Director of Nursing

Freedom Behavioral Hospital of Monroe • Monroe, LA

91d

About The Position

Freedom Behavioral Hospital of Monroe is an 82-bed acute inpatient behavioral health facility serving adult and geriatric psychiatric patients in Monroe, Louisiana, with an additional satellite location in West Monroe. The Director of Nursing provides leadership and oversight of nursing services across the facility, ensuring care meets organizational standards and applicable regulatory and accrediting requirements.

The successful candidate is an experienced behavioral health nursing leader with required acute psychiatric nursing experience. This hands-on leadership role oversees staffing, clinical operations, staff development and accountability, quality improvement, survey readiness, and collaboration across clinical and administrative teams. Geriatric behavioral health experience is strongly preferred.

Requirements

• Previous acute psychiatric nursing experience is required.
• Previous nursing leadership experience.
• Associate Degree or Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing minimum, with MSN oversight.
• Current RN license in good standing with the State of Louisiana.
• Strong clinical judgment and decision-making abilities.
• Knowledge of behavioral health regulatory and accreditation requirements.
• Experience with survey readiness, QAPI, and performance improvement.
• Strong staffing and nursing operations management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, train, and retain nursing staff.
• Ability to establish expectations and hold employees accountable.
• Strong communication, organization, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with physicians and multidisciplinary leadership teams.
• Hands-on leadership style and willingness to support the nursing team when operational or clinical needs arise.
• Commitment to safe, high-quality, patient-centered behavioral healthcare.

Nice To Haves

• Geriatric behavioral health or geriatric psychiatric experience is strongly preferred.
• Master’s-prepared nursing education is strongly preferred.
• Previous psychiatric management experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct leadership, oversight, and support to nursing and direct care staff.
• Ensure nursing services follow standards of care, organizational policies and procedures, regulatory requirements, and accreditation standards.
• Maintain safe and appropriate nursing staffing levels based on patient census, acuity, and organizational requirements.
• Develop nursing schedules in a timely manner and proactively address staffing and coverage needs.
• Provide clinical leadership and assist staff with decision-making, clinical judgment, physician communication, and complex patient care situations.
• Provide direct patient care when necessary to support safe and effective facility operations.
• Participate in the nursing administrative on-call rotation as required.
• Recruit, develop, mentor, train, and retain a high-performing nursing team.
• Collaborate with Human Resources on recruitment, hiring, employee relations, performance management, corrective action, and termination when necessary.
• Complete nursing staff performance evaluations on time and provide ongoing coaching and performance feedback.
• Establish clear performance expectations and promote accountability throughout the nursing department.
• Participate in the facility’s Quality Assessment and Performance Improvement (QAPI) program by monitoring, tracking, trending, and analyzing nursing and patient care data.
• Identify performance improvement opportunities and implement corrective actions when nursing or quality concerns arise.
• Maintain survey readiness and ensure nursing operations comply with applicable federal, state, accreditation, and organizational requirements.
• Collaborate with Intake and Service Development to facilitate appropriate and timely patient admissions.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of admission criteria and ensure appropriate clinical review and documentation for new admissions.
• Participate in the Utilization Review and Treatment Teams to support communication about patient needs, treatment goals, interventions, progress, and discharge planning.
• Serve as a clinical and operational resource to administrative, nursing, and direct care staff.
• Participate in developing and implementing policies, procedures, forms, workflows, and processes affecting nursing services and patient care.
• Collaborate with facility leadership on new programs, operational initiatives, and performance improvement projects to support safe and effective implementation.
• Monitor nursing documentation and clinical practices for accuracy, timeliness, quality, and regulatory compliance.
• Work collaboratively with physicians, clinical leadership, administration, Human Resources, Quality, and other departments to support facility operations.
• Serve as an active member of the facility leadership team and contribute to the hospital’s clinical, operational, and strategic goals.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Associate degree