Nurse Practitioner & Clinic Lead

Who we are:

Canadian Mental Health Association Durham is an integrated community mental health and primary care hub that has been providing mental health services to Durham Region for over 60 years.

 

During that time, it has evolved to provide a broad range of services to individuals and their families experiencing mental health challenges, from information and education to case management, psychosocial rehabilitation, housing and primary healthcare. These services are provided through inter-professional teams focused on providing clinically based services that, in addition to dealing with client mental health issues, address social determinants of health using the recovery model.

Overview

The Nurse Practitioner (NP) and Clinic Lead provides services to clients who include the individual throughout their lifespan, the family, and the community, with strong emphasis on health promotion, patient education and disease prevention. In addition to the clinical functions, the Nurse Practitioner Clinic Lead participates in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programs and services in the Nurse Practitioner Led Clinic (NPLC) within the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Durham.

The NP Clinic Lead will work closely with NP Colleagues and the Performance Manager for the NPLC.  The NP Clinic Lead will be responsible for the operational running of the clinic holding accountability to the Senior Director Clinical Operations, the Board of Directors and Ontario Health.

The NP Clinic Lead will be responsible for strategic leadership, team development, and development of policy and procedures (in consultation with the Senior Director Clinical Operations and the Performance Manager for the NPLC). The NP Clinic Lead will also ensure adherence to policy and procedures by team members.

The NP Clinic Lead is responsible for communicating the vision, mission, values and strategic plan of the organization to employees and to uphold a participatory leadership model. This position is responsible for the annual performance appraisal of professional healthcare team members. The NP Clinic Lead (in partnership with the Senior Director Clinical Operations and the Performance Manager for the NPLC) is responsible for the safety of the workplace and ensuring that employees have the necessary training and equipment and policies in place to function safely.

As the NP Clinic Lead position is a shared Admin/Clinical role, they are also expected to follow the Job Description of the Nurse Practitioner. Flexibility in hours between the two roles will be maintained to meet the demands of the two positions.

 

Responsibilities

Clinic Lead and Nurse Practitioner Functions

• Operationalizes the business and operations plan.
• Reports to Board when required and makes recommendations on the clinical operations of the NPLC.
• Assists in the development of quarterly and yearly reports to the Board of Directors and Ontario Health
• Communicates decisions of the Executive Leadership Team or the Board to staff in a timely fashion
• Works alongside the Performance Manager of the NPLC in overseeing expenses on a daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis
• Ensures safety in the workplace in conjunction with the Performance Manager of the NPLC by ensuring policy development, education of employees and adherence to policies

• Creates and monitors the NPLC quality and improvement plan (QIP) and NPLC annual board report in conjunction with the Performance Manager of the NPLC
• In collaboration with the Performance Manager of the NPLC, develops and updates the policies, procedures, guidelines and medical directives
• Responsible for carrying a patient rostered caseload as directed by the Ministry of Health
• Minimizes risks adhering to CMHA Durham policies and procedures identifying, assessing, evaluating and controlling risks ensuring well-being of staff and clients

• Performs other duties as assigned
• Ensures the appropriate best practices are utilized within the nursing function
• Supports ongoing Accreditation activities
  

Human Resources Management 

• Design and develop clinical position job descriptions in conjunction with Employee Experience
• Supervise, mentor, orient of preceptor professional employees.
• Recruitment, selection, supervision and evaluation of all nursing staff in consultation with Employee Experience and relevant policies/guidelines.
• Recruitment of physician partners in collaboration with the healthcare team when required
• Encourage professional and personal development of staff
• Effectively resolves staff problems as they arise

Financial Management

• Review monthly and quarterly financial reports
• Ensure there is a high level of integrity and accuracy in the financial information that is reported both internally and externally
• Develop requests to be submitted to the Senior Director Clinical Operations in conjunction with Performance Manager of the NPLC that may submit to Ontario Health regarding space, equipment and technology

Team Development 

• Coordinates NP and multidisciplinary team meetings on a regular basis
• Promotes regular team building activities/workshops
• Promotes communication amongst the team

• Supports individual growth through ongoing professional development and provides clinical guidance and support to registered nursing staff

• Promotes participatory management style
• Fosters an atmosphere of professionalism, accountability, shared learning, collaboration and positive outcomes

Collaborative Relationships 

• Collaborates with NP colleagues on clinic developments
• Liaison directly or coordinate another team member to link with community service organizations, agencies, and hospitals to support the development of a primary health care network and reciprocal referral relationships
• Collaborate with Ontario Health and geographic leads for population planned service delivery and integrated service delivery
• Develop collaborative relationships with local area NPs and the regional NPAO chapter (for patient care needs, networking, resource sharing and to meet College of Nurses of Ontario Quality Assurance expectations)
• Participating in clinical projects/studies as required

The above duties are representative but are not to be considered all-inclusive.

