A Director of Nursing manages and supervises all nursing staff at a hospital or long term care facility. Manages communications with physicians, manages budgets and expenses, and assists other administrators with managing operations. Monitors staff schedules and the quality of nursing care at the facility. Maintains professional license or certification requirements.
Responsible for shaping nursing leadership culture, driving accountability, and ensuring operational excellence across the organization. Provides hands-on mentorship to nurse leaders and partners with leaders to create individualized development plans that support tailored growth, role readiness, and sustained performance. Partners with executive leadership to implement strategies that strengthen leadership capability, improve patient outcomes, support effective resource management, and sustain a culture of safety and continuous improvement.
Job Duties:
Designs, implements, and sustains a systemwide nursing leadership development program for nurse managers, directors, and emerging leaders. Builds structured curricula, onboarding pathways, continuing development experiences, and practical leadership tools that support consistent expectations across regions and care settings. Applies adult learning principles, facilitation best practices, and evaluation methods to ensure training is relevant, practical, measurable, and transferable to daily leadership practice. Partners with Nursing Professional Development to align leadership development content with existing education standards, learning platforms, facilitator resources, and competency validation processes. Provides individualized coaching to nurse managers, directors, and high-potential leaders to strengthen leadership effectiveness, address performance gaps, and accelerate readiness for expanded responsibility. Partners with leaders and their direct supervisors to create individualized development plans that align personal growth goals with role expectations, succession needs, and system priorities. Identifies succession risks and development needs in partnership with CNOs, AVPs, and system nursing executives. Supports the development of leaders who can improve staff retention, team engagement, accountability, and operational reliability. Defines and reinforces clear leadership expectations, behaviors, and competencies aligned with organizational values, high reliability, patient-centered care, and nursing excellence. Champions a culture of accountability, transparency, psychological safety, and continuous improvement within nursing leadership. Serves as a trusted mentor and advisor to nursing leaders while reinforcing ownership for quality, safety, engagement, and operational performance. Collaborates with nursing, operational, and quality leaders to ensure consistent execution of leadership standards, evidence-based practices, and system priorities. Uses data, leader feedback, and performance trends to identify development needs and target interventions. Applies strong financial acumen to support strategic planning, resource prioritization, and leadership decision-making tied to workforce, quality, safety, and operational performance. Supports leadership practices that reduce unnecessary variation, improve patient safety, strengthen workforce engagement, and advance operational outcomes. Work is typically performed in a clinical environment. Accountable for satisfying all job specific obligations and complying with all organization policies and procedures. The specific statements in this profile are not intended to be all-inclusive. They represent typical elements considered necessary to successfully perform the job. Additional competencies and skills outlined in any department-specific orientation will be considered essential to the performance of the job related to that position.
Position Details:
Executive coaching, leadership coaching, or comparable coaching certification preferred at hire; required within two years of hire if not already obtained.
Minimum of 8 years-Managing people, processes, or projects (Required), Minimum of 3 years-Nursing (Required) Certification(s) and License(s): Licensed Registered Nurse (Pennsylvania) - RN_
State of Pennsylvania Skills:
Adult Learning:
Theory And Practice, Financial Analysis, Interpersonal Management, Leadership, Mentorship, Organizing, Preceptorship
OUR PURPOSE & VALUES
Everything we do is about caring for our patients, our members, our students, our Geisinger family and our communities.
KINDNESS
We strive to treat everyone as we would hope to be treated ourselves.
EXCELLENCE
We treasure colleagues who humbly strive for excellence.
LEARNING
We share our knowledge with the best and brightest to better prepare the caregivers for tomorrow.
INNOVATION
We constantly seek new and better ways to care for our patients, our members, our community, and the nation.
SAFETY:
We provide a safe environment for our patients and members and the Geisinger family. We offer healthcare benefits for full time and part time positions from day one, including vision, dental and domestic partners. Perhaps just as important, we encourage an atmosphere of collaboration, cooperation and collegiality. We know that a diverse workforce with unique experiences and backgrounds makes our team stronger. Our patients, members and community come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and it takes a diverse workforce to make better health easier for all. We are proud to be an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or status as a protected veteran. Geisinger is committed to making better health easier for the more than 1 million people it serves. Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes nine hospital campuses, a 550,000-member health plan, two research centers and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. With nearly 24,000 employees and more than 1,600 employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania by billions of dollars annually. We offer healthcare benefits for full time and part time positions from day one, including vision, dental and benefits for domestic partners. Perhaps just as important, we encourage an atmosphere of collaboration, cooperation and collegiality. For more information, visit www.geisinger.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. • Does not qualify for J-1 waiver. We are an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and Minorities are Encouraged to Apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability or their protected veteran status.
