Assistant Director of Nursing Patient Flow, Emergency Dept Temporary (1 Year) Contract, Full Time Hours.
The Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON) will report to the Director of Nursing (DON) of Mercy University Hospital (MUH).
Responsibilities Include: Work collaboratively with the Clinical Nurse Manager 3 (CNM3) responsible for operational management of the Emergency Department (ED).
Lead real-time operational oversight of patient flow within the ED and across the wider urgent care pathway.
Develop and implement strategic plans to optimise patient flow pathways and support systems to improve performance against national urgent and emergency standards.
Participate in demand and capacity planning, winter planning and surge management.
Ensure effective triage, streaming, assessment, treatment, admission, and discharge processes.
Collaborate with the single point of operational control, bed management and site teams to reduce delays in transfers of care from ED to clinical areas.
Monitor performance against key metrics (e.g.
waiting times, time to assessment, ambulance handover times, length of stay).
Escalate and manage capacity pressures in line with escalation policies.
Work directly with consultants, single point of operational control, senior nurse management and hospital management in decision making regarding the allocation of bed resource particularly during times of escalation.
The ADON will ensure that relevant timely data is available to support decision making.
The ADON will engage and influence the prioritisation of patient access to diagnostic facilities in collaboration with clinicians and other key flow management personnel.
Collaborate and liaise with stakeholders national and local eg.
the HSE SW Region, relevant clinical programmes, quality improvement projects, Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development (NMPD) Project Leads.
Develop and enhance relationships across primary and community care structures.
Undertake other relevant duties that may be determined from time to time by the DON.
Deputise for the DON when required.
Eligibility Criteria: Be registered in the General Division of the Register of Nurses kept by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI).
Have 7 years post registration experience in an acute hospital setting including at least 3 years recent experience at Clinical Nurse Manager 2 level in an acute setting.
Have successfully completed a post registration programme of study, as certified by the education provider, which verifies that the applicant has achieved a National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) major academic Level 8 or higher award maintained by Quality & Qualifications of Ireland (QQI) or can provide written evidence from the Higher Education Institute that they have achieved the number of ECTS credits equivalent to a Level 8 or higher standard in a health care or management related area.
Level 9 Masters desirable.
Provide evidence of ongoing professional development.
Candidates must possess the requisite clinical, leadership, managerial and administrative knowledge and ability for the proper discharge of the duties of the office.
Closing date for applications is 1pm on Wednesday, 4 March 2026.
Interviews will be held the week of 9th March 2026.
MUH reserve the right to create a panel for this post from which permanent, fixed term and specified purpose vacancies of a full or part time duration may be filled.
Mercy University Hospital (MUH) MUH is a growing voluntary hospital in the heart of Cork City.
We have over 1,500 staff providing complex diagnostic, medical and surgical care through our inpatient, day patient, outpatient and emergency services.
We are a teaching hospital, a centre of national and international excellence, and are renowned for our research and tertiary services.
Providing 24/7 acute surgical, acute medical and critical care, MUH now has multiple sites across the city and continues to expand.
We recently opened our Blarney Rehabilitation Unit, a post-acute care specialist rehabilitation unit with 50 beds in Blarney, County Cork.
We support staff development with approx.
100 promotions annually.
We prioritise work life balance with 28% of our team working part time hours.
We offer nationally agreed enhanced Salary Scales, Pension Scheme, excellent holidays, canteen, and Study Leave and Assistance.
From Cardiac Care to Intensive Care, our varied specialist services offer real career choice to our team.
For fully registered NMBI recognised nurses, we offer a generous relocation package (if coming from abroad).
We live by our Core Values of Compassion, Excellence, Justice, Respect and Team Spirit.
Skills: NMBI 7+yrs exp Nurse Manager Experience Acute Hospital Exp