Sister/Charge Nurse - Virtual Ward in Sefton

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Job overview

Are you an experienced and motivated Registered Nurse with a passion for improving outcomes for older people living with frailty? An exciting opportunity to join our expanding Virtual Ward service, supporting patients to transition safely from acute hospital care into community-pathways while receiving acute-level care in their home. The role focuses on advanced assessment, care coordination, discharge planning, and clinical case management for patients requiring ongoing support following an acute episode of illness.

Working within Frailty SDEC, Frailty Wards, and alongside community services, you will play a pivotal role in reducing avoidable admissions, facilitating early supported discharge, and ensuring seamless transitions of care across organisational boundaries. You will work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams,

This is an excellent opportunity for a nurse with significant post-registration experience in frailty, elderly care, acute medicine, community services, or urgent care, who is passionate about service improvement, clinical excellence, and delivering care closer to home. If you share our values of being Kind, Open and Inclusive, and are committed to providing high‑quality care for some of our most vulnerable patients, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

As Virtual Ward Nurse:

Undertake comprehensive assessments of frail patients to determine suitability for Virtual Ward pathways and support safe discharge from acute services.

• Coordinate care across acute, community and primary care services to ensure seamless patient transitions and continuity of care.
• Manage a caseload of patients, developing and implementing personalised care plans that promote recovery and independence at home.
• Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, including consultants, therapists, pharmacists, community teams and GPs, to support complex patient pathways.
• Monitor patients using remote monitoring technology and respond appropriately to clinical deterioration through agreed escalation processes.
• Support admission avoidance and early supported discharge initiatives, helping patients receive acute‑level care in their usual place of residence.
• Contribute to comprehensive geriatric assessment processes and provide education and support to patients, carers and families.
• Provide clinical leadership, support junior colleagues, and contribute to service development, quality improvement and pathway redesign initiatives.
• Maintain high standards of clinical documentation, governance, safeguarding and professional practice in accordance with the NMC Code and Trust policies.

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 find attached job description and person specification for main responsibilities and requirements.

Our Values

• We are Kind
• We are Open
• We are Inclusive

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse Diploma / degree level or equivalent experience
• Current NMC Registration
• Evidence of continuous professional development
• Leadership training or qualification (minimum Level 3 ILM or equivalent) or working towards

Knowledge and Experience

• Able to demonstrate knowledge of NMC professional standards for practice contained within the code
• Experience of leading a team in a clinical environment
• Research awareness and commitment to evidence-based practice
• Experience of clinical risk assessment & management of identified risk
• Understanding key features of Clinical governance
• Knowledge of audit & audit procedures

Skills

• Up to date clinical skills in order to ensure quality of services being provided by ward
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent organisational skills – prioritise and coordinate own workload
• Able to act as a leader, effectively managing staff in the department
• Ability to act as a change agent
• Ability to co-ordinate & liaise with MDT members
• Computer literacy eg experience of electronic patient record

Other

• Frequent sitting or standing in a restricted position; occasional moderate effort for several short period
• Frequent concentration, work pattern unpredictable Concentration for patient clinical work
• Occasional distressing / highly distressing or emotional circumstances. Deals with patient complaints, conveys unwelcome news, complaints, concerns arising from incident communicated to patients and relatives
• Working in ward environment providing direct clinical care

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.

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.

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, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

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.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Name Gaynor Whalley Job title Deputy Directorate Manager - Frailty Email address Gaynor.Whalley@MerseyWestLancs.nhs.uk Telephone number 07392128920

Additional information For informal visits and discussions please contact PA Sam Roach who will be happy to arrange.

Email:Sam.Roach@MerseyWestLancs.nhs.uk.