Clinical Coordinator

CareWell Health•East Orange, NJ

About The Position

The Clinical Care Coordinator RN coordinates and facilitates safe, patient-centered care for people undergoing medically supervised withdrawal from alcohol and/or other substances. The RN performs comprehensive nursing assessments, coordinates individualized plans of care, monitors withdrawal symptoms and clinical status, collaborates with physicians and behavioral-health professionals, and facilitates discharge and transition to the next level of treatment. The role includes coordinating detoxification and withdrawal-management care; monitoring withdrawal assessment tools, vital signs, neurological status, medication effects, and safety risks; and responding to acute clinical or behavioral changes. The coordinator works with the interdisciplinary team on treatment, transfers, discharge planning, referrals, and follow-up care, while maintaining accurate documentation and supporting regulatory compliance, patient safety, and quality improvement.

Requirements

Active, unrestricted New Jersey RN license.
Associate Degree in Nursing or BSN.
BLS/ACLS certification.
At least 1 year of detox, substance-use-disorder, or addiction-treatment experience; this experience is mandatory.
Strong assessment, critical-thinking, communication, and organizational skills.
Experience with electronic medical records.
Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment and respond to changes in patient condition.

Nice To Haves

BSN may be preferred.
Previous acute-care, behavioral-health, psychiatric, or emergency experience.

Responsibilities

Perform comprehensive nursing assessments for patients admitted for detoxification and withdrawal management.
Review and audit documentation, video audits for hourly patient-safety rounding, medication administration and post-administration reassessments, and EKG completion and escalation of abnormalities.
Monitor patients for alcohol and substance withdrawal symptoms and communicate significant changes in condition promptly.
Monitor appropriate use of CIWA, COWS, and RASS withdrawal-assessment tools.
Administer medications and treatments according to provider orders and facility policies; monitor effectiveness and adverse effects, including those of withdrawal-management and medication-assisted-treatment medications when applicable.
Develop, implement, and evaluate individualized nursing care plans.
Coordinate care among physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, counselors, social workers, therapists, case managers, and other interdisciplinary team members.
Participate in treatment-team meetings and communicate changes in condition, progress, barriers, and discharge needs.
Identify patients who need a higher level of medical or psychiatric intervention and facilitate escalation of care.
Coordinate clinically indicated transfers to emergency departments, hospitals, residential treatment, PHP/IOP, or other appropriate levels of care.
Educate patients and families about withdrawal, medications, recovery, relapse prevention, treatment options, and follow-up care.
Begin discharge planning early in the admission and coordinate follow-up appointments, referrals, transportation, medications, and community-resource connections.
Advocate for patients and communicate their clinical and psychosocial needs to the treatment team.
Maintain accurate, timely, comprehensive electronic medical record documentation.
Ensure compliance with facility policies, New Jersey nursing requirements, applicable regulatory standards, and evidence-based practices.
Participate in quality-improvement, patient-safety, infection-control, and performance-improvement activities.
Help maintain a safe therapeutic environment for patients experiencing withdrawal, behavioral-health symptoms, or substance-use-related crises.
Recognize and respond appropriately to behavioral emergencies, psychiatric deterioration, falls, seizures, overdose risk, and other acute changes in condition.
Provide clinical guidance and support to nursing staff and other care-team members as appropriate.
Coordinate detox-specific withdrawal management, scoring and monitoring, seizure and delirium risk monitoring, vital-sign and neurological monitoring, medication management, medication reconciliation, and MAT coordination when appropriate.
Support suicide and self-harm risk assessment, monitoring of psychiatric symptoms and co-occurring mental-health disorders, behavioral escalation response, and safety precautions.
Coordinate physician/APN/PA communication, counseling and therapy, social-work collaboration, insurance/utilization review, transfers, discharge planning, and placement into residential treatment, PHP, IOP, outpatient treatment, or community services.
Coordinate patient flow, including admissions, initial assessments, daily clinical reviews, treatment-team coordination, transfers, and discharges.
Perform other duties as assigned.