Posting Details
This posting will be used for ongoing recruitment and may close at any time. Applicant lists may be screened more than once.
Why does the job exist?
The Director of Nursing position exists to provide administrative and clinical leadership. The position ensures nursing services are continuously available, appropriately staffed, patient-centered, safe, and compliant with applicable requirements. The Director of Nursing establishes consistent nursing standards, supports the facility's rehabilitation and chemical-dependency programs, strengthens nursing accountability, monitors patient outcomes, and addresses clinical, staffing, admission, and regulatory risks.
How does it get done?
- Nursing Administration and Leadership
1.Direct, organize, administer, and evaluate the total nursing program for the New Mexico Rehabilitation Center.
2.Establish nursing goals, priorities, performance expectations, and operational plans that support the facility's mission and patient-care programs.
3.Serve as the principal nursing advisor to the Hospital Administrator and executive leadership regarding nursing practice, clinical operations, staffing, patient safety, admissions, quality outcomes, regulatory risks, survey findings, corrective actions, and emerging clinical concerns.
4.Participate as a member of the facility's executive leadership team and contribute to strategic planning, policy development, resource allocation, program evaluation, and organizational decision-making.
5.Establish clear accountability among nursing managers, supervisors, charge nurses, licensed nursing personnel, patient-care staff, and contract nursing personnel.
6.Provide administrative nursing leadership during surveys, emergencies, outbreaks, serious clinical events, staffing shortages, and operational disruptions.
7.Remain accountable for the quality and continuity of nursing services provided throughout the facility.
- Nursing Operations and Patient Care
1.Ensure nursing services are available and appropriately organized to meet patient needs 24 hours per day.
2.Oversee nursing care provided to patients receiving medical rehabilitation, withdrawal-management, residential chemical-dependency treatment, and other assigned services.
3.Ensure timely and accurate nursing assessments, reassessments, care plans, treatment plans, medication administration, provider notifications, discharge planning, and clinical documentation.
4.Ensure nurses recognize, report, and respond appropriately to changes in condition, medical emergencies, behavioral concerns, withdrawal symptoms, falls, injuries, medication events, infection concerns, and other clinical risks.
5.Monitor compliance with clinical standards for assessment, care planning, medication management, infection prevention, patient safety, patient rights, admissions, transfers, discharges, emergency care, and documentation.
6.Ensure nursing care is coordinated with physicians, advanced practice providers, pharmacy, therapy, dietary, social services, counselors, psychology, case management, and other members of the interdisciplinary team.
7.Evaluate nursing program needs, service delivery, clinical workflows, and patient outcomes and implement changes when improvement is needed.
8.Ensure patients and their representatives receive appropriate education regarding medications, treatment, safety, discharge needs, and follow-up care.
- Staffing and Workforce Management
1.Maintain sufficient qualified nursing personnel on all shifts based on patient census, acuity, clinical needs, unit operations, required observations, staff competencies, and applicable regulatory requirements.
2.Develop, review, and approve nursing schedules and staffing plans.
3.Review nursing staffing, vacancies, turnover, agency use, overtime, recruitment needs, call-outs, uncovered shifts, and competency gaps.
4.Monitor staffing patterns and make timely adjustments to maintain safe patient care and continuity of services.
5.Collaborate with the Hospital Administrator, Human Resources, finance personnel, and nursing leadership to recruit, retain, orient, and develop qualified nursing personnel.
6.Evaluate whether staffing concerns used to delay or deny admissions represent an actual patient-safety limitation or a correctable operational issue.
7.Reduce unnecessary dependence on overtime and contract staff while maintaining safe and appropriate coverage.
8.Develop succession and continuity plans for nursing leadership and other critical nursing positions.
9.Ensure contract and agency nursing personnel meet the same orientation, training, competency, documentation, and performance expectations as state employees.
- Supervisory and Personnel Management
1.Direct, supervise, and evaluate assigned nursing managers, supervisors, and other nursing personnel.
