UCSF

Public health sciences university in San Francisco

Unit Director - Cardiovascular/Thoracic/Transplant

Medical, Clinical & VeterinaryPosted on Nov 11

Full-timeIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

A bachelor's or master's degree in Nursing is required.
A Registered Nurse license in California is required.
Basic Life Support certification from the American Heart Association is required.
Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support certification is required.
Current assistant nurse manager or higher experience in an adult inpatient nursing area is required, with at least three years of progressive inpatient nursing leadership experience.
Progressive leadership experience in a Transitional Care/Stepdown or Critical Care unit within an academic medical center or highly matrixed organization is required.
Strong hospital management experience and progressive, in-depth expertise in patient care services are required.
Knowledge of hospital or clinic operations in a hospital or medical center setting, and appropriate professional standards for the department and team, is required.
Strong knowledge of relevant healthcare information technology and patient care workflows and processes in complex cardiac care, such as open-heart surgery and heart/lung transplantation, is required.
Strong knowledge of relevant regulatory requirements and related legislative, accreditation, licensing, and compliance environments is required.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills are required to foster effective communication and collaborative decision-making across multiple units and disciplines.
Strong leadership, fiscal, and operations management skills, and the ability to collaborate effectively with physicians, management, and staff from all disciplines, are required.
The ability to create and maintain a goal-oriented climate of teamwork, collaboration, and consistent achievement of objectives is required.

Responsibilities

Direct nursing and administrative operations for a complex, high-acuity inpatient unit in partnership with subordinate leaders and physician and interdisciplinary leadership.
Plan and coordinate clinical operations, staffing, fiscal and material resources, and delivery of safe, high-quality patient care.
Maintain clinical and regulatory oversight and drive quality, safety, patient experience, and performance-improvement initiatives.
Use operational and clinical outcomes to identify trends, mitigate risk, and implement sustained improvement strategies.
Provide strategic oversight of workforce and financial performance, including staffing and productivity, resource utilization, budget management, recruitment and retention, performance management, labor and employee relations, and leadership development.
Partner across disciplines and services to resolve complex operational issues, support capacity and program growth, optimize care delivery, and advance organizational priorities while fostering accountability, collaboration, shared governance, and excellence.
Develop and implement operational processes that ensure quality patient care across large departments or multiple units.
Participate in developing and implementing patient-care practices that meet internal policy, external regulations, and accepted standards across the continuum of care.
Represent nursing units within the director's purview and/or the medical center on interdisciplinary committees, addressing patient-care topics such as patient satisfaction, quality improvement, workflow efficiency, and clinical information systems.
Coordinate resource needs for areas of responsibility, including reviewing and approving budget recommendations; prepare and review analyses of budgeted revenue and expense variances.
Promote collaborative decision-making and shared governance across departments or patient-care units, ensuring nursing practice has a shared voice and ideas are exchanged to improve nursing and patient-care outcomes.
Recruit employees, conduct performance evaluations, administer progressive discipline, and develop staff; establish management practices that foster teamwork, collaboration, and timely achievement of goals and objectives.
Work with clinical educators and leadership to evaluate core nursing-care competencies for the unit.
Collaborate with subordinate management to recommend and maintain adequate staffing levels, advise senior leaders on administrative and nursing issues and unit needs, and resolve those matters.
Work with labor relations on bargaining-unit issues and local contract negotiations; oversee resolution of human-resources, labor-relations, employee-safety, and risk-management issues.
Mentor and lead nurse leaders; review and approve individual leadership and professional-development plans with succession planning in mind.
Partner with leadership across services to develop and implement policies and procedures that coordinate care for all patient populations.
Collaborate with information-technology managers to develop and implement new or improved patient-care information systems and coordinate efforts across multiple units.

Desired Qualifications

A master's degree in Nursing or a relevant area is preferred.
ANCC Registered Nurse specialty certification in Nurse Executive or Nurse Executive-Advanced is preferred.

Job Summary:

With the assistance of subordinate leaders and in partnership with physician and interdisciplinary leadership, the Unit Director of the Cardiovascular/Thoracic/Transplant Unit directs nursing and administrative operations for a complex, high-acuity inpatient environment serving cardiology, vascular surgery, cardiothoracic and thoracic surgery, and heart and lung transplant populations. The Unit Director is accountable for the overall planning and coordination of clinical operations, staffing, fiscal and material resources, and ensures the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care. This role maintains clinical and regulatory oversight, drives quality, safety, patient experience, and performance improvement initiatives, and leverages operational and clinical outcomes to identify trends, mitigate risk, and implement strategies for sustained improvement.

The Unit Director provides strategic oversight of workforce and financial performance, including staffing and productivity, resource utilization, budget management, recruitment and retention, performance management, labor and employee relations, and leadership development. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the Unit Director partners across disciplines and services to address complex operational issues, support capacity and program growth, optimize care delivery, and advance organizational priorities while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, shared governance, and excellence. The Unit Director reports directly to the Patient Care Director.

