Job Openings

Home Visiting Nurse - FT or PT, Weekends required

Durham Job Summary:

A Durham Connects home visiting nurse provides universal home visiting to families with newborns in Durham County. The goal is to support and assess family needs in 12 domains of physical and psychosocial well being and facilitate referrals and connections to community agencies to support families in these areas. The nurse will work in a team environment of clinical and non-clinical staff in order to recruit, visit, and support families in the community using the evidence-based Durham Connects home visiting protocol. Ability to communicate effectively with others is essential. Experience in maternal/child health, home visiting, lactation education, and fluency in Spanish desired.

Essential Job Functions:

• Follow the Durham Connects home-visiting protocol. Keep records of client observations and activities as required. Document information for family assessments and program evaluation. Record information in real time via in home use of computerized record system.
• Follow the Durham Connects recruitment protocol. Visit both Durham hospitals on a rotating basis to schedule home visits for new mothers.
• Provide a health and physical assessment of mother and baby in the home to determine well-being.
• Assess risk factors for child maltreatment, including depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Exercise clinical skills in appraising situations and making decisions.
• Establish a trusting relationship with families during in-home visits and engage the family to establish a family support plan with goals, objectives, and activities that address family strengths and needs. 
• Work with team to ensure appropriate referrals and connections to community resources as needed. Work in a team to assist parents in making and attending appointments for doctors, social service agencies, etc. Act as a liaison between families & other community agencies, serving as family advocate as required.
• Apply working knowledge of parent-child interaction, child-maternal health, child development, and child abuse/neglect to help families improve parenting skills, increase parenting supports, reduce stress, and address needs of parents; assist in creating a health plan for entire family. 
• Maintain eight open visit slots and conduct and document at least six home visits per week. Respond to client needs through flexible scheduling of home visits, including occasional home visits during evening or weekend hours.
• Apply effective time-management skills, organization, and multitasking skills. Documentation is expected to be done and letters sent out within 48 working hours of the visit.
• Work cooperatively as an active member of the Durham Connects team by attending weekly team meetings, clinical supervision, staff meetings, and other meetings as required. Support and encourage development of other staff and of the Durham Connects Program.

Minimum Requirements:

• B.S. degree in nursing with NC RN license, or B.A. degree in another field with NC RN license, or A.S. degree in nursing with NC RN and at least one year of relevant nursing experience.
• Must have and maintain current or compact licensure in the state of North Carolina.
• Must maintain current CPR certification.
• Must have a valid North Carolina driver’s license and an automobile for use in making home visits.
• Ability to work in a team with clinical and non-clinical staff.
• Ability to work with culturally diverse populations.
• Ability to move or lift at least fifty pounds.Ability to work with nurse supervisor to implement a practice improvement and clinical development plans.
• Ability to work on weekends, as required
• Computer proficient and comfortable using laptops as part of in-home assessment and intervention.
• Preferred skills include (a) Spanish language proficiency, (b) clinical experience related to domestic violence, substance abuse and/or depression, (c) one or more years experience in child/maternal health, social work, or other related field, and (e) Certified Lactation Educator or Consultant.

Please submit resumes, cover letter and references to Paula Wright, Clinical Supervisor, [email protected] or 411 W. Chapel Hill Street, Suite 908. Durham, NC 27701.

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Durham Connects Job Description:  Program Support Worker (PSW-DC) FULL TIME - Weekends required

 (Update: this position was approved for FT)

The Durham Connects Nurse Home Visiting Program (DC) for newborns utilizes Program Support Workers to work with the DC Team to participate in helping families identify and connect with services/resources in the community that would serve their needs. The PSW-DC assists with recruiting newborns and their parents at the birthing hospital and is directly responsible for the home visiting schedule and nurse assignments.

The PSW-DC works with a multidisciplinary team and reports to the Team Supervisor with overall supervision by DC Clinical Director.

Job Summary

The goal of Durham Connects is to optimize physical, mental, and emotional well being of children and parents and prevent child maltreatment at a community level by coordinating and facilitating in-home nurse visits for parents of newborns. The Durham Connects Program Support Worker (PSW DC) work with a team of nurses to assist in coordinating Durham Connects cases, including recruiting families in the birth hospital, making phone calls to recruit families missed during the hospital visits, scheduling and coordinating visits and assignments for the nurses, fielding our public information lines to answer questions and reschedule parents, and conduct post visit follow up phone calls with each family for the purpose of monitoring customer satisfaction and tracking referral outcomes. PSWs will work in English and/or Spanish.

Essential Job Functions

1. Coordinate scheduling of all nurse assignments and manage schedule and client data base.

2. Assist with in-hospital recruiting as needed:

Establish initial contact with families at Durham’s birthing hospitals. Successfully engage, recruit, and schedule families for nurse home visits.

Build relationships with hospital birth center management and staff including attending meetings, providing educational in-services and troubleshooting recruitment problems.

3. Schedule clients by phone that are missed during in-hospital recruiting.

4. Conduct post-visit connection (PVC) phone calls with families, track services contacted and received, and provide re-referrals when necessary.

5. Handle mailing of appointment cards and PVC surveys.

6. Act as primary public contact to answer questions and reschedule home visits as needed through the public office line in English and/or Spanish, info email and online scheduling tool. Follow up with families in a timely manner, show good customer service and coordinate coverage in this area when not in the office.

7. Work as an active member of the Durham Connects team by attending all regular staff meetings, Durham Connects planning meetings, in-service trainings, and other meetings as required.  

8.  Complete other duties and tasks as assigned by immediate supervisor and program leadership.

9.  The work week for a full-time exempt (salaried) employee is considered to be 40 hours, salaried; exempt employees do not receive overtime compensation or additional compensation beyond the established salary.

10. Ability to build rapport with families quickly and "sell" the program for high participation. Friendly demeanor a must.

Minimum Requirements:

Graduation from four year college with a degree in the human services area.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with strong attention to detail and multitasking skills.
• Demonstrated ability for collaborative work in a team environment, as well as ability to work independently to meet expected deadlines.
• Provision of reference from most recent work supervisor plus two other prior workplace supervisors or colleagues.
• Ability to accept personal differences, to establish trusting relationships, and to work with culturally diverse populations.
• Spanish fluency preferred but not required.

Interested persons should submit application materials, including updated resume, cover letter describing interest in position, and names and contact information for required references.

Materials may be submitted electronically to Jeannine Sato at [email protected].