2.Assign work, establish priorities, communicate expectations, and monitor completion of assigned responsibilities.
3.Participate in recruitment, interviewing, selection, on-boarding, evaluation, coaching, recognition, corrective action, and disciplinary processes.
4.Address employee-performance concerns promptly and consistently in coordination with Human Resources.
5.Hold nursing leaders accountable for staffing, clinical practice, documentation, education, quality monitoring, and completion of corrective actions.
6.Ensure nursing personnel practice within their authorized scope of practice and demonstrated competencies.
7.Promote professional conduct, respectful communication, teamwork, accountability, and a culture of patient safety.
8.Conduct routine nursing leadership and staff meetings to communicate expectations, review performance, and address operational concerns.
1.Provide nursing oversight of clinical admission-review processes for applicable programs.
2.Ensure admission decisions are based on documented clinical needs, eligibility criteria, medical stability, bed availability, staffing competency, program capability, required equipment, medication needs, and patient safety.
3.Coordinate with medical providers, admissions personnel, therapy, counselors, case management, nursing supervisors, and other departments to support timely and appropriate admission decisions.
4.Review 100 percent of denied admissions to determine whether the denial was clinically appropriate, operationally justified, consistently applied, and adequately documented.
5.Identify avoidable admission denials resulting from staffing, competency, equipment, communication, incomplete referral review, delayed provider review, unclear admission criteria, regulatory misinterpretation, or failure to consider available clinical alternatives.
6.Support appropriate census and access to care without accepting patients whose needs exceed the facility's licensed services or demonstrated capability to provide safe care.
- Regulatory Compliance and Survey Readiness
1.Ensure nursing services comply with all applicable federal, state, licensing, accreditation, professional, and facility requirements.
2.Maintain nursing readiness for Joint Commission, CMS, state licensing, Board of Nursing, pharmacy, infection-control, complaint, and other regulatory reviews.
3.Translate regulatory and accreditation requirements into clear nursing procedures and operational expectations.
4.Direct nursing participation in mock surveys, clinical tracers, record reviews, patient interviews, staff interviews, environmental rounds, and focused audits.
5.Review nursing-related survey findings, complaints, deficiencies, citations, and regulatory concerns.
6.Develop or oversee nursing plans of correction and ensure corrective actions address the identified deficiency, protect affected patients, correct underlying causes, assign accountability, and include measurable monitoring to demonstrate sustained compliance.
7.Verify that corrective actions have been implemented and remain effective rather than relying only on reported completion.
8.Promptly notify the Hospital Administrator of significant clinical, regulatory, staffing, or patient-safety risks.
9.Prepare or contribute to regulatory reports, responses, corrective-action submissions, and other required documentation.
- Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement
1.Direct nursing participation in the facility's quality assurance and performance-improvement program.
2.Establish nursing quality measures, performance expectations, monitoring processes, and reporting requirements.
3.Monitor high-risk clinical areas, adverse events, staffing concerns, admissions, complaints, and regulatory trends.
4.Review patient outcomes involving falls, injuries, medication errors, adverse drug events, infections, pressure injuries, hospital transfers, readmissions, behavioral emergencies, withdrawal complications, restraints, grievances, unexpected events, and other nursing-sensitive indicators.
5.Direct or participate in root-cause analyses, serious-event reviews, mortality reviews, and performance-improvement projects.
6.Identify recurring patterns that indicate a nursing, staffing, communication, documentation, competency, or operational system failure.
7.Require corrective action when audit results identify noncompliance, unsafe practices, inaccurate reporting, or failure to implement and sustain improvements.
8.Ensure improvement plans identify responsible personnel, required actions, completion dates, outcome measures, and follow-up monitoring.
9.Present nursing quality findings, trends, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership and appropriate quality committees.
10.Use quality data to guide nursing education, policy revisions, staffing decisions, resource allocation, and clinical-practice improvements.
