Staff Nurse - ITU/HDU/POCCU in Sefton

Main area ITU Grade NHS AfC: Band 5 Contract Permanent: Full Time Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Rotational to include night shifts) Job ref 409-8130591

Employer Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Employer type NHS Site Southport Hospital Town Southport Salary £32,073 - £39,043 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 19/10/2026 23:59

Staff Nurse - ITU/HDU/POCCU

NHS AfC: Band 5

Job overview

Full Time Post Available

An exciting opportunity has arisen to recruit staff nurses for ITU/HDU/POCCU.

We are very proud of our Award winning Critical Care Unit, we strive to continually improve and showcase our work by producing work that is presented within the BACCN and local conferences.

If you have a caring and compassionate approach, and want to join a motivated, friendly and supportive team, we are keen to hear from you. We require staff who have a genuine interest in caring for critically ill patients as part of a multi-disciplinary team as well as having excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

We provide a comprehensive learning package supported by the nationally recognised Critical Care competencies.

Previous Critical Care experience is not essential but desirable.

An Enhanced DBS with barred lists for both Adults & Children is required for this post.

Currently we are not recruiting newly qualified nurses.

Due to current service demands, we are only able to consider applicants who have relevant UK experience. Candidates must also be available to commence employment immediately or within a very short timeframe. We regret that we cannot progress applications that do not meet these essential requirements.

Main duties of the job

• Provides and receives complex information, communicating sensitively and confidentially information relating to patients/clients (for example, care plan discussions with patients).
• Communicates in a compassionate and empathetic manner, using persuasion and Reassurance.
• Ability to recognise barriers to communication, and ability to modify communication style as and when required.
• Ability to effectively communicate whilst providing training to students.
• Demonstrate effective communications skills with the wider MDT team.
• Maintain appropriate levels of training for clinical skills as needed within scope of practice.
• To work towards nationally recognised Critical Care competencies.
• To maintain safe custody of drugs, ensuring that checking, witnessing and administration
  procedures are compatible with statutory and trust requirements.
• In the absence of Sister/Charge Nurse effectively respond to complaints/concerns and elevate as required.
• To ensure clinical incident/near misses are managed and reported and escalated in a timely manner.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see Job Description and Person Specification attached.

Advertising Date: 12th October 2026

Closing Date: 19th October 2026

Shortlisting Date: 20th October 2026

Proposed Interview date: TBC

Please note this vacancy may close early if a high number of applications is reached.

Person specification

Knowledge & Experience

• Able to demonstrate knowledge of NMC professional standards for practice contained within the code.
• Experience of working in a clinical environment
• Understand requirements for NMC professional Revalidation
• Experience of working within a multi-disciplinary team
• An understanding of national, regional, and local NHS issues
• Experience of providing and receiving complex, sensitive information

Qualifications

• 1st Level Registered Nurse (degree/diploma)
• Current NMC Registration
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Skills

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to network and build relationships at all levels.
• Effectively prioritises and co-ordinates own workload.
• Ability to de-escalate complex situations
• Ability to communicate effectively (written, verbal and non-verbal communication) with patients/relatives and carers and all members of the multi-disciplinary team.
• Awareness of the need for confidentiality at all times
• Computer literacy e.g. experience of electronic patient record

Other

• Frequent moderate effort for several short periods of time such as manual handling of patients and equipment.
• Frequent concentration required for drug calculation and Administration.
• Ability to work within highly distressing or emotional circumstances e.g. end of life care.
• Able to carry out direct clinical care as required on ward or department.
• Potential blood or body fluids exposure.
• Dealing with frequent interruptions and competing demands
• Ability to communicate distressing information
• Ability to communicate in a challenging environment

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, you may check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

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