Registered Nurse; RN

Registered Nurse (RN) – DESC Downtown Emergency Service Center

Join to apply for the Registered Nurse (RN) role at DESC (Downtown Emergency Service Center).

Job Type: Full‑time.

Schedule: Monday–Friday, business hours (typically 9 am–5 pm with 30 minute lunch); some flexibility required for outreach events, field engagement, and collaboration with community partners.

Insurance Benefits: Dental, Life, Long‑term Disability, Medical (no premiums/payroll deductions for employee coverage).

Other Benefits: Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), ORCA card subsidy, Paid Time Off (34 days per year), Retirement Plan.

Union Representation: This position is part of a union and is represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW.

Supervised by: ORCA POD RN Supervisor.

DESC’s ORCA program provides compassionate, low‑barrier, and evidence‑based care to individuals who are recovering from opioid overdose and those seeking treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). The ORCA Center, our brick‑and‑mortar location, provides post‑overdose subacute stabilization services and provides walk‑in access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The ORCA Patient Outreach Division (POD) delivers field‑based MOUD care – meeting people where they literally are in the community.

ORCA Center is open 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, including holidays. It is staffed by a multidisciplinary team, including providers, nurses, medical assistants, peers, and milieu specialists. The ORCA Center offers four overlapping types of services:

• Care to individuals in stable condition who have experienced an opioid overdose, brought to the ORCA Center by first responders or transferred from local emergency departments.
• Rapid initiation of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine (sublingual and long‑acting injectable) and methadone (under the “72‑hour rule”, or CFR Title 21 1306.07 (b)), for people with OUD, regardless of whether an opioid overdose has recently occurred.
• Harm reduction counseling and OUD‑related physical and behavioral health services.
• Follow‑up care for individuals who have started MOUD to ensure support in MOUD continuation.

ORCA POD is ORCA’s field‑based care team, bringing MOUD induction, stabilization, and maintenance services as well as education and other supports directly to patients in the community. ORCA POD operates during business hours (Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). ORCA POD is a multidisciplinary team, including providers, nurses, and peers, operating across several geographic areas throughout the greater Seattle region including:

• Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) sites
• Emergency shelters
• Encampments or unsanctioned sites
• High‑need geographic zones identified in collaboration with DESC and community partners
• Areas without easy access to low‑barrier MOUD services

The Registered Nurse (RN) provides and coordinates care for individuals suffering from opioid use disorder in DESC’s low‑barrier buprenorphine program. The RN acts as a member of an interdisciplinary team to provide buprenorphine services to our community’s most vulnerable population, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, mental illness and a range of comorbidities. This position provides the opportunity to participate in community engagement in shelters, encampments and permanent supportive housing.

The RN will provide client‑centered care through the lens of harm reduction and trauma‑informed care. Work is done under the supervision of the Nursing Supervisor and Nurse Manager at DESC’s Downtown Behavioral Health Clinic.

• Provide low‑barrier, outreach‑based OUD treatment focused on a population of clients who have difficulty accessing traditional buprenorphine services. Integrate care with a multidisciplinary team of psychiatric providers, nurses, substance use professionals, peer support specialists, mental health case managers and primary care providers.
• Assess and monitor patients in induction, stabilization, and maintenance phases of treatment with clients wanting buprenorphine or intramuscular naltrexone, using an approach that is…