Department Overview:

The Cardiovascular / Thoracic / Transplant Unit, is a 45 –bed inpatient unit. It is primarily a telemetry / step-down unit that also provides continuous pulse oximetry. The unit serves the cardiology, cardiothoracic and vascular patient population. Patients admitted to this unit are usually admitted under the Cardiology, Vascular Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery (including the Heart & Lung Transplant) and Thoracic Surgery Services.

A wide range of medical disorders are represented including congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension (raised blood pressure in blood vessels supplying the lungs), myocardial infarction (type of heart attack) and arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythm).

The staff on this unit provide an individualized approach to patient care, emphasizing patient and family education regarding lifestyle changes, diet modifications, and medications.

This is a fast-paced unit involving multiple diagnostic tests & procedures, in addition to a moderately high number of discharges and admissions per day. Because of this, teamwork is crucial to daily operations, and is greatly promoted amongst the staff and other members of the health care team. Among the nurses and physicians, other members of the patient care team include professionals in the areas of social work, pharmacy, dietary, physical therapy (PT), respiratory therapy (RT), speech therapy, occupational therapy, and pastoral care.

Minimum Requirements:

Bachelor's Degree or Master's Degree in Nursing required
Registered Nurse in the State of California
BLS by American Heart Association
Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) certification
Current assistant nurse manager or above in an adult nursing inpatient area with at least a minimum of three (3) years progressive inpatient nursing leadership experience
Progressive leadership experience must be in a Transitional Care/Stepdown or Critical Care unit in an academic medical center or highly matrixed organization
Strong hospital management experience, with progressive and in-depth expertise in patient care services
Knowledge of hospital / clinic operations in a hospital or medical center setting; knowledge of appropriate professional standards for the department and team
Strong knowledge of relevant healthcare information technology and patient care workflows and processes in complex cardiac care, for example open heart surgery, heart/lung transplant
Strong knowledge of relevant regulatory requirements, as well as related legislative, accreditation, licensing and compliance environments
Excellent communications and interpersonal skills to foster and promote an environment for effective communication and collaborative decision making across multiple units and disciplines
Excellent leadership, fiscal and operations management skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with physicians, management and staff from all disciplines
Ability to create and maintain a goal-oriented climate of teamwork, collaboration and consistent achievement of objectives

Preferred Qualifications:

Master's Degree in Nursing or relevant area preferred
ANCC RN specialty certification in Nurse Executive or Nurse Executive-Advanced

% of time	Essential Function (Yes/No)	Key Responsibilities (To be completed by Supervisor)
20	Yes	Develops and implements operational processes to ensure quality patient care across large departments and / or multiple units. Participates in the development and implementation of patient care practices which meet internal policy, external regulations, and accepted standards across the continuum of care.
15	Yes	Represents nursing units within purview, and / or medical center wide on interdisciplinary committees. Addresses a range of patient care topics impacting the medical center and / or health system, such as patient satisfaction levels, quality improvement initiatives, workflow efficiencies and clinical information systems.
10	Yes	Coordinates the resource needs for areas of responsibility, including the review and approval of budgetary recommendations. Prepares and reviews variance analyses of budgeted revenues and expenses.
10	Yes	Promotes an environment for collaborative decision making and shared governance across large departments and / or multiple patient care units. Ensures a shared voice in nursing practice and the exchange of ideas to continually improve nursing and patient care outcomes.
10	Yes	Responsible for employee recruitment, performance evaluation, progressive discipline and staff development. Instills strong management practices to create a culture of teamwork, collaboration, and timely achievement of goals and objectives. Works with clinical educators and leadership to evaluate core competencies in nursing care for the unit.
10	Yes	Collaborates with subordinate management to recommend and maintain adequate staffing levels, Advises senior leaders of administrative and nursing issues, the needs of individual units, and resolution of these matters.
10	Yes	Works collaboratively with labor relations on bargaining unit issues and contract negotiations at the local level. Facilitates and oversees resolution of human resources, labor relations, employee safety and risk management issues.
5	Yes	Provides mentorship / leadership to nurse leaders. Reviews and approves individual leadership / professional development plans, with succession planning needs in mind.
5	Yes	Partners with leadership across services (e.g., outpatient, children's, cancer center, etc.) to develop and implement policies and procedures for coordination of care for all patient populations.
5	Yes	Collaborates with IT managers to develop and implement new or improved patient care information systems and coordinates efforts across large and / or multiple units.
100%

Budgeted Job Salary Range: 275K-292K + bonus

About the Company

UCSF

Public health sciences university in San Francisco

UC San Francisco is a public research university in San Francisco focused solely on health sciences, combining professional education with biomedical research and patient care. Its schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy train clinicians and scientists, while teams investigate cancer, immunology, genomics and neuroscience. UCSF Medical Center and Benioff Children's Hospitals connect clinical care with faculty research and training, and university clinics serve patients across Northern California. Founded in 1864, UCSF is the University of California campus dedicated to graduate and professional education and biomedical research, based in San Francisco.

Company size: 10,001+
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: Not listed
Founded: 1864

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