Associate Director, Health Services

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Posting Information:
This posting is for an existing vacancy.

This position is being offered as a temporary contract. Contract end date: March 31, 2028

Job Description:

Primary Purpose

The Associate Director, Health Services (ADHS) is accountable to support Campus Wellness senior leadership (University Medical Director and Director, Operations) in the strategic and operational management of Health Services (HS), advancing Campus Wellness's commitment to student health and well-being while ensuring services are delivered in accordance with the Regulated Health Professions Act and professional standards.

The ADHS provides senior clinical leadership to the Campus Wellness team, assisting with primary healthcare issues that affect academic and personal well-being. As a licensed healthcare professional with deep clinical acumen, the incumbent is directly accountable to the University Medical Director for the effective operationalization of clinical services, ensuring that professional standards and clinical excellence drive all aspects of departmental performance. While maintaining a functional reporting relationship with the Director, Operations for administrative alignment, the ADHS acts as the lead strategic collaborator in implementing clinical vision and strategy. By applying practitioner-level insights, the ADHS bridges the gap between high-level institutional strategy and frontline care, leading interdisciplinary teams to ensure student health needs are met through integrated, evidence-informed service delivery

Key Accountabilities

Critical Response Management

• Collaborates with the Health Services (HS) 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 Special Constable Services

Human Resources Management

• Manages and holds the HS team leaders accountable to help achieve a fair, integrative, effective, and inclusive Campus Wellness (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 high quality care and collaboration to meet the diverse needs of CW clients
• Promotes innovation, creativity, and effective 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 priorities
• In collaboration with the University Medical Director, is 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
• Has oversight of the recruitment and retention of nursing staff
• Provides support to the University Medical Director in the recruitment and retention of physicians

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 (e.g. up to 0.5 - 1 day/week) of the time for this position

Strategic Direction and Operationalization

• In collaboration with the University Medical Director, provides strategic leadership and implementation 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 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 the CW brand to help power CW 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, centring 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

• 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 the CW vision and continuously strives for equity for UW’s diverse campus population
• Shows care for the collective wellbeing of CW team members and CW overall culture
• Values and amplifies the diverse attributes, skills, and talents of the CW 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
• Supports the Medical Director’s external strategy by serving as an operational ambassador for CW in the local community; acts as an active collaborator with community partners and a primary problem-solver for clinical crisis interventions; and leads the clinical team in operationalizing the University’s mission of fostering 'ideas that change the world' through Health Futures innovation.
• Actively collaborates with Counselling Services to provide the best level of care and seek ways to provide students a seamless experience across all CW clinical services
• Operationalizes CW initiatives by managing collaboration and service coordination with key campus stakeholders, including the six faculties, AccessAbility Services, Housing & Residences, Special Constable Services, the Student Success Office, and Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion; ensures that clinical workflows and programs are effectively integrated across the university in support of the broader CW and institutional-wide strategy

Budget and Resources Management

• Budget development: drafts the annual clinical services budget for approval by CW senior leadership, providing detailed analysis of previous year’s activity and evidence-based needs assessments; monitors expenditures on a monthly basis to ensure a balance of revenues and expenditures in alignment with the department's strategic priorities
• Operational funding oversight: applies operational judgment to manage the distribution of clinical resources, recognizing the philosophy of the department’s 50/50 funding split (Student Ancillary Fee and Central Budget) to ensure that service delivery remains fiscally sustainable as directed
• Efficiency and resource deployment: operationalises staffing models by maximizing clinical efficiencies through the strategic scheduling and deployment of professional and contract resources; ensures that these deployments meet the access targets, quality expectations, and risk management priorities of the department

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
• In collaboration with the University Medical Director, 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
• Acts as a contingency after-hours contact for critical values on an exceptional basis, providing support only when primary physician coverage is unavailable or during circumstances when clinical demands require
• 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 with oversight from, and collaboration with, the University Medical Director
• Provides operational consultation to university departments and faculties to implement specific measures and public health advisories as directed by the University Medical Director; supports the University Medical Director in informing senior management during public health events.
• Serves as the primary operational liaison to partner agencies, including Regional Public Health, to maintain effective working relationships and ensure seamless coordination of public health mandates in alignment with CW external strategy
• 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
• Acts as the operational privacy officer and lead agent for the Health Information Custodian (HIC); ensures day-to-day adherence to PHIPA requirements and clinical documentation standards established by the Medical Director
• 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

Required Qualifications

Education

• Completion of Masters’ degree in a related filed or equivalent

Experience

• Registered Nurse Practitioner or Physician required
• Minimum of 5-8+ years of progressive management experience in a human care setting; preferably in a post-secondary education environment

Knowledge/Skills/Abilities

• 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

Equity Statement

The University of Waterloo acknowledges that much of our work takes place on the traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Our main campus is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is coordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

The University values the diverse and intersectional identities of its students, faculty, and staff. The University regards equity and diversity as an integral part of academic excellence and is committed to accessibility for all employees. The University of Waterloo seeks applicants who embrace our values of equity, anti-racism and inclusion.  As such, we encourage applications from candidates who have been historically disadvantaged and marginalized, including applicants who identify as First Nations, Métis and/or Inuk (Inuit), Black, racialized, a person with a disability, women and/or 2SLGBTQ+.

Positions are open to qualified candidates who are legally entitled to work in Canada.

The University of Waterloo is committed to accessibility for persons with disabilities. If you have any application, interview, or workplace accommodation requests, please contact Human Resources at hrhelp@uwaterloo.ca or 519-888-4567, ext. 45935.