- Nursing Policies and Procedures
1.Develop, review, approve, implement, and maintain nursing policies, procedures, manuals, protocols, standing orders, and clinical guidelines.
2.Ensure policies are current, evidence-based, operationally clear, appropriately approved, communicated to staff, and supported by education and competency validation.
3.Review nursing policies following regulatory changes, survey findings, adverse events, program changes, or identified system failures.
4.Eliminate conflicting, outdated, unclear, or duplicative nursing procedures.
5.Ensure nursing personnel have access to current policies and understand their responsibilities.
6.Monitor implementation of new and revised policies through observation, audit, staff feedback, and performance review.
1.Establish nursing orientation, annual education, in-service training, continuing education, and competency-validation requirements.
2.Identify facility-wide nursing education needs based on audits, surveys, adverse events, staff performance, regulatory changes, clinical trends, program needs, and identified competency gaps.
3.Ensure education addresses the needs of medical rehabilitation, withdrawal management, chemical-dependency treatment, emergency response, medication administration, infection prevention, patient safety, and other assigned clinical services.
4.Ensure nursing personnel complete required education and demonstrate competency before independently performing assigned duties.
5.Support nursing managers and supervisors in strengthening leadership, clinical decision-making, staffing, regulatory compliance, performance management, and quality-improvement practices.
6.Evaluate whether education has resulted in improved practice and sustained compliance.
7.Promote professional development, nursing certification, advancement, and leadership succession.
- Medication Management and Pharmacy Coordination
1.Ensure nursing compliance with medication-order review, medication administration, controlled-substance management, storage, documentation, monitoring, and reporting requirements.
2.Collaborate with pharmacy and medical staff to address medication errors, adverse drug events, medication availability, high-risk medications, withdrawal-management medications, and medication-reconciliation concerns.
3.Ensure medication errors and adverse drug events are promptly assessed, reported, investigated, and addressed.
4.Monitor nursing documentation of medication administration, effectiveness, adverse effects, refusals, omissions, and provider notifications.
5.Require corrective action when medication-management practices present a patient-safety or regulatory risk.
- Infection Prevention and Employee Safety
1.Support and oversee nursing participation in the facility's infection-prevention and control program.
2.Ensure nursing personnel follow infection-prevention practices, isolation requirements, hand-hygiene expectations, exposure-control procedures, and outbreak-response protocols.
3.Monitor infection trends and ensure suspected outbreaks or significant infection concerns are promptly investigated and reported.
4.Ensure nursing staff receive required education and competency validation regarding infection prevention, personal protective equipment, bloodborne pathogens, and exposure response.
5.Collaborate with infection prevention, employee health, environmental services, medical staff, and facility leadership to reduce infection risks.
- Emergency Preparedness and Incident Response
1.Review clinical emergency plans to ensure continuity of staffing, medications, equipment, infection prevention, communication, evacuation, transfers, medical records, and patient care.
2.Provide nursing leadership during emergencies, outbreaks, evacuations, disasters, infrastructure failures, medication disruptions, and staffing crises.
3.Ensure nursing personnel understand emergency assignments, communication procedures, evacuation responsibilities, and continuity-of-care expectations.
4.Participate in emergency exercises, after-action reviews, and corrective-action planning.
5.Ensure immediate protective action is taken when an incident places a patient at risk.
6.Coordinate nursing response to serious injuries, unexpected deaths, abuse or neglect allegations, elopements, significant medication events, and other high-risk incidents.
- Interdisciplinary Coordination and Communication
1.Maintain effective communication and collaboration with the Hospital Administrator, medical staff, nursing personnel, rehabilitation therapy, pharmacy, dietary services, social services, psychology, counselors, admissions, case management, quality, Human Resources, finance, patients, families, regulatory agencies, and external healthcare partners.
2.Participate in interdisciplinary meetings, executive leadership meetings, quality meetings, utilization-review activities, and patient-care conferences.