Skills & Qualifications

• Council of Ontario University Program in Nursing Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program Certificate (or recognized equivalent) in good standing

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing
• Master in Nursing or health-related field required

• Current registration with the College of Nurses of Ontario as an RN(EC) required
• Current Membership with the RNAO and evidence of liability insurance

• Liability protection or liability insurance required (CNPS)
• Satisfactory criminal reference check
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Intermediate proficiency in written and verbal French is an asset
• Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills
• 3-5 years leadership experience in a community, hospital or primary care setting preferred
• Experience in a variety of environments and has knowledge of provincial health policy
• Proficient in use of internet, Microsoft software, drug database programs
• Experience in program design, delivery and evaluation an asset
• Current Ontario Driver’s License
• Experience with electronic medical records system is an asset

• Sound knowledge of the Mental Health Act, Health Care Consent Act, and other related legislation in Ontario
• Sound knowledge of psychotropic medications including usage and potential side effects
• Ability to manage a system of medication checks ensuring accuracy
• Ability to develop and maintain positive relationships clients, community, partners and represent the agency in a professional manner at all times
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) skills and ability to formally present information to individuals or groups in order to develop, implement and monitor nursing care plans and attend meetings
• Ability to resolve complex client problems in order to ensure a high standard of nursing service
• Excellent assessment and organizational skills
• Ability to work with individuals of diverse backgrounds
• Flexibility to adapt to change and support any function required within the clinic (i.e. injections, phlebotomy, administrative support)
• Ability to work independently when necessary
• Ability to think critically and creatively
• Ability to make accurate nursing assessments and implement best practices
• Ability to minimize risks adhering to established policies and procedures

• Ability to participate as a member of a high performance multi-disciplinary team
• Knowledge of MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook), internet
• Working within the scope of practice of the RN (EC), performs a comprehensive health or symptom directed assessment synthesizes data from multiple sources to make diagnosis, as part of the health care team
• Spend adequate time with the client to determine the presence of existing and potential health problems, with a major focus on related lifestyle, psychological, sociocultural, and environmental risk factors which may influence the client’s health status, deals with these personally or by referral to or in consultation with, other health care providers and agencies/services
• In accordance with the philosophy of primary health care, encourages clients and families to take responsibility for their own health by involving them in risk factor and health problem identification, goal setting, and the choices of interventions for disease treatment and prevention, health promotion
• Works collaboratively and in consultation with the collaborating physicians and specialists as defined in the RN(EC) scope of practice “Expectation for consultation with physicians”
• Works within medical directives as established and approved by CMHA Durham and the collaborating physician
• Determine the need for and orders from an approved list and interprets the results of screening and diagnostic laboratory tests, within the scope of practice
• Determines the need for and orders and interprets reports of diagnostic ultrasounds within the scope of RN(EC) practice
• Keeps complete, accurate, legible and timely records of client’s visits, which will provide information to assist other practitioners in continuing the client’s care
• Sees clients at the clinic with scheduled and urgent appointments, and in the community through home visits, during regular and extended hours

Treatment

• Provides advance nursing care and treatment (including pharmacological complementary therapies and/or counselling interventions for health problem)
• Monitors the ongoing therapy of clients with chronic stable illness by providing effective pharmacological, complementary, or counselling interventions
• Prescribe drugs included in the Schedules of the Regulations to treat diseases or disorders within the RN(EC) scope of practice
• Collaboration with physicians, independently and with other allied health to develop and discuss appropriate individualized care plans with client/family caregiver based on best practices
• Documents using client health records, refers to and arranges follow-up as necessary
• Implements strategies to foster independent and healthy lifestyles with the chronically ill medical population
• Synthesizes information from individual clients to identify broader implications within the family
• Assesses and manages the care of families, in collaboration with team members
• Uses community assessment data to identify community needs and resources and develops, implements and evaluates appropriate programming
• Ensures that encounter forms and other statistics have been recorded and participates in their analysis
• Involves and encourages clients in decisions and actions about their own health
• Initiate health education and other activities that assist, promote and support clients as they strive to achieve the highest level of health
• Develops and deliver health education program for patients and communities
• Implements strategies to promote health and prevent disease for both primary and secondary prevention

What we offer:

CMHA Durham is a non-profit community-based organization that believes that mental and physical health care is for everyone regardless of class, race, sexuality, gender, age, faith, or ability. With a flexible working model[KW1]  (within reasonable parameters of the program), memberships to meditation apps, competitive vacation, wellness time and 100% employer paid health benefits, work-life balance is not only encouraged but expected. Our Monday – Friday work week has 35 hours for most position and everyone gets their birthday off with pay.

Read more about us at CMHADurham.org/getinvolved.

CMHA Durham endorses the principles of workforce diversity and does not use AI algorithms or automated decision-making in the recruitment process.   All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Please advise us if you require any level of accommodation, we are here to help and support you.