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 ensures 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 Senior Registered Nurse-Mental Health Acute Care in that the latter supervises mental health nursing services on a 24-hour basis and coordinates 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, and extensive experience in an inpatient mental health hospital setting delivering care to patients with complex medical and mental health needs. They are compassionate, adaptable, and demonstrate sound clinical judgment. The candidate is an experienced leader competent in crisis intervention, medication management, and safety protocols, while consistently showing empathy and effective collaboration.

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

The County of Ventura offers a competitive compensation and benefits package. In addition to salary, eligible employees may receive additional incentives subject to the applicable Memorandum of Agreement. For more details, see the links below:

• 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 follow the current CNA memorandum of agreement. The eligible list 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 vacancy will be determined by unit needs.

Tentative schedule information is provided below. Dates are subject to change based on business needs.

Opening Date: September 22, 2025

Closing Date: Continuous and may close at any time; the process depends on the number of qualified applications 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 needs and provide continuity of care for inpatients, including utilization management, transfer coordination, discharge planning, and securing necessary approvals for outside services.
• Initiates and conducts regular evaluation and revision of nursing personnel and operations in the Inpatient Psychiatric unit.
• Implements nursing processes: assessment, planning, implementation of care, evaluation of patient responses, and revision of plans as needed.
• Recommends alternate levels of care when medical necessity for inpatient hospitalization is not met and ensures compliance with federal, state, and local requirements.
• Adheres to regulatory, accreditation, and compliance guidelines, and Post Stabilization notifications.
• Acts as liaison and case manager between the inpatient facility and referral agencies; refers patients to community resources for post-hospital needs; coordinates transfers and maintains documentation.
• Assists with program planning, evaluation, and review; performs daily clinical reviews to support utilization and quality management across outpatient, emergency, inpatient, and non-KFH settings.
• Adheres to internal and external regulatory and compliance guidelines; reports unusual occurrences.
• Develops and assigns staffing patterns; educates team members on discharge planning and resource use.
• Reviews and analyzes utilization patterns, contributes to data collection and analysis for studies, projects, planning, and monitoring.
• Orients new nursing staff, students, volunteers, and other professional groups.
• Evaluates and provides clinical supervision in staff development, work performance, treatment plans, medication procedures, equipment use, and inter-staff relationships.
• Assists in budgetary planning and evaluation; supervises field placement of students; provides direct service to a regular caseload of patients and families.
• Provides consultation and education to individuals, agencies, and community partners (including social services, law enforcement, and referral resources).
• Performs other related duties as required.

These are entrance requirements to the examination process and do not guarantee continuance or placement on an eligible list.

• Requires four (4) years of full-time professional registered nursing experience, including two (2) years in mental health nursing.
• One (1) of the four years must be in a…