Recreation Therapist - Inpatient Behavioral Health

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together.

About Duke Regional Hospital

Pursue your passion for caring with Duke Regional Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. With 388 beds it is the second largest of Duke Health's four hospitals and offers a comprehensive range ofmedical, surgical, and diagnostic services, including orthopedics, weight-loss surgery, women's services, and heart and vascular services.

Unit Overview

The Behavioral Health Inpatient Unit at Duke Regional Hospital is a 42-bed unit caring primarily for patients experiencing major depressive and bipolar disorders as well as schizophrenia. As part of the team, you’ll have the opportunity to advance your career through bonuses for psychiatric mental health certifications and annual crisis prevention training. Team members can also be part of the Charge RN Committee or Clinical Practice Counsel, which allow team members to guide policy and improve workflows. The Behavioral Health Inpatient Unit offers four-week-long track scheduling, designed to help all team members find balance with their personal and professional schedules in advance. Apply today to discover where a career with the Behavioral Health Inpatient Unit can take you. 

Schedule: Fulltime, five 8-hour shifts, weekend requirements

Occ Summary

Perform responsible professional work in the evaluation, planning and implementation of Therapeutic Recreation programs to increase, maintain or restore functions, maximize or prevent disability and assist patients in reaching their maximum performance levels in the areas of leisure education, adaptive recreation, and recreational activities; work within a team in the delivery of care; participate in educational experiences for students.

Work Performed

- Evaluate, plan and implement patient care programs through utilization of selected therapeutic recreation procedures. Evaluation and treatment are performed in the context of the person's lifestyle and developmental changes occurring throughout the life span. - Evaluate patients which include collection of background information and performing evaluations that are thorough and appropriate to the patient. - Develop treatment plan based on evaluation findings, patient goals and other relevant information; and appropriate long and short-term goals are set. - Implement treatment activities, modifying the plan in response to patient performance and other environmental factors. - Evaluate effectiveness of treatment; integrates new information and skills as needed to improve treatment outcomes. - Perform discharge evaluations and makes arrangements for home programs and follow-up care needed. - Develop unit therapeutic activity plan in conjunction with other disciplines. - Conduct individual and group activities effectively with regard to: space utilization, appropriate selection/utilization of materials, modification of activities to enhance patient function and promote self- esteem for participants; use of sound clinical judgement in selection of patients to participate, utilization of group dynamics to achieve goals; planning and implementation of an activity to include effective introduction, time for the activity and closure; scheduling evening, weekend, and off campus programming in conjunction with team. - Work within and promotes the milieu of the patient care unit. - Intervene effectively with patients who behave inappropriately or who are having coping difficulty, including crisis intervention. - Document progress and activities of patients; writes clear concise patient care evaluations and notes per departmental guidelines. - Responsible for CQI data collection and analysis. - Maintain other records as required by the department. - Attend appropriate department, division and team meetings. - Contribute to cost containment by scheduling and utilizing time efficiently, maintains productivity standards. - Comply with hospital and departmental policies and procedures. - Represent Therapeutic Recreation Department as a profession in administrative meetings and provides in-service/education as appropriate within and outside the hospital. - Order equipment with regard to need, cost and timeliness. - Keep within budget constraints. - Use procedures set for purchasing and reimbursement of expenses. - Maintain van and follows all policies and procedures for use of hospital vehicles. - Develop an annual personalized professional goal in conjunction with supervisor. - Seeks and participate in learning opportunities that meet personal anddepartmental goals. - Provide clinical education experiences for students in Therapeutic Recreation and other departments. - Coordinate learning opportunities for Therapeutic Recreation students from local universities. - Plan treatment in conjunction with other health care team members. - Treat patients and families with empathy and respect. - Respect confidentiality of patients and hospital information. - Maintain effective working relationships with team members, (requires both flexibility and settinglimits). - Assess need for volunteers and work with DUHS auxiliary to coordinate volunteer services. - Provides orientation and supervision for volunteers. - Coordinate volunteer scheduling.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

*Considerable knowledge of the therapeutic recreation principles, techniques and methods and their application to the population being served. *Knowledge of the physiological, sociological, and psychological implications for the disease processes experienced by the population being served. *Ability to integrate a philosophy of care which is therapeutic in nature in a clinical program. *Ability to select and administer a variety of appropriate testing methods and use the results to plan individualized therapeutic programs. *Ability to instruct and supervise student interns, subordinate staff members, and other medical and paraprofessional personnel in therapeutic recreation therapy methods and techniques. *Ability to evaluate client progress and to present evaluative reports in interdisciplinary team meetings. *Ability to maintain effective working relationships with clients, families, a variety of professional disciplines and the general public.

Level Characteristics

N/A

Minimum Qualifications

Education

Bachelor's degree in recreation therapy, therapeutic recreation, recreation administration or an equivalent program.

Experience

N/A

Degrees, Licensures, Certifications

Licensure as a Recreational Therapist by the North Carolina Board of Recreational Therapy Licensure and certified by the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification.