Senior Mental Health Nurse

Overview

Under general direction, provides clinical supervision and coordination of mental health nursing services for the Ventura County Inpatient Psychiatric unit. This role focuses on ensuring patients receive appropriate, high-quality, and cost-effective mental health nursing care. It requires collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, adherence to regulatory standards, and active participation in quality and compliance efforts.

The Senior Registered Nurse-Mental Health is distinguished from the Senior Registered Nurse-Mental Health Acute Care in that the latter is responsible for the clinical supervision of mental health nursing services on a 24-hour basis and for coordinating nursing services with interdisciplinary functions during assigned shifts.

The ideal candidate is an experienced Mental Health Nurse with a background in utilization review and discharge planning. They also have extensive years of experience in an Inpatient Mental Health Hospital setting delivering comprehensive care to patients with complex medical and mental health needs. Additionally, they will be compassionate, adaptable, and will demonstrate sound clinical judgment. Finally, the ideal candidate is an experienced leader confident in crisis intervention, medication management, and safety protocols, while consistently demonstrating empathy and effective collaboration.

Senior Registered Nurse-Mental Health: $59.22 - $70.81 hourly

The County of Ventura offers an attractive compensation and benefits package. In addition to the annual salary, an employee within these positions may also be eligible for additional incentives, subject to the applicable section of the respective Memorandum of Agreement. To learn more about what we have to offer, please consider the following:

• Regular – Regular CNA Benefits

Health Care Agency - Ventura County Medical Center

Senior Registered Nurse-Mental Health is represented by the California Nurses' Association (CNA) and is eligible for overtime compensation. Salary placement will be determined according to the current CNA memorandum of agreement. The eligible list established from this recruitment may be used to fill current and future Regular (including Temporary and Fixed-Term), Intermittent, and Extra Help vacancies. There is currently one Regular vacancy.

The shift for the current vacancy will be determined based on the need of the unit.

Tentative schedule:
Opening date September 22, 2025;
Closing date:
Continuous and may close at any time. The schedule for the remainder of the process will depend on when qualified applications are received. First review of applications:
October 6, 2025.

• Provides direct, expert emergency mental health service to persons in crisis and their families.
• Plans, with a multidisciplinary team, health service programs to meet the needs and provide continuity of care of mentally ill patients in the Inpatient Psychiatric unit of the Ventura County Medical Center, including utilization management, transfer coordination, discharge planning, and securing necessary authorizations or approvals for outside services.
• Initiates and conducts regular evaluation and revision of the nursing personnel and functioning in the Inpatient Psychiatric unit.
• Implements nursing processes such as assessment, planning, implementation of care, evaluation of patient responses and revision of plan as needed.
• Recommends alternate levels of care when the patient does not meet the medical necessity for Inpatient hospitalization and ensures compliance with federal, state and local requirements.
• Adheres to regulatory, accreditation, and compliance guidelines, as well as Post Stabilization notifications.
• Acts as a liaison and case manager between the inpatient facility and referral agencies.
• Refers patients to community resources to meet post-hospital needs.
• Coordinates the transfer of patients to appropriate facilities and maintains required documentation.
• Assists with program planning, evaluation, and review.
• Performs daily clinical reviews to support utilization and quality management, ensuring compliance with…