Registered Nurse — Crisis Stabilization, Nights

 

CAREER OPPORTUNITY

Registered Nurse — Crisis Stabilization, Nights

Leading Public Community Behavioral Health Organization  |  Crisis Receiving & Stabilization Center

Lynchburg, Virginia  |  Full-Time, Permanent  |  12-Hour Night Shifts  |  On-Site

$29.28 – $42.00 per hour

+ 10% crisis center differential  +  night shift premium  +  $5,000 hiring bonus

Virginia Retirement System pension  |  Confidential search

You chose psychiatric nursing to reach people at the worst moment of their lives. Too often the job became something else: patients boarding for a day or more in an emergency department hallway that was never built for them, and units running short every other shift. On top of that, psychiatric settings carry violence-related injury rates more than eight times those of general hospitals. You can be excellent at this work and still feel it wearing you down.

This role puts you where crisis care is supposed to happen: in a purpose-built center designed for it, on a team staffed for it, with a public pension behind you.

Our client is a CARF-accredited public behavioral health organization that has served Central Virginia for more than five decades. It is hiring Registered Nurses for night shift in its newly opened Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Center. The center brings 16 crisis receiving chairs for 23-hour observation and 16 residential crisis stabilization beds under one roof. It accepts walk-ins, law enforcement transfers, people who need withdrawal management (detox) and individuals who need medical clearance, giving them an alternative to hospitalization when they do not need an inpatient bed. You will own the medical side of care for your assigned individuals: nursing assessments, medication administration, diagnostic procedures, provider consultation and client and family education, alongside crisis clinicians and providers around the clock. You will be the nurse a 24/7 crisis team relies on, not the one person on the floor trying to hold a hallway together.

• Autonomy — You own the nursing assessment and medical picture for every individual on your assignment, from intake screening and medical clearance through detox monitoring. You apply real clinical judgment to provider orders, not a checklist.
• Meaningful work you can see — The 23-hour model means you watch people stabilize in hours, not weeks. Behavioral health workers rate “making a difference” as the most satisfying part of the job, and this setting is built around it.
• Collaboration and safety by design — A multidisciplinary crisis team works the floor with you 24/7, and every staff member is trained in verbal de-escalation and physical safety techniques. The center was built from the ground up for crisis care, not converted from a med-surg unit.
• Flexibility — You work 12-hour nights averaging three to four shifts a week, with a weekday rotation shared with a nursing partner. You are overtime-eligible when you want more hours, and part-time positions exist if you want fewer.
• Schedule and work-life — Fewer, longer shifts mean more full days off. Annual leave and sick leave accrue in separate banks, so you do not burn vacation when you are sick, and annual leave rolls over every year on top of 11 paid holidays.
• Employer investment — The organization has built a new multimillion-dollar facility. On top of that, it pays a 10% crisis differential, a night premium and a $5,000 hiring bonus, and it offers a defined-benefit pension and loan repayment eligibility. It is putting real money behind crisis nursing.

• Perform nursing assessments at intake and throughout the stay for adults in psychiatric crisis, in withdrawal, or needing medical clearance, and catch the medical issue that changes the plan.
• Administer and monitor medications safely under the five rights, including withdrawal management protocols, and document the response.
• Carry out provider orders and diagnostic procedures, obtain labs, and read, interpret and relay results to the treating team.
• Conduct medical interviews that shape treatment plans and referrals to stabilization, outpatient services, or inpatient care when it is truly needed.
• De-escalate with words first, using trained verbal and physical safety techniques as part of a coordinated team response when needed.
• Provide client and family education so people leave with a plan, not just a discharge sheet.
• Train and support direct-care staff on physical health procedures and safe physical assistance, and take part in team meetings and trainings.

Required

• Graduate of an accredited nursing program
• Active Virginia RN license or a multistate (compact) RN license
• At least one year of experience as a Registered Nurse. LPN experience is welcome context but is not credited toward RN pay placement.
• Available for night shift, weekends and holidays per the rotation
• Valid driver’s license and ability to travel between program sites when needed
• Ability to complete behavioral intervention training (verbal de-escalation and physical safety techniques), plus a fingerprint background check, drug screen and references

Preferred

• BSN
• Experience in psychiatric, emergency department, detox/addiction or crisis stabilization settings
• PMH-BC (psychiatric-mental health board certification) or CARN (addictions nursing)
• Familiarity with medical clearance workflows and withdrawal scales such as CIWA and COWS
• Behavioral health EHR documentation experience
• A track record of working alongside clinicians, peer specialists, providers and law enforcement

