Develop emerging nurse leaders and contribute to succession planning within assigned areas.

·    Collaborate with Human Resources and nursing leadership to address workforce opportunities and challenges.

·    Promote effective communication, conflict resolution, interdisciplinary collaboration, and constructive problem-solving.

·    Ensure staffing plans support patient acuity, quality outcomes, fiscal responsibility, workforce well-being, and regulatory expectations.

Financial Stewardship & Resource Management

·    Assist in the development, implementation, and monitoring of operating and capital budgets for assigned departments.

·    Monitor labor productivity, premium pay, supplies, equipment utilization, purchased services, and operational expenses.

·    Support achievement of budgetary and productivity goals through effective workforce planning and resource management.

·    Participate in departmental operational planning and implement annual goals aligned with organizational priorities.

·    Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, resource utilization, patient flow, and operational effectiveness, and provide recommendations to leadership.

·    Use quality, operational, workforce, and financial data to guide departmental decision-making.

·    Stay informed about emerging trends and best practices in inpatient care delivery and evaluate applicability to assigned service areas.

·    Participate in departmental, divisional, organizational, and interdisciplinary committees and councils as assigned.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

·    Demonstrates leadership consistent with Elliot Health System mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities.

·    Maintains a visible presence within assigned departments and actively engages with staff, patients, providers, and leaders.

·    Supports implementation of organizational initiatives designed to improve quality, safety, operational performance, workforce engagement, access, and patient experience.

·    Uses clinical, operational, quality, workforce, and financial data to support decision-making, prioritization, and performance improvement.

·    Monitors departmental performance and implements action plans to address identified opportunities.

·    Supports alignment of departmental goals with broader organizational priorities.

·    Promotes professional nursing practice, nursing excellence, workforce development, patient-centered care, and continuous improvement.

·    Collaborates effectively within matrixed leadership structures and interdisciplinary teams.

·    Exercises sound judgment and decision-making in rapidly changing clinical and operational environments.

·    Communicates decisions clearly, respectfully, and professionally.

·    Manages multiple priorities while maintaining safe, effective, and efficient operations.

Who You Are:

• Bachelor's Degree or higher in Nursing required. Master's Degree in Nursing or related field required. Doctoral degree in Nursing, Healthcare Administration, or related field preferred.
• Current Registered Nurse license required. Current New Hampshire RN license required or eligibility for licensure in New Hampshire. Current BLS certification required. Nurse Executive certification (NE-BC or NEA-BC), Specialty certification in leadership, critical care, medical-surgical nursing, or related field, CPHQ, Lean Healthcare, Lean Six Sigma, or related improvement certification preferred.
• Seven (7) years of progressive nursing leadership experience in an acute care setting, including management responsibility for personnel, quality, operational, and financial outcomes. Experience leading inpatient operations through nurse managers and frontline leaders. Experience with quality improvement, patient safety, workforce management, regulatory readiness, and operational performance.
• Knowledge of professional nursing practice standards, evidence-based care, regulatory and accreditation requirements, patient safety principles, workforce management, and inpatient operations.
• Strong leadership, communication, interpersonal, organizational, analytical, and problem-solving skills. Ability to interpret clinical, quality, safety, financial, operational, and workforce data. Proficiency with electronic health record systems and Microsoft Office applications.

Why You’ll Love Us:

• Exciting opportunity to join New Hampshire’s top Health Care System.
• Elliot Health System named Forbes America’s Best in State Employers two consecutive years.
• Health, dental, prescription, and vision coverage for full-time & part-time employees
• Short-term, long-term disability, life & pet insurance
• Tuition reimbursement
• Eligible for sign on bonus and annual leadership bonus
• 403(b) Retirement savings plans
• Continuous earned time accrual
• And many more!