POSITION OVERVIEW (exempt):Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Medical Surgical Unit, ensuring exceptional patient care, high-performing teams, and alignment with JCHC's mission, vision, values, and Championship Culture. This leader oversees daily operations, clinical practice, regulatory compliance, staff development, and departmental performance across quality, safety, service, people, finance, and community.
QUALIFICATIONS:- Graduate of an accredited school of nursing with current Iowa RN license (BSN preferred but not required)
- ACLS, PALS, and BCLS required
- Minimum three years of demonstrated leadership or management experience
- Proven ability to lead teams, manage operations, and drive outcomes
ACCOUNTABILITY:Reports to Chief Nursing Officer
DIRECT REPORTS: Medical Surgical Assistant Nurse Manager; Registered Nurses; Licensed Practical Nurses; Certified Nursing Assistants; Unit Clerk; Nursing Staff Secretary
POSITION-SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS:Leadership & Culture- Models SPARK Standards in all interactions, communication, and decision-making.
- Maintains high visibility on the unit, ensuring approachability, accessibility, and consistent leadership presence.
- Builds a positive, inclusive, and accountable work environment that supports staff engagement, teamwork, and professional growth.
- Serves as a role model for professional behavior, dress code, communication, and service excellence.
Operational Management- Leads daily operations of the Med-Surg Unit, ensuring safe, efficient, and patient-centered care delivery.
- Conducts daily patient rounding
- Collaborates with all providers and care teams to address needs and remove barriers.
- Coordinates interdepartmental communication to ensure seamless patient flow and care transitions.
- Oversees staffing, scheduling, and workforce optimization using staffing models, productivity targets, and safe staffing standards.
- Ensures timely completion of departmental reports, audits, and documentation.
- Oversees equipment selection, maintenance, repairs, and inventory management.
Team Development & Performance Excellence- Maintains active clinical expertise, modeling evidence-based practice, supporting staff with real-time clinical guidance, and reinforcing high-reliability behaviors to strengthen team performance and patient outcomes.
- Conducts regular coaching, rounding, and development conversations with staff.
- Ensures orientation, onboarding, competency validation, and ongoing education for all team members.
- Maintains accurate personnel records, performance evaluations, and individualized growth plans.
- Participates in recruitment, interviewing, selection, and retention strategies.
- Collaborates with nursing schools to support clinical rotations, preceptorships, and advisory participation.
- Establishes clear, measurable goals with team members and provides structured follow-up to reinforce progress, support growth and accountability, remove barriers, and celebrate achievements.
Communication & Collaboration- Meets with the CNO at least monthly to review performance, discuss challenges, and plan strategic initiatives.
- Facilitates monthly staff meetings and ensures timely dissemination of departmental and organizational updates.
- Acts as liaison between staff, providers, administration, patients, and families.
- Investigates and resolves patient, family, and provider concerns using risk-management complaints and grievance protocols.
Key Performance Indicators including but not limited to:- HCAHPs
- Falls, pressure injuries, CAUTI/CLABSI, hospital-wide readmissions
- Staff engagement scores and feedback trends
- Turnover and vacancy rates
- Overtime and agency/travel nurse utilization, schedule stability
- Documentation compliance, including timeliness, accuracy, and regulatory alignment
- Budget adherence, supply stewardship, and productivity benchmarks
- Completion of rounding and follow-up actions, and staff touchpoints with defined timeframes
Contacts may include but are not limited to co-workers, other JCHC employees, providers, public, families and patients.
Other duties as assigned
MANAGEMENT REQUIREMENTS:Administrative
- Knowledge of the policies and procedures sufficient to direct department operations
- Assists with writing, reviewing, revising, and implementing policies and procedures
- Disseminates information, professional knowledge to department members, and hospital staff
- Travels to meetings to represent Jefferson County Health Center and acquire necessary information
- Participates in the development and achievement of established hospital and divisional goals
- Manages problems and discrepancies as they present themselves and documents appropriately
- Investigates patient, family, provider complaints, and follows appropriate risk management and grievance process guidelines to resolve the situation
- Is a catalyst for conforming to quality and accrediting standards
- Remains current on regulatory compliance, educates staff, and ensures compliance in department
- Ensures standards of behavior, operational strategies and practice efficiencies are achieved
Financial/Technical Responsibilities
- Participates in annual budget development and manages departmental operations within approved financial targets.
