Assistant Nurse Manager - Pawcatuck - Backus Hospital

Description

Location Detail: Backus Hospital

Shift Detail: Monday - Friday.
Shift can be working four hour shifts; 2:00 pm -12:30 am, or five - (8) hour shifts; 3:00 pm - 11:30 pm.

Work where every moment matters.

Adult Behavioral Health Unit & Behavioral Health Emergency Room - where Leadership, Education, and Crisis Expertise come together.

Step into a dual‑impact role that blends clinical leadership with professional development. As the Behavioral Health Nurse Educator & Assistant Nurse Manager, you guide staff, elevate practice standards, and support safe, high-quality patient care across a fast‑paced adult behavioral health unit and a dynamic behavioral health emergency setting.

You are a mentor, a crisis expert, and a stabilizing force. You ensure the team is prepared, confident, and clinically strong—while helping manage daily operations and leading with compassion, clarity, and purpose.

Clinical Leadership & Operations

• Serve as Assistant Nurse Manager, supporting daily operations within the adult behavioral health inpatient unit and behavioral health emergency room.
• Provide real-time clinical oversight, ensuring safe, evidence-based, trauma-informed care during high-acuity behavioral health crises.
• Assist with staff scheduling, resource allocation, and workflow optimization in a fast-moving environment.
• Support effective interdisciplinary collaboration with psychiatry, emergency medicine, social work, and security teams.
• Participate in departmental performance improvement, patient-safety initiatives, and policy development.

Education & Professional Development

• Function as the unit-based Nurse Educator for both the adult behavioral health unit and behavioral health ER.
• Conduct staff onboarding, competency validation, and continuing education for all behavioral health nurses.
• Lead skills training, including de-escalation, trauma-informed care, suicide risk assessment, emergency behavioral interventions, and psychopharmacology basics.
• Develop educational materials, simulations, and training modules aligned with best practices and regulatory requirements.
• Identify staff learning needs and implement targeted education to strengthen clinical performance and confidence.
• Serve as a role model and clinical coach to promote professional growth and a positive learning culture.
• In this hybrid role, you shape the quality of behavioral health care by supporting both the team and the patients. You are the link between leadership and frontline nursing, ensuring staff feel prepared, supported, and empowered to deliver safe, compassionate, high‑impact care.
• Your work strengthens the workforce, enhances patient outcomes, and sets the standard for excellence in behavioral health nursing.

Join us at Backus Hospital as we live our values every day. As part of Hartford HealthCare we create a better future for healthcare in Connecticut and beyond. By embodying these values, we have become nationally respected for patient care and most trusted for personalized coordinated care.  

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in a health related field or a qualified candidate in the process of completing the education requirement within six months of employment.  Master's Degree in health related or business field preferred. 

Experience:

• (2) years of experience as RN in psychiatric behavioral health unit required, three or more years preferred.
• (6) months experience as Charge Nurse or supervisory experience required.
• (12) months experience as Charge Nurse or supervisory experience preferred.
• Leadership experience preferred. 

Licensure, Certification, Registration:

• Current Connecticut License as a Registered Nurse
• Basic Life Support (BLS) certification
• Ability to obtain and maintain Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) certifications within 90 days of hire.
• Ability to obtain and maintain department specific certifications.
• Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) certification and certification in clinical area preferred.

We take great care of careers.

Hartford HealthCare provides eligible employees with an extensive benefits package and all the benefits of working with a top notch organization:

• Paid time off and health insurance packages
• 401(k) plan with employer match up to 7%

• Loan forgiveness for qualifying existing student loans

• Tuition reimbursement available within program guidelines
• Employee assistance and wellness programs including a strong focus on promoting mental health 
• Discounts on services, products and optional coverages – movie tickets, pet insurance, travel and more

With locations around the state, Hartford HealthCare offers exciting opportunities for career development and growth.  Here, you are part of an organization on the cutting edge – helping to bring new technologies, breakthrough treatments and community education to countless men, women and children.  We know that a thriving organization starts with thriving employees-- we provide a competitive benefits program designed to ensure work/life balance.  Every moment matters.  And this is your moment.