Director Of Nursing, Perioperative Services

Director Of Nursing

Salary range: $179,000 - $275,000. This position is eligible for an in-state or out-of-state relocation bonus.

St. Charles Health System

Job Description

Title: Director of Nursing

Reports To Position: Chief Nursing Officer

Department: Varies

Date Last Reviewed: December 2025

Our Vision: Creating America's healthiest community, together

Our Mission: In the spirit of love and compassion, better health, better care, better value

Our Values: Accountability, Caring, Teamwork and Safety

Department Summary: The Director of Nursing provides leadership for hospital-based clinical services spanning inpatient, outpatient, and procedural areas. These departments deliver care across the lifespan, supporting neonatal, pediatric, adult, and geriatric populations. The scope includes acute, critical, and emergent services, ensuring that patients receive safe, timely, and high-quality care throughout their clinical journey. The Director oversees a portfolio of units or service areas that may include medical-surgical, critical care, emergency services, perioperative & perianesthesia areas, women's and children's services, or other specialty programs.

Position Overview: The Director of Nursing provides strategic, operational, and clinical leadership for assigned service areas across the health system. This role is responsible for clinical practice oversight, ensuring consistent, evidence-based, and high-quality care across all inpatient, outpatient, and procedural settings under their leadership. The Director holds 24/7 accountability, ownership, and authority for clinical practice, caregiver performance, and operational reliability within their assigned areas.

This leader ensures reliable care delivery, strengthens caregiver engagement, and advances clinical excellence in alignment with St. Charles' mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities. In partnership with nursing leaders, service line administrators, physician dyads, and interdisciplinary teams, the Director drives operational effectiveness, promotes a culture of safety, and supports caregivers in delivering exceptional, patient-centered care. This position directly manages assigned caregivers.

Essential Functions and Duties

Strategic & Clinical Leadership

• Operationalizes the systemwide nursing strategy by aligning it with day-to-day practice, ensuring consistent implementation across areas of responsibility.
• Ensures alignment with organizational strategic pillars: People; Clinical & Operational Excellence; Transformation, Growth & Innovation.
• Provides leadership for committees, workgroups, and projects, ensuring disciplined execution and systemwide spread, alignment, and adoption of evidence-based practices, standards, and process improvements.
• Partners with CNO/CNE to achieve enterprise quality, safety, financial, and caregiver engagement goals.
• Provides leadership that ensures patient care is consistent with organizational goals, actively participating in the collaborative development of health system and nursing strategies.
• Oversees nursing and patient care policies, procedures, and standards in accordance with the Oregon Health Authority, CMS, The Joint Commission, and other regulatory agencies, ensuring consistency across all areas of patient care.
• Analyzes and structures patient care delivery models and service areas for maximum impact on effective, efficient, and patient-centered care.

Quality & Patient Safety

• Oversees clinical practice to ensure evidence-based, consistent, and high-quality care.
• Leads harm-reduction initiatives including but not limited to; HAPI, falls, hospital acquired infections, workplace violence, and other critical safety priorities.
• Ensures timely response to safety events and reinforces learning, transparency, and reliability behaviors.
• Partners with Quality, Clinical Education, Infection Prevention, and Regulatory teams to drive improvement and sustain gains.
• Ensures compliance with all policies, standards of care, and regulatory requirements (CMS, Joint Commission, OHA).
• Coordinates operations across campus and system departments to provide evidence-based care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered.
• Monitors and evaluates the quality, appropriateness, and cost-effectiveness of care delivered, and develops quality indicators and improvement strategies for nursing and clinical practice.
• Implements standards to ensure safe and effective nursing care in accordance with professional, medical, legal, and accrediting standards.
• Partners closely with the medical staff to integrate care delivery.
• Provides and maintains a safe environment for caregivers, patients, and guests.

People & Culture

• Leads nurse managers, assistant nurse managers, educators, and frontline caregivers to foster a culture of engagement, belonging, trust, and accountability.
• Promotes psychological safety, supportive team dynamics, and a collaborative work environment.
• Champions and actively participates in Shared Governance, ensuring caregivers have a meaningful voice in decision-making, practice standards, and professional nursing priorities.
• Applies our Culture of Excellence to ensure fair, consistent, and values-driven responses to caregiver concerns, performance issues, and safety events.
• Partners with Clinical Education to ensure robust onboarding, competency validation, and ongoing professional development.
• Establishes clear expectations, provides coaching, and builds leadership team strength through mentorship and succession planning.
• Reinforces the Nursing Professional Practice Model and ACTS of Excellence in daily operations.
• Maintains a core set of nursing leadership competencies in communication, relationship management, knowledge of the healthcare environment, leadership, professionalism, and business skills.
• Hires, directs, coaches, and evaluates the performance of direct reports, cultivating a high-performance team that meets organizational and departmental goals.
• Ensures caregivers are current with compliance, competency, and safety requirements, while fostering engagement, accountability, and professional growth.
• Builds positive working relationships with physicians, caregivers, and community partners, modeling collaboration and trust.

Operational & Financial Stewardship

• Holds 24/7 accountability for operational reliability, patient flow, capacity, and care delivery within assigned service areas.
• Ensures efficient, safe, and equitable operations across inpatient, outpatient, and procedural environments.
• Oversees staffing models, scheduling, resource allocation, and workforce planning.
• Manages departmental budgets, productivity, premium pay, agency utilization, and operational expenses.
• Partners with Supply Chain and Value Analysis to manage supplies, vendors, and contracts, ensuring systemwide standardization, fiscal stewardship, and alignment with clinical and operational needs.
• Partners on capital planning and resource prioritization based on system needs and strategic goals.
• Collaborates with interdisciplinary partners to resolve operational barriers and optimize throughput.
• Develops and manages departmental budgets, ensuring accountability for achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) in quality, safety, growth, people, and financial health.
• Monitors operational performance and implements corrective action plans as needed.

Professionalism & Continuous Improvement

• Ensures consistent, evidence-based clinical practice and promotes professional nursing standards.
• Creates an environment that encourages reporting, transparency, problem-solving, and shared learning.
• Implements and sustains daily management systems, including tiered huddles, to promote transparency, caregiver engagement, and real-time problem-solving, while driving continuous improvement, reinforcing standard work, and ensuring shared awareness of priorities and risks.
• Supports and advances the vision, mission, values, and beliefs of the organization in all actions and decisions.
• Champions Lean principles of continuous improvement, serving as a visible leader and driver of change.
• Conducts all activities with the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and confidentiality, ensuring compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and organizational policies.

May perform additional duties of similar complexity within the organization, as required or assigned.

Education:

Required: Master's of Science degree in Nursing. BSN considered with a Master's degree in Healthcare Administration, MBA or related field.

Preferred: N/A

Licensure/Certification/Registration:

Required: Current Oregon RN license. Ability to travel to business functions/trainings/meetings and all St. Charles Health System worksites. AHA Basic Life Support for Healthcare Provider certification.

Preferred: Professional leadership certification (examples: CENP, CPHQ, FACHE, NE-BC).

Experience:

Required: Minimum seven (7) years related nursing experience including five (5) years of progressive nursing leadership, with at least three (3) years at a manager level or above.</