Safety Specialist, MHU

Heywood Hospital; Gardner (MA); On-site; USD 20,000 - 29,000; Full time

Job summary

Heywood Hospital is seeking a patient-care support role to assist nursing and interdisciplinary teams in delivering safe, patient-centered care. The role involves environmental checks, documenting findings, and reporting any safety concerns to the nursing staff to support care planning.

Responsibilities include maintaining a calm milieu, assisting with patient needs, delivering meals/trays as requested, and observing patients for safety, including suicide observation when required, while

Qualifications

• Minimum education: High School Graduate or equivalent preferred.
• Minimum Certifications: AHA BLS CPR required or obtained within 60 days of hire; DMH de-escalation training within 30/60 days.
• Minimum Work Experience: Patient care, Mental Health/Behavioral Health or security experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Collaborates with nursing and interdisciplinary healthcare teams to support patient-centered care.
• Maintains a safe and therapeutic milieu by conducting environmental and room safety checks.
• Documents findings per established protocols and reports safety concerns to nursing staff.

Skills

Customer service oriented

Teamwork

Interpersonal effectiveness

Analytical thinking

Education

High School Graduate or equivalent

Job description

Overview

You Matter Here!

Heywood Healthcare values our employees! We offer competitive wages, great benefits and generous earned time off. Come work where you will matter!

Hours: 24-Hours, Days, Every other weekend and holiday

Hourly Rate: $18.00 - $18.36

Disclaimer

We are committed to equitable and transparent compensation practices. The salary range for this position reflects our good-faith estimate of base pay at the time of posting. Final compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, skills, qualifications, and internal equity. We regularly review our compensation structures to ensure fairness and consistency across our organization.

Job Summary:

Collaborates with nursing and interdisciplinary healthcare teams to support the delivery of safe, patient-centered care. Maintains a therapeutic milieu by conducting environmental and room safety checks, identifying and mitigating potential hazards, and ensuring compliance with safety protocols. Documents all findings per established protocols. Performs frequent or constant patient observations as directed, documents patient location and behavior, and promptly reports/communicates any patient behaviors and safety concerns to the nursing staff to support care planning and risk mitigation. Assists with the management of patient belongings and restricted items in accordance with regulatory and unit policies. Supports patient care plans by responding to patient needs, encouraging participation in treatment activities, and completing all required clinical and safety documentation.

Responsibilities

Essential Functions

• Works together with departmental and healthcare teams to complete assignments.
• Maintains a clean and comfortable environment for patients and visitors.
• Prevents potential safety hazards from occurring by removing or arranging for the removal of safety hazards from the environment immediately.
• Prioritizes and reprioritizes work based on the changing needs of the customers.
• Ensures the safety of patients in the milieu and completes the environmental safety checklist and documents this for each patient room.
• Performs patient checks and documents the whereabouts of the patient(s) as directed by the communication from the primary nurse (constant or frequent safety checks).
• Assists with managing patient belongings and restricted items as directed by nursing.
• Responds to patient and visitor needs, as well as, provides information and refers matters of concern to nursing staff.
• Provides input and patient information (including behavioral concerns) to the team that contributes to the safety needs, development, and implementation of the patient care plan and treatment.
• As requested may deliver trays to patients, monitors patient meal intake, and collects trays for return to dietary staff. Assist patients in completing menus, if requested.
• May provide suicide observation to patients needing it to ensure their safety.
• Aims to maintains and promotes calm and respectful milieu to enhance patients' care of plan and treatment.
• Encourages patient conversations, participation in therapy and inter-patient relationships while observing behaviors when applicable.
• May assist with patient fresh air breaks on specific units
• Attend to patient needs as requested including, but not limited to nutritional replenishment, telephone charging, retrieving showering toiletries, retrieving linen for frequent observation patients.
• Ensure that nursing inspects all items brought in for the patient by visitors.

Statement of Other Duties

This document describes the major duties and responsibilities for this job, and is not intended to be a complete list of all tasks and functions. It should be understood, therefore, that employees may be asked to perform job-related duties beyond those explicitly described.

Functional Demands

Physical RequirementsExerts 20 to 50 pounds of force occasionally, and/or 10 to 25 pounds of force frequently, and/or greater than negligible up to 10 pounds of force constantly to move objects. Frequently reaches (extending hands and arms in any direction), and handles (seizing, holding, grasping, turning, or working with hands). Occasionally stoops (bending the body downward and forward by bending at the waist), and kneels (bending the legs at knee to come to rest on knee or knees).

Organizational Expectations

Behavioral AttributesThe following behavioral attributes are required: achievement motivation, concern for order, flexibility, initiative, self-confidence, customer service oriented, interpersonal effectiveness, teamwork, analytical thinking and information seeking.

Qualifications

Job Requirements

Minimum Education

• High School Graduate or equivalent preferred

Minimum Certifications

• AHA BLS CPR required or obtained within 60 days of hire.
• DMH approved hands on de-escalation training within 30 days of hire for DMH certified units and 60 days for other locations

Minimum Work Experience

• Patient care, Mental Health/Behavioral Health or security experience preferred.
• Limited hands on care required.