Behavioral Health Technician - Child, Adolescent & Eating Disorders Unit (5 Neurosciences)

UNC Health • Chapel Hill, NC

1d • Onsite

About The Position

UNC Health is hiring a Behavioral Health Technician for the Child, Adolescent, and Eating Disorders Psychiatry Unit (5 Neurosciences) at UNC Medical Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This 28-bed unit includes 14 adolescent beds, 8 child beds, and 6 eating-disorder beds. Safety is central to care, alongside helping patients develop positive coping skills, healthy living habits, and positive leisure activities.

Under close supervision, the technician helps provide a safe, supportive, and therapeutic environment for psychiatric patients. The role provides direct patient care, may lead therapeutic groups under RN direction and supervision, contributes information to care planning, and helps carry out plans of care. The technician also assists with admissions and orients patients and families to the unit.

This is a full-time, onsite position working 36 hours per week in three 12-hour shifts, with day and night shifts rotating and weekends and holidays included. The position requires attendance at a weeklong hospital orientation offered every two weeks. The listed salary range is $19.12–$27.17 per hour; offers are determined by experience and internal equity. This state position is employed by UNC Health Care System and includes UNC Health benefits, including accrued PTO.

Requirements

• Certified Nursing Assistant; must be listed as a Nursing Assistant I by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
• At least one year of relevant experience in a behavioral health environment; the posting also specifies one year working in a behavioral health/neurosciences unit.
• High school diploma or GED; a higher-level degree may satisfy this requirement.
• Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) certification within 60 days of hire.
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with patients and hospital staff.
• Ability to work with patients sensitively and understandingly, secure their cooperation, and maintain an empathetic attitude.
• Ability to work with individuals and groups in didactic or recreational group settings.
• Ability to remain calm in stressful situations.
• Fluency in spoken and written English.
• Ability to develop computer skills if not already competent.
• Ability to attend the required weeklong hospital orientation.

Responsibilities

• Support patients with reality orientation and participate in behavior modification plans and therapy.
• Provide informal support to patients and families, verbally de-escalate potentially aggressive patients, and assist with physical management of aggressive or out-of-control patients.
• Facilitate age-appropriate play for children and monitor therapeutic milieu activities to help meet patients’ emotional and safety needs.
• Assist with routine admission interviews and orient patients and families to the facility.
• Contribute information during team discussions and meetings to help develop therapeutic plans and objectives.
• Interact with patients one-to-one and in small groups, and facilitate assigned groups to encourage participation appropriate to members’ functional levels.
• Observe, collect, and document patient information, and promptly report significant changes in condition to a registered nurse or physician.
• Provide personal care for activities of daily living, including bathing, hygiene, feeding, and dressing.
• Assist patients with position changes, range-of-motion exercises, transfers, and walking.
• Obtain and record vital signs, intake and output, and other delegated measures; observe patient progress and report significant changes in condition or behavior to the supervising RN.
• Help protect and control patients as needed for safety, including participating in restraint of combative patients and providing care and monitoring during seclusion or restraint.
• Reinforce routine teaching provided by an RN or physician, document patient understanding, and distribute patient education materials at the request of patients or health care providers.

Benefits

• Extensive benefit package, including PTO accrued based on hours worked.
• UNC Health benefits.
• Eligible employees who currently participate in TSERS or the ORP through another North Carolina agency may continue participating in those plans.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED