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Operational Nursing Director - Surgery and Specialty Services, SALHN

Lead surgical and specialty nursing operations at Flinders Medical Centre, one of South Australia's premier healthcare facilities, in this full-time contract position running until February 2028. You'll oversee clinical excellence and manage nursing teams across multiple specialised departments while ensuring the highest standards of patient care. This senior leadership role offers exceptional career stability with SA Health, Australia's most comprehensive public health system, providing opportunities to shape the future of surgical nursing practice.

About the role: 

Reporting to the Advanced Nursing Director Surgery and Specialty Services, this role is responsible for providing strategic, operational and corporate management, and leadership to nursing staff for the Surgery and Specialty Services stream of the Division of Surgery and Perioperative Medicine (SAPOM) nursing team.  The role will report to a level 5.3 position and have co-management responsibility for nursing. The role balances and integrates operational perspectives in alignment with the division’s strategic priorities.

Duties for the role will include:

• Divisional lead for all daily patient flow coordination
• Integrate key aspects of monitoring accreditation and practice standards into the models of care utilised in our services towards service excellence,
• Proactively support auditing practices to monitor compliance and feedback to clinicians and community related to the data collected,
• Develops, implements and monitors a framework of clinical governance according to the highest standards of service delivery and quality improvement,
• Proactively develop and implement strategies to manage identified risk,
• Establish and implement a workforce strategy plan for reduction in PCL, Agency utilisation and skill mix optimisation,
• Reduce expenditure over budget in nursing through use of performance management, recruitment and rostering strategies,
• Oversee the rostering and e-recruitment of nursing staff,
• Initiate and/or oversee innovations, systemic change processes, and co-ordination of responses to nursing practice and health service needs within their span of control
• Supporting and monitoring of service continuity for specified specialty services.

About you:

• Registered or eligible for registration as a Nurse and Midwife by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and who holds, or who is eligible to hold, a current practicing certificate,
• Effective leadership skills including highly developed skills in communication, problem solving, conflict resolution and negotiation,
• Proven ability to perform effectively under pressure and prioritise workloads,
• Demonstrated ability to manage a service including resource management,
• Demonstrated flexibility, innovation and creativity which can be applied to the hospital setting, particularly in regard to the provision of nursing services,
• Registered Nurse with at least 5 years post registration experience,
• Experience as a leader or manager in the health care industry,
• Experience in managing and leading complex projects,
• Experience in leading services or organisations through times of extensive change,
• Experience in managing surgical patient cohort,
• Experience with patient flow and surgical ward activities,
• Experience in facilitating health research and applying beneficial results to the area of practice

Please see the attached Role Description for additional information.

Want To Know More? Contact: Rachael Dally, Adv Nursing Director, Surgery & Specialty Services, (08) 8204 4464, Rachael.Dally@sa.gov.au

Application Closing Date: 11.55 pm Sunday 8 February 2026

The attached role description is currently under review and may be adjusted prior to appointment. All applicants will be provided with the finalised role description.

Attachments:

• Surgery and Specialty Services Operational Nursing Director- Role Description
• Australian applicant guidelines
• International applicant guidelines

Applicant Information:

• We also offer salary sacrifice benefits which provide the opportunity to save money by paying for some of your everyday expenses from your salary before it is taxed. Click here to find out more about salary packaging.
• The South Australian public sector promotes diversity and flexible ways of working including part-time. Applicants are encouraged to discuss the flexible working arrangements for this role.
• Appointment will be subject to a satisfactory Criminal History Check and Immunisation compliance as indicated on the Role description.
• SA Health Services are required to implement the Addressing vaccine preventable disease: Occupational assessment, screening and vaccination policy in the workplace.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants are encouraged to apply.  Job ref: 928117