How to Become a Director of Clinical Services

In order for an RN to become a director of clinical services, you will need several years of experience and training. This position marks the point when a nurse leaves the area of direct patient care to take on a managerial role. There is less opportunity to practice medicine and more managerial duties to perform.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Bachelor of Science in Nursing
• Two to five years' experience

1. Become a registered nurse by attending an accredited nursing school and obtaining at least an Associate degree. You will need an RN certification to become a director of clinical services, and in most cases you will need to go even further and earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
2. Build your knowledge of all federal and state legislation in the medical field. It is up to the director of clinical services to ensure compliance with these regulations and others. You must be intimately familiar with all regulations that pertain to hospital administration as well as home health care agencies.
3. Study accounting and finance. Some of the major responsibilities of the director of clinical services involve cost management. You will need to regularly work with budgets to insure the financial stability of the organization.
4. Take organizational psychology and other leadership classes. To become a successful director of clinical services, you must be a great leader. Not only are staffing decisions likely to be your responsibility, but subordinates will also likely look to you to make the difficult decisions.
5. Expect that you will need to have several years' of experience as a registered nurse before you can apply for a position as director of clinical services. Two to three years' experience is a minimum, but realistically you should expect to have served closer to five years as a RN.
6. Be prepared to do lots of paperwork. In addition to reviewing the paperwork of the nurses and technicians under your direction, the director of clinical services is also responsible for creating budgets, account management and staff evaluations.
7. Check Jobs.com regularly for medical job postings for the position of director of clinical services (see Resources below).

Tips & Warnings

• Becoming a clinical director can seem like the logical step in a nursing career. Remember, though, that the director of clinical services and nurses have vastly different job responsibilities. If patient care is what drew you into nursing in the first place, think long and hard before you give that up for a management position.

Who Can Help:

• Learn more today about America's leading online University
• Flexible Scheduling, Online Programs, Get Info Now