Chief Nursing Officer Austen Riggs Center Stockbridge, Massachusetts December 2017 400 TradeCenter, Suite 5900, Woburn, MA 01801 781-938-1975 www.zurickdavis.com The Opportunity The Austen Riggs Center (Riggs) is seeking a Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) to direct a complex and psychodynamic, relationship-based, nursing service. The CNO will work collaboratively with specially trained clinicians to provide the highest quality care for patients in a fully open and voluntary therapeutic milieu. Supervising a nursing staff of about twenty, the CNO is a pivotal role promoting the Riggs core values of supporting patient authority, fostering relationships, and understanding oneself and others. This is an opportunity to lead a staff in the frontier of a world renowned therapeutic community and psychiatric hospital. The Organization The Austen Riggs Center is a therapeutic community, open psychiatric hospital, and center for education and research, promoting resilience and self-direction in adults (18 plus) with complex psychiatric problems. Riggs specializes in the long-term residential treatment of psychiatric disorders with intensive psychodynamic psychotherapy and a full range of psychiatric services, offered in a completely voluntary continuum of care that includes inpatient, residential, and day-treatment services. Founded in 1919, Austen Riggs is located in the bucolic Berkshires, on Norman Rockwell’s Main Street in the small town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Internationally known for our respectful work with emotionally troubled individuals, Riggs is consistently ranked a U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospital” in psychiatry. Riggs treatment focuses on • the centrality of human relationships; • the meaning embedded in symptomatic actions; and • the importance of respecting the authority of individuals to direct their own lives. Recognizing that individual troubles exist in a social context, Riggs offers extensive support for family members. Patients have opportunities to participate in a robust therapeutic community and to study in their unique activities program. Each person designs his or her own treatment in collaboration with a professional interdisciplinary team, and no two treatments are identical. Riggs has a highly esteemed postdoctoral Fellowship for psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in advanced psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalytic studies. The Erikson Institute for Education and Research of the Austen Riggs Center studies individuals in their social contexts through research, training, education, and outreach programs in the local community and beyond. For more information about the Austen Riggs Center, visit http://austenriggs.org/. Mission The mission of the Austen Riggs Center is to improve the lives of emotionally troubled and “treatment- resistant” patients by providing quality and cost-effective treatment. The focus throughout Riggs’ programs is the importance of human relationships and the responsibility and dignity of the individual. 400 TradeCenter, Suite 5900, Woburn, MA 01801 781-938-1975 www.zurickdavis.com 2 The basic ingredients essential to fulfilling Riggs’ mission are: • Treatment organized around an intensive individual therapeutic relationship, focusing on the patient’s recognition and tolerance of experiences of conflict and pain, leading to the development of a sense of perspective on the illness; • An open therapeutic community, involving all staff and patients; • A careful assessment phase, including psychological testing; • A range of programs, geared to individual levels of capability and need; • Continuous treatment by the same multidisciplinary team as patients move between programs; • Psychopharmacologic treatment; • Group work, substance abuse treatment, family treatment and help with reintegration into the external community; • A broad Activities Program for creative expression, with patients in the role of student, free from clinical interpretation; • Ongoing staff training, research and education to further the primary clinical task; • Recruitment and retention of quality staff. Vision In an increasingly complex and fragmented world, the dignity of the individual, the importance of human relationships, and the centrality of a sense of community are in danger. The focus and traditions of the Austen Riggs Center orient the staff to help troubled patients meet these and other rapidly changing psychological challenges of contemporary society. The Austen Riggs Center intends to build on their distinguished past, helping their patients develop personal competence in a completely open setting that emphasizes the individual’s capacity to face and take responsibility for his or her life – past, present, and future. They will continue to nurture their patients’ strengths, foster their social functioning, and encourage family collaboration. Through research, education, and training programs, they will continue to educate professionals in their psychodynamic perspective, applying this learning to a broad range of psychosocial problems. Finally, in this time of diminishing mental health benefits, Austen Riggs will continue to develop cost-effective treatment settings that focus on individual psychotherapy, community living, and the recognition of the limitations of resources. Values • Affirmation of the dignity and responsibility of the individual. • Recognition, appreciation, and enhancement of individual strengths. • The importance of human relationships. • Respect for individual differences. • The centrality of the psychotherapeutic relationship. • The learning opportunities in a community of differentiated voices. • The importance of examined living. • Attention to the conflict between individual choice and the requirements of a community. • Openness to innovation and creativity. • An open setting to promote personal responsibility and freedom of choice in treatment. • The importance of recognizing and preserving multiple roles, including those of student and community member. • Provision of treatment based on quality and outcome, not profit. 400 TradeCenter, Suite 5900, Woburn, MA 01801 781-938-1975 www.zurickdavis.com 3 The Department of Nursing The nursing department provides round-the-click support for patients at the Inn residence, and emergency nursing coverage to assist patients at every level of care. Nursing staff consists of both registered nurses and mental health workers who act in the role of Nursing Care Coordinator for each patient. The relationship with a Nursing Care Coordinator is often a source of consistent support during a patient’s stay at Inn. The primary goal of nursing staff is to observe patients in everyday living and recognize repetitive patterns of behavior while encouraging patients to use words rather than actions to express emotions. Nurses recognize behavior has meaning. Psychodynamic nursing is a way of thinking and working with a patient in an interpersonal field. Keeping onself safe and asking for help, are foremost patient responsibilities in the open setting. The alliance between patient and nurse includes the patient’s honestly relating his/her ability or inability to refrain from a range of self-destructive actions including accurately portraying the experience of suicidal ideation and intent. Twenty-four-hour emergency nursing coverage is available to all patients, accessed through the Charge Nurse. The Position Reporting directly to Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Gerber, MD, PhD, the Chief Nursing Officer is an experienced nurse leader, who is responsible for planning, organizing, directing and evaluating psychiatric nursing care at Austen Riggs. As a member of the Center’s senior leadership, the CNO works collaboratively with other specially trained clinicians to provide the highest quality care for patients in a fully open and voluntary therapeutic milieu. The CNO will partner with the Director of Patient Care and Director of the Therapeutic Community to ensure the goal of patient centered service is met. The CNO oversees nursing standards, staffing and fiscal operations, fosters collaborative relationships, and promotes a supportive professional environment for all staff and patients. The Chief Nursing Officer is responsible for the ongoing operation and management of nursing services, and, as part of the Riggs leadership team, participates in the development of Riggs as a whole including its mission, strategic planning, resource allocation, and overall policy development. This new CNO will: • Serve as a progressive and strong partner in conveying the Austen Riggs culture and community throughout the organization. • Foster the professional practice of nursing in the service of positive patient outcomes. • Assess, mentor, and motivate the nursing leadership in alignment with the Center’s strong clinical and educational focus. • Model and actively support a shared leadership approach with the medical staff and other senior leaders of the organization. • Maintain knowledge of psychiatric nursing in other settings throughout the country and be aware of necessary or desirable practice changes. • Foster opportunities for interdisciplinary clinical and research work. • In partnership with human resources, recruit and retain talented individuals for positions of nursing leadership and enhance leadership development for both internal staff and new recruits. • Create a continuous learning environment and support professional development. 400 TradeCenter, Suite 5900, Woburn, MA 01801 781-938-1975 www.zurickdavis.com