- Reviews departmental financial statements on a monthly basis
- Safeguards the assets of JCHC by applying effective internal control practices and audits
- Ensures JCHC's continued non-profit status by maintaining awareness of changes in the law
- Assists with review and maintenance of charge master rates and codes
- Implements cost-effective strategies and practices to optimize resources.
- Assists with selection, use, maintenance, repair of department equipment
- Is responsible for ordering department inventory
- Prepares internal department invoices for Accounts Payable
- Prepares and validates statistical data in a timely manner
Quality, Safety & Regulatory Compliance
- Leads departmental quality improvement initiatives using evidence-based practice, high-reliability principles, and Just Culture.
- Monitors clinical outcomes, patient safety indicators, and documentation compliance; develops action plans to address trends.
- Ensures adherence to CMS Conditions of Participation, critical access hospital requirements, HIPAA, and all state/federal regulations.
- Ensures compliance with cybersecurity protocols, and secure communication practices within department.
- Safeguards confidentiality and integrity of all protected health information.
- Develops, updates, and standardizes Medical Surgical clinical procedures and operational policies.
- Reviews occurrence reports, conducts safety evaluations, and initiates corrective actions.
- Partners with the CNO, Quality and Infection Control Director, and interdisciplinary teams to maintain accreditation readiness at all times.
Personnel and Resource Management
- Ensures that the responsibilities, authorities and accountabilities of all direct reports and appointed positions are defined and understood
- Coordinates and participates in in-service programs, committees, and staff meetings as appropriate
- Provides for orientation of new employees
- Utilizes a team base approach by seeking suggestions and input from staff and colleagues
- Assigns administrative and operational responsibilities to department members
- Is responsible for staffing/scheduling, assuring safe and competent staffing patterns
- Maintains required reports, records and documents appropriate information regarding patient care and employee performance
- Conducts performance appraisals
- Participates in team-based interviews of applicants
- Consults with human resources regarding employee concerns in a proactive manner
Professionalism
- Leads staff by example
- Actively participates in professional affiliations as assigned by the CEO
- Assumes personal responsibility for professional growth and continuing education
- Remains informed of current and relevant trends and practices affecting healthcare
- Exhibits excellent customer relations to patients, visitors, providers, and co-workers
- Presents a positive/professional hospital image
- Establishes and maintains effective and professional working relationships with employees,
- policymaking bodies, third party payers, patients and the public
- Uses discretion to retain information that is confidential
- Applies effective communication skills and keeps lines of communication open with staff and other managers to ensure high employee morale and a professional, healthful atmosphere
Safety
- Communicates safety issues and their interventions to the safety committee
- Monitors department incident reports and conduct safety evaluations
- Documents department minutes and in-service records on safety
- Initiates corrective action in response to safety surveillance findings, to include equipment repair/adjustment and employee education
- Conducts and/or participates in departmental education based on quality improvement/safety equipment safety surveillance findings
- Communicates verbally and/or in writing to appropriate staff regarding safety issues, documenting such communication; i.e., department minutes, in-service records
- Ensures appropriate completion of incident reports relating to the safety of the employee, patient, or visitor
- Notifies Maintenance when new electrical equipment is integrated into department
- Reviews, completes, and reports any notification of equipment recalls by manufacturer to the QI Manager
WORK ENVIRONMENT:
- Works in a well-illuminated, climate-controlled environment
- May come in contact with hazardous chemical or treatment modalities
- Possibility exists of exposure to communicable diseases
- Involvement in inpatient care may result in unavoidable work-related illness or injury
- Work environment is comfortable, with minimal exposure to physical hazards
- Moderate to loud noise environment when machines/equipment in use
- Involvement in checking in/moving of supplies may result in unavoidable work-related injury
- Must be constantly alert for patient/family emergency situations