Compensation	$29.28 – $42.00 per hour base, placed by years of RN experience 10% crisis center salary differential, paid annually Night shift premium for hours worked in the premium window; overtime-eligible $5,000 hiring bonus for new night-shift RNs: $2,000 after clearances, $1,500 at six months, $1,500 at twelve months
Health & Wellness	Multiple medical, dental and vision plan options HSA and FSA accounts Annual wellness programs and life insurance options
Financial Security	Virginia Retirement System Hybrid plan: a defined-benefit pension (1.0% of average final compensation per year of service, vested at five years) plus a defined-contribution account with employer contributions up to 3.5% of pay Public employer, so service counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness Eligible for clinician loan repayment programs, including Virginia’s behavioral health program (up to $10,000 a year for RNs, subject to program terms)
Growth & Development	Structured career ladder Tuition discounts at local universities Paid behavioral intervention training and exposure to the full crisis continuum
Work-Life Balance	11 paid holidays Separate sick leave and annual leave, with yearly rollover of annual leave 12-hour shift model and local employee discounts

Our client is the public behavioral health authority for a city-and-county region of Central Virginia. People across the region turn to it for mental health, substance use, developmental disability and crisis services, regardless of ability to pay. It served more than 12,000 people in its last reported fiscal year, through more than 120,000 in-person and telehealth appointments. It operates from 17 locations with a workforce of more than 500 and has held CARF accreditation for nearly three decades.

Its mission is community-based care: treatment, prevention, early intervention and aftercare close to home. In the past two years it has launched the region’s first coordinated specialty care program for young adults with first-episode psychosis. It has also expanded rural substance use recovery services with new federal funding and partnered with local police on a co-responder program that pairs clinicians with officers.

The Crisis Receiving and Stabilization Center is the centerpiece of that work. It is a purpose-built, multimillion-dollar facility funded by federal, state and local partners, designed so that a person in crisis, or the officer bringing them in, has somewhere better to go than an emergency department. It is part of Virginia’s statewide build-out of a true crisis continuum: someone to call, someone to respond, and a safe place for help.

Lynchburg sits on the James River in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a city of about 81,000 with a cost of living roughly 6% below the national average and a median home value near $230,000. The city maintains more than 40 miles of trails, including the paved Blackwater Creek Trail through the middle of town, and the Blue Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail are a short drive away. Four colleges keep the city young, and the average commute is under 17 minutes. Roanoke and Charlottesville are a little over an hour away, and Richmond about two. Livability ranks Lynchburg among its Top 100 Best Places to Live.

 

READY TO MAKE YOUR NEXT MOVE?

Contact your Bileddo Associates recruiting representative for a confidential conversation about next steps.

Client identity and full application details will be shared with qualified, vetted candidates.

Our client is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

 

SECTION B — INTERNAL RESEARCH & STRATEGY APPENDIX

FOR BILEDDO ASSOCIATES USE ONLY — REMOVE THIS APPENDIX BEFORE ANY EXTERNAL DISTRIBUTION

Client	Horizon Behavioral Health (Lynchburg, VA): the community services board for Lynchburg and Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties
Client contact	Paul Hanbury, MBA, SHRM-CP — Assistant HR Director / Employee Relations Manager. Office 434-455-3409 ext. 2036; cell 434-941-3367.
Requisition	ADP Workforce Now job ID 665420; client requisition 2115. Posted 30 Sep 2026 as “Registered Nurse RN Crisis Receiving Center $5K Hiring Bonus”
Application portal	workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=818da077-9f0f-4904-b92c-8194106ff3d3&ccId=19000101_000001&type=JS&lang=en_US&jobId=665420 (client careers page: horizonbh.org/careers)
Posted pay	$29.28 – $42.00/hr, plus 10% crisis differential (paid annually), shift premium (amount not published) and a $5,000 night-shift hiring bonus active since 26 Mar 2026
Work site	Crisis Receiving Center, 1204 Fenwick Drive, Lynchburg, VA 24502. The posting text says 24501, which matches the administrative offices on Langhorne Road. See the strategic notes.
Client intake (governs)	Per Paul Hanbury’s email of 4 Oct 2026: two RNs, 12-hour night shifts covering Monday–Friday, plus two weekends a month per RN. He also asked about temp-to-hire; see the companion interim package. He requested bill rates and fees.
Posted schedule (superseded)	Full-time 37.5 hrs/week, overtime-eligible; part-time up to 29 hrs/week; day and night shifts

