Sister/Charge Nurse - Virtual Ward

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.

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:

• 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.

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 periods
• 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.

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.