Associate Director, Clinical Services

Term: 2 years

The Associate Director of Clinical Services (ADCLS) is accountable to support the Executive Director in the strategic leadership and operational management of Health Services’ (HS) enabling Campus Wellness (CW) to accelerate its journey to achieving wellness for all, as dictated by the Regulated Health Professions Act. This position encompasses both administrative and clinical responsibilities for the department which assist in the operations of Health Services.

The ADCLS works with UWaterloo students, faculty, and staff in providing consultation and support to assist in the primary health care issues that are affecting individual’s academic, personal, and social functioning. As an effective and contributing team member, the ADCLS works closely and collaborates with the CW Leadership Team, consults with other health professionals as well as other UWaterloo departments, faculties, and services to ensure the health needs of the UWaterloo student community are being met through effective operation of Health Services, strategic planning regarding unmet need.

Responsibilities

Critical Response Management

• Collaborates with the Health Services Leadership team to facilitate the delivery and ongoing evaluation of UWaterloo crisis response including an effective intake/triage management system and crisis intervention
• Coordinate and facilitate Health Services’ response for consultation and intervention for critical healthcare situations for the UWaterloo student community by providing support, assistance, and guidance through debriefing, healthcare intervention and consultation as well as liaising with UWaterloo’s Special Constable Services

Human Resources Management

• Manages and holds the HS’s team leaders accountable to help achieve a fair, integrative, effective, and inclusive CW service, and drives a culture of accountability
• Provides strategic leadership to equitably acquire, manage, retain, grow, and promote appropriate and diverse human resources throughout CW to deliver world-class care and collaboration to meet the needs of CW’s diverse clients
• Promotes innovation, creativity, and ‘bottom-up’ solutions, enabling HS employees to maximize their potential in a ‘fail fast forward’ culture, with fair performance management, recognition, and rewards
• Coordinates HS’ leaders through role clarity, effective communications, and interactions across CW that achieve synergy, efficiency, and optimal integration
• Enables resolution and synthesis of differences in multi-disciplinary and diverse teams
• Accountable to ensure equitable and effective performance management throughout HS
• Collaborates effectively with all CW leadership to help enable a productive, safe, and stress- buffered working environment
• Performs overall managerial responsibilities for HS, including equitable recruitment, hiring, staff performance, salary administration, promotions, reclassifications, disciplinary issues, training, organization of functions, the establishment of policies, procedures and standards, monitoring of performance and focusing of staff efforts on CW’s priorities
• Responsible for recruiting and directing psychiatrists to fulfill senior and junior positions developed to provide psychiatric services and psychiatric leadership in mental health program development on campus
• Responsible for recruiting, supervising and directing a full-time dietitian

Medicine and Primary Health Care

• Medical consultation (within confidentiality guidelines) with student service professionals, faculty and administration regarding individual students and community health issues
• The incumbent will conduct clinical service in HS subject to fluctuating demands, and subject to the requirements for ongoing professional development. The proportion of time for such service will normally constitute a minority proportion (1-2 days) of the time for this position
• Primary emphasis is on medicine and primary health care for students and dependents of students, although faculty and staff are treated on an urgent need and first aid basis during office hours

Strategic Direction and Operationalization

• Strategic leadership for HS and for the wider campus community to meet the need for preventative community health programming, and to respond to community/campus health risks including pandemic, epidemic and other situations which threaten health and well-being of the campus community
• Helps to provide strategic coordination to HS to help CW achieve a future-ready service
• Collaborates to establish strategic plans and actions that promote CW’s future-readiness
• Collaborates to help enable CW to achieve its strategies, mission, and vision
• Operationalizes equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racist theory in strategy design and development
• Enhances and promotes CW’s brand to help power CW’s strategies
• Collaborates with CW leadership regarding prioritization, resource allocation, governance, accountability mechanisms, and reporting that enable effective implementation of strategies
• Inspires CW employees’ alignment to the department’s strategic priorities
• Leads HS to use inclusive, integrative, anti-racist and anti-oppressive approaches in all aspects of client-care and employee management, centering employee safety and engagement alongside client-centeredness
• Enables HS to improve with a focus on delivering the best, and equitable, evidence-based services
• Delegates various needs assessments and appropriate strategic/operational initiatives
• Anticipates resistance that comes from change and enables effective change management

Leadership

• Overall leadership for HS, employing a participatory style of leadership
• Visionary and professional leadership identifying, developing and implementing programs to meet the unique and changing demographics of students, their families and university employees
• Lives into CW’s vision and continuously strives for equity for UW’s diverse campus population
• Shows care for the collective wellbeing of CW’s team members and CW’s overall culture
• Values and amplifies the diverse attributes, skills, and talents of CW’s multi-disciplinary team
• Encourages teamwork, innovation, and collaboration in pursuit of holistic, world-class, evidence- based, equitable services along a continuum of prevention, intervention, and postvention
• Demonstrates transparency and congruency in beliefs and actions; holds high ethical standards, integrity, and credibility; and is effective at giving and receiving feedback
• Leverages diverse viewpoints to reach enhanced solutions by effectively involving stakeholders in decision-making processes

