Director of Nursing

Benefits:

Full benefits package

Permanent, Full-Time

Lovelace Heart Hospital is seeking an experienced Director of Nursing, CVICU to provide clinical, operational, and administrative leadership for its high-acuity cardiovascular intensive care unit in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This is a hands-on nursing leadership position overseeing a 16-bed CVICU within a 55-bed specialty heart hospital. The Director will have 24-hour responsibility for the department and will oversee approximately 50 to 60 registered nurses when fully staffed.

The ideal candidate will bring strong cardiovascular critical care experience, formal nursing leadership experience, and the clinical ability to support the bedside team when necessary.

The Director of Nursing will provide overall leadership and direction for the CVICU, including:

• Leading, developing, mentoring, and retaining nursing staff and frontline leaders
• Managing staffing, scheduling, productivity, and timekeeping
• Overseeing clinical quality, patient safety, patient satisfaction, and employee engagement
• Monitoring quality metrics, conducting chart audits, and implementing performance improvement initiatives
• Partnering closely with cardiothoracic surgeons, interventionalists, intensivists, and other procedural service lines
• Supporting recruitment, onboarding, staff development, and retention initiatives
• Maintaining compliance with hospital policies, regulatory requirements, and professional nursing standards
• Building collaborative relationships with physicians and hospital leadership
• Managing financial and operational performance of the department
• Supporting staffing and providing bedside clinical assistance when needed
• Adjusting leadership coverage as necessary to engage both day and night shift teams

There is currently no nurse manager assigned to the unit, so the Director will maintain responsibility for manager-level operations with support from four full-time charge nurses.

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing preferred at time of hire
• Candidates without a completed BSN may be considered if they are already enrolled in an accredited BSN program with a documented completion date
• Master's degree in Nursing or a related field is preferred

• Current Registered Nurse license or eligibility for licensure in New Mexico
• BLS certification required within 14 days of hire and prior to providing direct patient care

• Strong and recent CVICU experience
• Extensive cardiac critical care background
• Candidates coming exclusively from a medical ICU without significant cardiovascular experience will not be considered
• Must be clinically capable of supporting bedside nursing when needed

Candidates should have experience with high-acuity cardiac patients and technologies including:

• ECMO
• LVAD
• Open-heart surgery patients
• Intra-aortic balloon pumps

Candidates with strong CVICU experience who do not have extensive LVAD experience may still be considered.

• Minimum of approximately 3 to 5 years of clinical nursing experience
• At least 2 years of formal nursing leadership or management experience
• Relevant backgrounds may include Nurse Manager, Nursing Supervisor, Assistant Nurse Manager, or comparable formal leadership positions
• Temporary or intermittent charge nurse responsibilities alone will not meet the leadership requirement