1. Pay in the banner. US ads that showed salary drew a 5.03% apply rate against 4.51% without (Appcast 2026 Benchmark Report, 2025 data). 60% of employed US workers will not apply to a posting with no range (Monster 2026). → The full pay stack (base, differential, premium and bonus) sits in a shaded banner above the hook.
2. The $5,000 bonus is now scarce, so it leads. Only 8.4% of US nursing postings offered a signing bonus in Dec 2025, down from 13.5% a year earlier (Indeed Hiring Lab, Feb 2026). → The bonus is in the banner and the “Employer investment” bullet, with installment terms in Total Rewards for credibility.
3. Short titles convert. 4–6 word titles had the highest apply rate (4.80%), against 3.83% for titles of 13 words or more (Appcast 2026). → The source title runs 10 words and carries a dollar figure. Ours is “Registered Nurse — Crisis Stabilization, Nights.”
4. Mobile-first scannability. 75.4% of applications came from mobile devices (Appcast 2025), and 51% of seekers skip postings with unclear descriptions (Monster 2026). Textio’s best-performing length is 300–660 words. → Bold-label bullets, a rewards table and short paragraphs. The 250–300 word short post works the top of the funnel, and this full document goes to responders.
5. Specific benefits beat generic ones, and reviews matter. Postings naming two or three specific benefits fill 5 days faster (Textio 2024), and 56% of seekers skip employers with negative reviews (Monster 2026). → We name the pension mechanics, separate leave banks and loan repayment, and the confidential approach keeps the client’s Indeed rating out of the first impression.

1. Violence. Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals record 110.4 violence injuries per 10,000 FTE, against 12.9 in general hospitals (Health Affairs Scholar 2024, BLS data). Fewer than two-thirds of psych RNs feel safe (APNA 2022), and 6 in 10 nurses changed, left or considered leaving a job over violence (NNU 2024). → The hook names it; the “Collaboration and safety by design” bullet answers it.
2. Burnout driven by the work environment. 38% of inpatient psych RNs report high burnout and 22% plan to leave within a year. Each one-point improvement in work environment brings 70% lower odds of burnout (Dixon et al., J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 2026). → The posting sells the environment (purpose-built facility, 24/7 team), not just the job.
3. Turnover. Behavioral health RN turnover was 22.5% in 2025, against 17.6% for all hospital RNs, and each RN replacement costs $60,090 (NSI 2026). → The public pension with five-year vesting and the career ladder are framed as stability.
4. Pay against demands. 84% of behavioral health workers are concerned about pay relative to job demands (National Council 2023). 71.9% of behavioral health employers cite non-competitive wages and name hospitals as competitors (GW Mullan Institute 2023). → Every pay component is itemized so the full value is visible.
5. ED boarding and moral distress. Only 46% of EDs have psychiatric consultation, and 59% must transfer out patients who need admission (Balfour & Carson 2024). Moral distress is tied to exhaustion and lower satisfaction (Nursing Ethics 2024 review). Short-stay crisis units cut ED length of stay by 164 minutes and the odds of admission by 45% (BJPsych Open 2022). → The hook contrasts the ED hallway with a center built for crisis.
6. Meaning and schedule. 96% of behavioral health workers are satisfied with their ability to make a difference (National Council 2023). 81% of nurses say flexible schedules would improve conditions, but only 34% have self-scheduling (AMN 2025). → These drive the “Meaningful work” bullet and the 12-hour, partner-rotation schedule language.

