Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner - CRP & STAR Center

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long-term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people are actively receiving services from DESC at any given point in time. Our vision is a community where all people are shown compassion, treated with dignity, and everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.

DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs, 19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

Come join our team! We are hiring for a psychiatric nurse practitioner who is excited about working with dedicated multidisciplinary behavioral health teams, providing care to a vulnerable population, and delivering high-quality mental health and substance use care. The ideal candidate is someone who enjoys working with patients with severe mental illness and often concurrent substance use disorders and strives to provide evidence-based care to improve outcomes.

This position will work 1 day per week at the DESC Crisis Respite Program, which provides shelter and behavioral health care to individuals who have discharged from a behavioral health hospital; and 4 days per week working with a multidisciplinary care team at the DESC STAR (Stability Through Access & Resources) shelter.

This position will work alongside psychiatric nurses, case managers and social workers, substance use disorder professionals, peer specialists, support staff and collaborate with other psychiatric and medical providers.

Major duties and responsibilities include:

• Coordinate client care within a multidisciplinary behavioral health team
• Perform psychiatric evaluations, establish treatment plans collaboratively with clients, prescribe and monitor medications as indicated; this is inclusive of opioid use disorder treatment; all in context of a multidisciplinary team.
• Evaluate clients in crisis and advise courses of treatment. Recommend plans for ongoing longitudinal care.
• Participate in program meetings and in-service trainings; participate in clinical reviews and case conferences for clients as indicated
• Take initiative to meet the changing needs of community behavioral health treatment.
• Participate in verbal de-escalation in emergent situations and be able and willing to assist other staff as needed to maintain a safe, secure environment.
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements:

• Washington State Department of Health license as a Psychiatric Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner with prescriptive authority per WAC 246-840-410, in good standing.
• Master's degree in Nursing, Psychiatric.
• Board certification as Psychiatric-Mental Health NP Certification (PMHNP-BC).
• Registration with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
• Advanced knowledge and experience prescribing psychiatric medications.
• Be able to pass a Washington State Criminal background check.
• Knowledge of harm reduction principles and strategies.
• Ability and interest in providing case consultations with a multi-disciplinary staff.
• Ability to remain open and receptive to constructive feedback.
• Ability to communicate with and coordinate with staff from diverse backgrounds.
• Ability to work effectively with clients displaying a wide range of psychiatric behaviors.

Preferred qualifications:

• Knowledge, skill, and proficiency in working with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Training on buprenorphine is available after hire.
• Experience with buprenorphine prescribing
• Experience working in atypical health care settings (e.g., street outreach, housing, day centers, jails, etc.)
• Doctoral degree
• Bilingual in Spanish/English

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee will be required sit for long periods of time, communicate with other persons by talking and hearing, required to lift and carry items weighing up to 25 pounds and to operate computer hardware systems. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

DESC is committed to diversity in the workplace and promotes equal employment opportunities for all staff members and applicants. The Agency will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, caste, marital status, or the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability in any employment practice, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification. Minorities and veterans are encouraged to apply.