Psychiatric Technician

Job Summary

The Psychiatric Technician is responsible for assisting the Registered Nurse in meeting needs of psychiatric or chemically dependent patients. Functions under supervision of the Nurse Manager, Supervisor, charge nurse or RN on the unit to which assigned.

Essential Functions

• Observes, reports, and documents signs and symptoms or changes in patient behavior to charge nurse.
• Interacts with patients therapeutically.
• Assists, initiates, and participates in social and recreational activities, group therapy, patient teaching groups, and other group activities.
• Uses CPI techniques appropriately.
• Makes rounds on assigned patients at least every half hour during shift.
• Demonstrates flexibility in changing workload.
• Responds to patients with empathy, maintaining their dignity and confidentiality.
• Participates in unit-based process improvement activities.
• Participates in unit-based committees.
• May include on-call duties as requested by administration.
• All mandatory training as per facility policy.

Physical Requirements
Works in patient care area with potentially combative or self-destructive patients, including behavior control areas. Each employee has the responsibility to work in a safe manner. Work requires walking, standing, lifting, reaching, handling of charts, supplies, equipment, blood, and body fluids.

Education, Experience and Certifications

High School Diploma or GED required. Bachelor's degree preferred. Relevant patient care experience in a hospital setting preferred. Good therapeutic communication skills required. CPI certification required within 90 days of hire date. BLS required per policy guidelines.

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is a pre-eminent academic health system based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist is part of Advocate Health, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the fifth-largest nonprofit health system in the United States, created from the combination of Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health. Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s two main components are an integrated clinical system – anchored by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, an 885-bed tertiary-care hospital in Winston-Salem – that includes Brenner Children’s Hospital, five community hospitals, more than 300 primary and specialty care locations and more than 2,700 physicians; and Wake Forest School of Medicine, the academic core of Atrium Health Enterprise and a recognized leader in experiential medical education and groundbreaking research that includes Wake Forest Innovations, a commercialization enterprise focused on advancing health care through new medical technologies and biomedical discovery.

Wake Forest Baptist Health, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Atrium Health have joined forces in a strategic combination that will enhance care, transform medical education and create economic opportunity for countless lives in North Carolina and beyond. As a part of that combination, the two health systems will be integrating technology and platforms, including our career sites.

This means that although you are applying on the Wake Forest Baptist Health Career Site, you receive communications from the Atrium Health Recruitment Team. Please know that this is an expected process, and thanks in advance for your flexibility.