Service Integration and Collaboration

• Engages in the institution’s political, social, and academic life to enable effective department functioning and a healthy inclusive campus
• Externally, in the local community is an ambassador for UWaterloo’s CW, an active collaborator with community partners, and a problem-solver associated with crisis interventions and actively engaged in the University’s mission of fostering “ideas that change the world”
• Actively collaborates with Counselling Services to provide the best level of care
• Collaborates with other key campus stakeholders including the six faculties, AccessAbility Services, Housing & Residences, Human Resources, Special Constable Services, the Student Success Office, Human Resources, Human Rights Equity and Inclusion etc.

Budget and Resources Management

• Develops an annual budget, based on analysis of previous year’s activity and based on ongoing needs assessment regarding health care at the university. Monitor budget on a monthly basis with the goal of achieving a balance of revenues and expenditures
• Applies appropriate strategic judgment regarding how the services’ budget is maintained as CW receives 50% funding from the Student Ancillary Fee and 50% from the University’s Central Budget
• Maximizes operational efficiencies through appropriate scheduling and deployment of employee and contract resources

Specific Accountabilities

• To ensure that Health Services activities comply with regulatory requirements under the various health professional colleges and the Regulated Health Professions Act
• To articulate and advocate for the resources and policies necessary to appropriately respond to the health needs of the campus community
• To provide the delegated authority and medical supervision required for the day-to-day operation of Health Services as well as special clinics through nurses’ medical directives, delegation of medical acts, development of clinical guidelines and office procedures within regulatory parameters
• To provide direction regarding progressive staff relations practices for all Health Services’ staff
• To recruit, contract, and retain physicians and nurse practitioners in numbers sufficient to provide services for each day Health Services is open
• To implement a system of scheduling physician, nurse practitioner, and nursing care that is responsive to needs of patients
• To monitor budgets of Health Services ensuring that resources are utilized efficiently based on patient need
• To ensure the effective administration of sick leave and disability benefits by offering professional advice as needed in collaboration with Human Resources
• To act as after-hours contact person for critical values
• To provide advice to the Office of Research, concerning human research ethics
• To assist Occupational Health, the Safety Office and AccessAbility in providing appropriate accommodation/supports for individuals with disabilities
• To address occupational health, environmental health concerns and risk of communicable diseases through provision of services informed by best practices and appropriate to the campus environment
• To consult for UWaterloo senior management and to inform and advise university departments of specific measures, and the campus community as a whole, regarding public health advisories as appropriate to respond to public health events
• To maintain a positive and effective working relationship with partner agencies particularly public health agencies
• To ensure that there are optimum opportunities for students to access community facilities as required by effective interface with community medical services, for example Sexual Assault Treatment Centre and the hospitals
• To ensure that current infection control practices are followed within Health Services and that recommendations for infection control on campus are informed by best practice guidelines
• To act as privacy commissioner and custodian of records under PHIPPA for Health Services
• To articulate and advocate for compliance with the Regulated Health Professions Act, public health and infection control directives and related legislation in all aspects of the incumbent’s involvement on campus

Qualifications

• Completion of Masters’ degree in the related field or equivalent
• Registered Health Care Professional, Nurse Practitioner degree and/or Physician required
• Minimum of 5-8+ years of progressive management experience in a human care setting; preferably in a post-secondary education environment
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically, with a proven track record of developing and implementing long-term plans that align with organizational goals. Capable of anticipating challenges and identifying opportunities for innovation and growth in a dynamic health care landscape
• Proven leadership experience and Human Resource Management experience, with the ability to inspire and guide teams towards achieving strategic objectives. Skilled in managing cross-functional teams, driving organizational change, and fostering a positive, results-oriented work environment
• Experience managing multiple priorities and initiatives in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
• Expertise in developing, monitoring, and balancing budgets. Skilled in optimizing operational efficiency through strategic scheduling and resource allocation to meet organizational goals
• Operationalizes equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist principles in strategy, guiding inclusive, anti-oppressive approaches in both client care and employee management
• Superior written and verbal communication abilities, with the capacity to engage effectively with stakeholders at all levels, both internal and external
• Experience leading in and fostering collaboration within and between departments. Proven success in breaking down silos, encouraging teamwork, and enhancing intra- and inter-departmental functioning to achieve organizational goals. Ability to lead in an environment characterized by rapid change
• Proficient computer skills using MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Electronic Medical Record experience
• A clear vulnerable sector check is required