Senior Director, Communications - Nursing & Patient Care Services and Partner Relations

At Duke Health, we're driven by a commitment to compassionate care that changes the lives of patients, their loved ones, and the greater community. No matter where your talents lie, join us and discover how we can advance health together.

The Senior Director of Nursing & Patient Care Services and Partner Relations Communications is a senior leader within Duke University Health System's (DUHS) Communications function and serves as the strategic communications lead for the Division of Nursing and Patient Care Services (NPCS) and its external and academic partners. NPCS represents the largest segment of Duke Health's talentforce, encompassing nurses, patient care services professionals, and advanced practice practitioners. The division spans acute, ambulatory, virtual, and home health settings and plays a critical role in advancing integrated care delivery models across multidisciplinary teams.

The Senior Director works in close partnership with the Chief Nurse Executive (CNE) to shape, articulate, and advance a comprehensive communications strategy that elevates Duke Nursing's voice, strengthens workforce engagement, and supports systemwide priorities.

This role provides executive-level counsel to senior nursing and health system leaders and collaborates closely with DUHS Marketing, Internal Communications, Media Relations, Digital, HR, Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON), and external partners (including Watts College of Nursing) to ensure clear, aligned, and proactive communication. The Senior Director ensures communications support clinical excellence, talentforce development, innovation, patient experience, health equity, and Duke Health's missions.

• Serve as the strategic communications lead for Nursing and Patient Care Services, ensuring alignment with DUHS priorities, operational goals, and enterprise communications strategies.
• Partner closely with the Chief Nurse Executive and NPCS senior leadership to understand key issues, opportunities, and emerging needs across nursing, patient care services, and advanced practice practitioners.
• Serve as a primary communications partner to the Chief Nurse Executive, supporting executive voice, visibility, and influence.
• Provide strategic counsel on communications related to care quality and safety, workforce strategy, professional practice, education, innovation, and patient experience.
• Ensure close coordination with Marketing, Media Relations, Internal Communications, and Digital teams to deliver a unified and timely communications approach.
• Lead integrated communications planning for large cross-functional initiatives impacting nursing, patient care services, and advanced practice practitioners.
• Use qualitative and quantitative data to guide strategy and measure effectiveness.
• Anticipate communication risks, workforce impacts, or reputational considerations and proactively design mitigation strategies.
• Drive executive communications, including leadership remarks, messaging frameworks, and narrative development, serving as a trusted advisor to the CNE and senior leaders.

• Build and execute a comprehensive internal communications strategy that meets the needs of a diverse pool of nurses, patient care services professionals, and advance practice practitioners across all entities and settings.
• Establish governance, standards, and escalation protocols for nursing and patient care communications.
• Design and lead change communications strategies that support awareness, understanding, adoption, and sustainment of operational, clinical, and workforce initiatives.
• Translate complex clinical, operational, and workforce changes into clear, role-specific, and actionable messaging for frontline teams and leaders.
• Oversee communications across channels including intranet, newsletters, leadership toolkits, town halls, video, and executive messaging.
• Develop cascading communication assets, FAQs, and toolkits to support effective leader communication.
• Establish feedback loops to assess understanding, sentiment, and engagement, adjusting strategies as needed.

• Lead communications strategy for NPCS external partnerships, including close collaboration with Duke University School of Nursing and Watts College of Nursing to support workforce pipeline development and academic alignment.
• Partner with Marketing and External Relations to drive external storytelling that supports nursing recruitment, reputation, and community engagement.
• Collaborate with Media Relations to identify and support proactive media opportunities highlighting nursing excellence, innovation, and impact.
• Ensure consistent, inclusive, and brand-aligned messaging across external platforms and campaigns.
• Position Duke Nursing as a national leader in clinical excellence, workforce innovation, education, and health equity.

Crisis, Emergency & Business Continuity Communications

• Serve as a nursing communications leader during emergency situations, safety events, or workforce-impacting incidents.
• Partner with AVP of Internal Communications, Emergency Management and NPCS leadership to deliver timely, accurate, and actionable information to staff and leaders.
• Develop templates, playbooks, and rapid-response processes to ensure preparedness and effectiveness.

• Manage workflows, project timelines, and resources to ensure proactive, efficient, and strategic execution.
• Collaborate in a matrixed environment with entity and system communicators to ensure consistency, alignment, and information flow.
• Use data, analytics, and feedback to continuously improve communications strategies, channels, and content.

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in communications, journalism, marketing, public relations, business, or a related field required.
• Master's degree preferred.

Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in strategic communications, executive communications, or brand leadership.
• Demonstrated success leading integrated internal and external communications strategies with measurable impact.
• Experience advising senior executives and clinicians in complex, matrixed organizations.
• Healthcare, academic medicine, or large enterprise experience strongly preferred.
• Corporate and/or agency background preferred.

• Strategic thinker with the ability to connect communications to organizational and workforce goals.
• Exceptional writing, editing, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Strong understanding of reputation management, executive visibility, and change communications.
• Highly collaborative with strong emotional intelligence and the ability to earn trust across diverse stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and adapt quickly in a fast-paced environment.

This is a senior-level, hands-on leadership role for a communications strategist who combines executive polish, agency-caliber creativity, and deep respect for the nursing profession. The ideal candidate excels at translating complex priorities into compelling narratives that build alignment, pride, and engagement while advancing Duke Health's missionS to improve lives through excellence in care, education, and discovery.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of duties and responsibilities and is not intended to be an exhaustive list. Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community.