Associate Director-Waypoint

Associate Director - Waypoint

The Associate Director provides day-to-day clinical nursing and operational leadership for Waypoint, a 24/7 adult crisis stabilization and withdrawal-management program. Working under the Vice President of Acute Services and in collaboration with the Medical Director and interdisciplinary team, this position helps ensure safe, trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, and person-centered care for individuals experiencing acute mental health and substance-use crises.

The Associate Director provides leadership for nursing operations, including staffing, supervision, scheduling, competency management, admissions and triage, withdrawal-management oversight, medication safety, emergency response, documentation, regulatory readiness, and quality improvement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical & Program Leadership

• Lead daily Waypoint operations in accordance with organizational policies, approved clinical protocols, staffing plans, and regulatory requirements.
• Serve as the on-site operational leader when assigned and escalate significant clinical, staffing, safety, compliance, or facility concerns to the Vice President of Acute Services.
• Promote a culture of accountability, teamwork, psychological safety, trauma-informed care, dignity, recovery, and respect.
• Provide nursing leadership during complex admissions, behavioral or medical emergencies, clinical deterioration, and other high-acuity situations.
• Participate in leadership coverage and an on-call rotation, including coordination of unexpected staffing needs.

Nursing Workforce Management

• Lead or participate in recruitment, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, orientation, supervision, evaluation, and retention of nursing staff.
• Develop and maintain nursing schedules that support safe 24/7 coverage, census and acuity needs, planned leave, and staff training.
• Review timekeeping, attendance, PTO, overtime, and premium staffing within delegated authority.
• Maintain staff licensure, certification, training, and competency records and ensure required education and skills validation are completed.
• Coach and hold staff accountable for performance, attendance, conduct, and competency in accordance with Heartland policies.

Admissions, Triage & Clinical Care

• Support and oversee 24/7 referral screening, nursing assessment, admission triage, and placement using approved admission, exclusion, medical-stability, and level-of-care criteria.
• Ensure identification and appropriate response to medical, psychiatric, suicide, violence, intoxication, withdrawal, and overdose risks.
• Oversee nursing implementation of medical orders, standing orders, and approved withdrawal-management protocols.
• Ensure timely withdrawal scoring, vital-sign monitoring, reassessment, medication administration, symptom escalation, and transfer to a higher level of care when indicated.
• Promote medication safety, controlled-substance accountability, medication reconciliation, and appropriate response to medication variances.
• Coordinate with hospitals, emergency departments, EMS, referral sources, community providers, and other partners to support safe transitions of care.

Quality, Safety & Compliance

• Monitor clinical documentation for accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and alignment with services provided.
• Review incidents, medication events, falls, emergency transfers, grievances, elopement or contraband concerns, and other safety events and coordinate follow-up.
• Track key clinical, staffing, operational, and quality indicators and use data to identify trends and support improvement.
• Support compliance with Nebraska DHHS, Medicaid and payer requirements, applicable regional/DBH expectations, organizational policies, and the approved program model.
• Participate in audits, inspections, licensing reviews, accreditation activities, emergency preparedness, safety drills, and future CARF preparation.
• Maintain confidentiality and protect health information in accordance with HIPAA, 42 CFR Part 2 when applicable, and organizational policy.

Program Development & Collaboration

• Partner with the Vice President of Acute Services to develop and improve admission processes, staffing models, orientation, documentation standards, policies, and clinical workflows.
• Participate in interdisciplinary treatment, operations, quality, utilization, and leadership meetings.
• Support program launch and expansion from 12 to 24 beds, including implementation of crisis stabilization, social withdrawal-management, and medically monitored withdrawal-management services.
• Represent Waypoint with internal departments, referral partners, regulators, and community stakeholders as delegated.

Scope of Practice

The Associate Director practices as a Registered Nurse within Nebraska licensure requirements, Heartland policies, approved protocols, and delegated authority. The position may conduct nursing assessments, lead triage, implement approved criteria, supervise nursing practice, and coordinate care. Medical or psychiatric diagnosis, prescribing, modification of medical protocols, provider-level determinations of medical stability, and treatment decisions outside authorized RN protocols remain the responsibility of the Medical Director or another appropriately authorized provider.

Required Qualifications

• Current, unrestricted Registered Nurse license or multistate privilege authorizing practice in Nebraska.
• Associate degree in nursing from an accredited nursing program.
• At least three years of progressively responsible RN experience.
• Nursing experience with behavioral health or psychiatric populations and substance-use withdrawal management or detoxification.
• Experience in emergency, urgent-care, crisis, or comparable triage settings involving rapid assessment, stabilization, and escalation or transfer.
• At least two years of charge nurse, supervisory, management, or comparable clinical leadership experience.
• Experience with staff scheduling, timekeeping, attendance, or nursing workforce management.
• Current Basic Life Support certification and ability to maintain required training and credentials.
• Ability to work effectively in a high-acuity, fast-paced, 24/7 environment and participate in on-call or after-hours leadership coverage.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing or graduate degree in nursing, healthcare administration, behavioral health, or related field.
• Five or more years of relevant nursing experience.
• Experience with ASAM 3.2 and/or ASAM 3.7 withdrawal-management services and recognized withdrawal-assessment tools, with ASAM 3.7 experience strongly preferred.
• Experience opening, expanding, or managing a 24/7 crisis, behavioral-health, psychiatric, emergency, or withdrawal-management program.
• Experience with Nebraska Medicaid or other Medicaid programs, behavioral health regional funding, multi-payer reimbursement, licensing surveys, and/or CARF preparation is highly preferred.
• CARN, psychiatric-mental health nursing certification, ACLS, or another relevant specialty certification.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong clinical judgment and ability to distinguish behavioral-health presentations from urgent medical conditions.
• Knowledge of mental health and substance-use disorders, withdrawal syndromes, suicide and violence risk, trauma-informed care, harm reduction, recovery principles, and de-escalation.
• Ability to lead calmly and effectively during clinical, behavioral, staffing, and operational emergencies.
• Strong communication, coaching, conflict-resolution, organization, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to analyze operational and quality data, identify trends, and implement corrective action.
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines while maintaining clear professional and scope-of-practice boundaries.

Physical & Working Conditions

• Work occurs in a 24/7 behavioral-health and withdrawal-management environment with potential exposure to infectious illness, unpredictable behavior, and emotionally intense situations.
• Must be able to respond throughout the facility, use standard clinical equipment, perform computer and documentation tasks, and communicate effectively in person and electronically.
• May require evenings, weekends, holidays, on-call availability, and schedule adjustments based on program needs.
• Must be able to perform the essential functions of the position, with or without reasonable accommodation.

***Employment with HCS and Waypoint qualifies eligible employees for possible student loan repayment.