3.Ensure nursing concerns, patient changes, admission barriers, discharge needs, and safety risks are communicated promptly to responsible departments.
4.Address communication failures that contribute to delayed care, unsafe practice, denied admissions, discharge barriers, or regulatory risk.
5.Ensure significant nursing decisions, corrective actions, deadlines, and performance expectations are documented and communicated.
- Budget and Resource Management
1.Develop, recommend, and monitor nursing budget estimates in coordination with the Hospital Administrator and finance personnel.
2.Evaluate nursing resource needs, including staffing, equipment, supplies, education, technology, and contract services.
3.Monitor expenditures related to overtime, contract staff, supplies, equipment, training, and other nursing operations.
4.Ensure nursing resources are used responsibly while maintaining safe and effective patient care.
5.Identify resource limitations that affect patient safety, regulatory compliance, admissions, census, staffing, or continuity of services.
6.Provide supporting data and clinical justification for nursing resource and position requests.
- Reports and Administrative Responsibilities
1.Prepare and review nursing staffing reports, quality reports, regulatory reports, budget estimates, statistical reports, incident summaries, admission reports, and executive updates.
2.Ensure nursing records and reports are accurate, complete, timely, and consistent with applicable confidentiality requirements.
3.Maintain documentation demonstrating nursing oversight, monitoring, corrective action, and sustained improvement.
4.Respond to requests from executive leadership, regulatory agencies, Human Resources, legal counsel, risk management, and other authorized entities.
5.Perform other duties reasonably related to the administration and direction of the facility's nursing program.
Who are the customers?
Patient/Resident/Clients of Long Term Care
Ideal Candidate
Patient/Resident/Clients of Long Term Care
Minimum Qualification
Must possess a current license to practice as a Registered Nurse in New Mexico, or eligibility for such licensure in accordance with New Mexico requirements, or eligibility for a temporary license issued for employment at a specific institution in New Mexico and four (4) years of management experience as it pertains to the essential duties and responsibilities of the classification.
Employment Requirements
The ideal candidate is an experienced registered nurse leader with progressive responsibility for managing nursing operations in a hospital or similarly complex inpatient healthcare environment. The candidate has experience directing 24-hour nursing services, supervising nursing leaders and clinical personnel, managing staffing challenges, supporting interdisciplinary care, improving patient outcomes, and maintaining regulatory readiness. The ideal candidate understands the needs of patients receiving medical rehabilitation, withdrawal-management, behavioral-health, or chemical-dependency services and has experience managing quality-improvement initiatives, plans of correction, admission reviews, serious clinical events, and workforce concerns. The candidate demonstrates sound professional judgment, accountability, fairness, integrity, consistency, and a commitment to safe, respectful, patient-centered care.
Working Conditions
Work is performed in an office setting within a long-term facility with exposure to Visual/Video Display Terminal (VDT) and extensive personal computer and phone usage. Walking throughout the facility and frequent communication and interaction with residents, staff, and the public. Periods of walking, standing, bending pushing, pulling, lifting, and stretching for a variety of activities may be required. Must be able to function under pressure and stressful situations Health hazards such as exposure to contagious viruses and diseases. May also include routine exposure to public, fellow employees, and facility resident illness, stressful situation, and bodily fluids, as well as exposure to physical and/or verbal abuse. Occasional travel for training and meetings and driving a State of NM owned motor vehicle may be required; some lifting; extended hours to meet deadlines will be required. Working hours may include on-call, nights, weekends, holidays, overtime, and callback hours. Essential functions of the job and physical ability requirements will be available at the time of interview or may be obtained at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute Human Resources Office.
Supplemental Information
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Agency Contact Information: Derek Wheeler (505)454-2190 Email
Agency Contact Information: Kenneth Shawl (575)894-4200 Email
Agency Contact Information: Kaylene Maldonado (505)454-2371 Email
For information on Statutory Requirements for this position, click the Classification Description link on the job advertisement.
Bargaining Unit Position
This position is not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