1. New crisis center. It has 16 receiving chairs (23-hour observation) and 16 stabilization beds, and handles walk-ins, detox, ECO/TDO transfers and the CIT Assessment Center. It is a $14M project; Centra sold the site at a reduced price, and funders include SAMHSA ($2.1M), DOJ ($550K), DBHDS, the City and the Opioid Abatement Authority. Gov. Youngkin cut the ribbon on 20 Nov 2025. → Anonymized as a “newly opened, purpose-built, multimillion-dollar facility.”
2. Pay stack. A 10% crisis differential (paid annually), a shift premium and a $5,000 bonus paid $2,000/$1,500/$1,500, for new hires only (not employed by the client within the prior year). → Banner and Total Rewards.
3. VRS Hybrid pension. The defined-benefit part has a 1.0% multiplier, a 4% member contribution and five-year vesting. The defined-contribution part has 1% mandatory employer money plus up to a 2.5% match (varetire.org). This is a real edge over private competitors. → Banner, rewards table, short post.
4. Leave design. 11 paid holidays, with annual leave and sick leave in separate banks and yearly rollover of annual leave. → The “Schedule and work-life” bullet.
5. Public-employer loan benefits. CSBs are local-government entities (Va. Code §37.2-500), so PSLF applies. CSBs are eligible sites for Virginia’s Behavioral Health Loan Repayment Program (RN tier up to $10,000/yr). The client’s own postings also cite NHSC/HRSA; its NHSC site status is not verified in the HRSA database. → Financial Security row.
6. Scale and credibility. 12,451 clients in FY2024 (3,302 of them children), 70,269 in-person and 54,312+ telehealth appointments, 17 locations, 538–741 staff (sources conflict), CARF three-year accreditation since 1997, and 57 years in operation. → The “About” section uses rounded figures.
7. Momentum. A $494,678 STEP-VA First Episode Psychosis program (Apr 2026, the region’s first), a $1.125M SAMHSA Appomattox recovery grant (Dec 2025), a $1M HRSA rural outreach grant (Aug 2025) and a co-responder program with Lynchburg PD (2024). → The second “About” paragraph.
8. Location. Population 81,347; median owner-occupied value $229,800 (Census); median sale price $289,758 (Redfin, Aug 2026); cost of living about 6% below national (Payscale); 40+ miles of trails; 16.8-minute mean commute. → The “Why Lynchburg” paragraph.

1. Competitive landscape (verbal only). Centra opened a 72-bed Behavioral Health Hospital with Lifepoint in May 2026 and has run an emPATH unit since Sept 2023, so both are hiring the same psych RNs. Lead against them with the VRS pension, the separate leave banks, the bonus and the crisis model. The center also takes ECO/TDO patients that emPATH does not.
2. Schedule discrepancy. The requisition says 37.5 hours a week; Paul’s intake says 12-hour nights covering Mon–Fri plus two weekends a month per RN. Split between two RNs, that is roughly 15 shifts a month (about 41 hrs/week). The posting says “averaging three to four shifts a week.” Confirm the exact pattern and overtime expectation with Paul. Script: “The public ad lists the standard full-time template. The client has told us this role runs 12-hour nights on a rotation with one other RN, and I’ll walk you through the exact pattern.”
3. Location discrepancy. The posting text says 24501 (the admin offices); the ADP location field and the actual work site are 24502 (1204 Fenwick Dr.). Script: “The ZIP on the public ad is the administrative office. You’d work at the crisis center itself, and I’ll share the address once we’ve talked.”
4. Employer ratings (verbal only, never cite). Glassdoor 3.5 (116 reviews, 60% recommend, 87% CEO approval); Indeed 2.9 (110 reviews, management 2.5). If a candidate raises them, point to the new facility, the CEO approval figure and the investment in crisis staffing.
5. Opening status. The ribbon cutting was Nov 2025, pending a state license; in June 2026 the center was “expected to open in coming weeks.” Confirm with Paul that it is operating, plus the current census, RNs per night shift and security presence.
6. Range objection. At 1,950 hrs, base is $57,096–$81,900; with the 10% differential that is about $62,806–$90,090, before the night premium, overtime and the $5,000 bonus. An older Indeed ad listed $51,448–$82,316 a year. Placement is by RN years, and LPN years do not count. Ask what number moves them.
7. Optimization and confidentiality. The posting is optimized for LinkedIn (narrative hook), Indeed (bolded keywords: RN, Virginia license, psychiatric, detox, nights) and ATS (standard section headers). Section A contains zero client-identifying terms (machine-verified). The confidential approach creates a scarcity signal that lifts passive-candidate engagement. Remove this appendix before any external distribution.

1. Fee agreement for permanent placement signed and on file
2. Shift pattern, overtime expectation and night premium amount confirmed with Paul Hanbury
3. Center operating status, census, RNs per shift and security model confirmed
4. PSLF and NHSC site status and tuition partner schools confirmed
5. Client agrees to the preferred qualifications we added (BSN, PMH-BC/CARN, CIWA/COWS)
6. Appendix removed and forbidden-term scan re-run on the external copy