Our behavioral health nurses perform a wide range of professional psychiatric nursing services, including assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating patient care and needs, in accordance with the Interdisciplinary Treatment Plan (ITP) for a population of acutely ill adult psychiatric patients who range from 18 years of age to geriatric. Registered nurses administer medical treatment as prescribed by the attending psychiatrist or advanced practice provider and are responsible for teaching and providing support to patients including but not limited to disease education, medication education, supportive engagement, facilitation of psychoeducational groups and safety planning. De-escalation ability and management of disruptive behaviors are key aspects of the psychiatric registered nurse role. RNs also coordinate with our multidisciplinary team to provide quality care throughout the patient's hospital stay.

Principal Responsibilities and Tasks The following statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. These are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by personnel so classified.

Clinical Practice/Care Delivery

1. Focus of clinical practice/care delivery and on own learning.

2. Uses/applies evidence-based practice, accesses appropriate resources.

3. Follows unit-based protocols, documentation, pathways, etc.

4. Involves patient and family in care; follows model of care delivery guidelines.

5. Conducts patient/family needs assessment; initiates and documents patient/family education, seeks guidance in advocating the patient/family needs when appropriate.

6. Delivers care consistent with unit operations to ensure safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, patient centered care.

Professional Development

1. Responsible for accessing education applicable to own professional development; focus on completion of competencies appropriate for patient care setting.

2. Succussful completion of orientation.

3. Accountable for achieving/maintaining requirements for unit practice.

4. Completes CE's on an annual basis based on the facility minimum requirements.

Service/Quality

1. Becomes familiar with National Hospital Quality Measures, National Patient Safety Goals, Quality Indicators, Nursing Sensitive Indicators, and Facility Annual Operating Plan.

2. Aware of patient and team member satisfaction scores and contributes to unit initiatives for improvement.

3. Participates in some or all elements of research/EBP/QI.

4. Provides high quality, safe, patient centered care with focus on exceeding service expectations.

5. Maintains regulatory requirements for overall readiness; participates in tracer activities when requested.

Patient Safety

1. Takes action to correct observed risks to patient safety.

2. Reports adverse events and near misses to appropriate management authority.

3. Implements policies, procedures, and guidelines consistently in the performance of assigned duties.

4. Develops effective working relationships and maintains good communication with other team members.

5. Identifies possible risks in processes, procedures, devices and communicates the same to those in charge.

6. Participates in hospital, departmental and/or unit patient safety initiatives.

Operations

1. Supports Charge Nurse role and demonstrates basic understanding of the role.

2. Actively contributes to teamwork (cooperates with peers, flexible with assignments, takes admissions as required, etc.).

3. Attends briefings/staff meetings regularly.

4. Aware of and supports unit, nursing division, and organizational governance structure.

5. Participates in recruitment and retention activities at the unit level.

6. Provides feedback in peer review as requested.