Senior Staff Nurse

The closing date is 10 September 2025

Salary: £46,419 to £55,046 a year Per Annum Including High Cost Area

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic, committed and compassionate Band 6 Paediatric Nurse (Senior Staff Nurse) to work in a challenging, dynamic and world-renowned unit – Rays of Sunshine Ward. King’s College Hospital boasts the busiest paediatric liver centre in Europe, treating more than 3,000 children a year.

Rays of Sunshine is our 18 bedded paediatric ward which treats a wide range of liver associated illnesses such as biliary atresia, hepatitis and liver tumours and cares for children and young people in acute liver failure. Our paediatric service also specialises in liver and intestinal transplantation and also caters for a growing population of patients with gastrointestinal conditions.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in South East London is an extensive teaching hospital, at the forefront of academic and nursing excellence. The ward has strong relationships with the broader multidisciplinary team such as our liver clinical nurse specialists and transplant coordinators.

The nursing team are skilled to deliver an exceptionally high standard of care to dependent children and their families.

The Band 6 Paediatric nurse would be expected to demonstrate strong leadership qualities but no previous liver experience is required as we offer in house training and support.

For more information about Child Health, please watch our video:https://vimeo.com/795290612/ae443fa495

Main duties of the job

To provide expert, holistic care of a high standard to both the patients and their relatives within Rays of Sunshine Ward at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
To take direct managerial responsibility for the clinical area in the absence of or as delegated by the Ward Leader.
To assist in the leadership and development of an identified group of nurses within the ward complement.
To act as a clinical resource within the ward and across the Care Group as necessary.
To act as a positive role model to junior staff members. Particular emphasis is put at Kings on the need to ensure that all staff recognise their responsibility to deliver services in a high quality, courteous, patient focused manner and to maintain patient confidentiality at all times.

Job responsibilities

Clinical Practice

To adhere to the NMC Code of Professional Conduct and adhere to this at all times.
To demonstrate clinical expertise in the care of any patients receiving treatment in the ward/ department.
To assess, plan, implement and evaluate the needs of patients on the Ward on an ongoing basis, co-ordinating the care given by all members of the clinical team.
To accurately assimilate and interpret clinical information about the patients condition, promptly report changes and instigate remedial action as appropriate.
To act as a resource person to others, providing accurate information, advice and support to the multidisciplinary team, patients and their relatives.
To ensure that accurate records are maintained reflecting both changes in the patients condition and the treatment delivered.
To ensure that patients and their relatives are updated regularly with accurate information, and ensure that this is presented in a way that they understand.
To ensure that Clinical Guidelines are implemented and to be actively involved in auditing practice in conjunction with Line Manager and practice development staff.
To ensure that practice is evidence based and with support assist in the development of policies and protocols within the clinical area.
To uphold high standards of nursing care, according to existing policies and standards.
To support the Ward Managers and Modern Matron in processes of continuous quality improvement, formally evaluating standards of care and assisting in the implementation of changes in the light of such findings.
To contribute to the health education of patients and their families, ensuring that all patients receive appropriate advice and support to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
To actively support the implementation of the Trust nursing strategy and uphold the ethos of the local philosophy.

Education and Research

To act as a mentor to junior staff members, responsible for the orientation, supervision and ongoing development of junior and student nurses, in conjunction with Line Manager and Practice Development staff.
To act as practice supervisor, responsible for completing competency documents for junior staff within agreed timeframes.
To act as a mentor to students undertaking further education as requested, ensuring a positive learning experience and facilitating the development of their clinical skills.
To contribute to the wider educational activities within the Care Group ensuring attendance at and contributing to the delivery of educational activities within the Care Group.
To promote and encourage the application of research and of evidence based practices.
To participate in any research projects conducted in the clinical area as appropriate.

Management

To manage the clinical workload effectively, ensuring care is prioritised appropriately.
To contribute positively towards the delivery of a cost effective service, adjusting staffing levels to meet demand and assisting the ward manager to keep within agreed resources.
To assist with the ongoing organisation of the ward, co-ordinating the activities of the clinical area.
To liaise with Medical Personnel and Bed Manager to ensure optimal bed usage at all times, facilitating timely admission and discharge of patients.
To act as a team leader to an identified group of staff, monitoring and documenting the development of their clinical skills.
To develop own skills in recruitment and retention, sickness management and performance management as determined by line manager.
To actively support the process of risk management ensure incidents are reported appropriately and helping identify ways of preventing errors and accidents to both patients and staff.
To make a positive contribution to service development affecting the clinical area and positively influence others to adapt to change.
To actively promote customer care, assisting in resolving local (informal) complaints and supporting the ward manager to investigate formal problems.
To assist with the monitoring of stock levels of clinical stores and technical equipment, resolving any shortfall as appropriate.
To maintain standards of hygiene and cleanliness within the clinical area, actioning remedy as appropriate and reporting deficits to Modern Matron, as appropriate.
To communicate varied and complicated information (verbally and in writing) in a way that is understood and gets the important facts across.
To carry the Unit bleep as required, resolving local problems/ conflicts, keeping managers/others informed and maintaining positive team dynamics across the Care Group at all times.
To take a leadership role in crisis situations, resolving problems across the Care Group as necessary.
To maintain confidentiality with regard to personal information pertaining to staff. To attend and contribute to departmental meetings as required.

Personal Professional Development

To work within and accept responsibility for maintaining agreed levels of clinical competence.
To keep up to date with NMC, Trust and Care Group policies and guidelines and to adhere to these at all times.
To be a fully active and committed member of the multidisciplinary team operating in the Care Group.
To demonstrate an insight into own professional development, contributing to the process of identifying own educational and clinical training needs in conjunction with the ward manager.
Participate in own Individual Performance Review and after suitable training, to be responsible for undertaking this for own team of junior staff.
To ensure own educational commitment is at least sufficient to maintain PREP requirements and to ensure own mandatory training certificates are current, in liaison with Line Manager.

People Management and Performance

Lead, coach and manage the performance of the team in line with good people management practices. Ensuring excellence is recognised and underperformance is addressed.
Participate in regular performance appraisal meetings and ensure each member of the team has a clear set of objectives and development plans.
Ensure the team is compliance with all statutory, mandatory training together with any professional training requirements, ensuring they are up to date and fully compliant.
Manage team absences including sickness in line with Trust policy ensuring the appropriate return to work meetings occur, e-roster is updated and productivity is at keep to the highest possible level.
Identify and fill any vacancies that arise within the team in line with the Trusts recruitment policy and process.
Identify talent and support the internal talent management process in order attract and retain and succession plan for your people.
Review skills mix at regular intervals in order to identify any potential opportunities to maximise resource utilisation / allocation, ensuring job descriptions are kept up to date.
Ensure overall wellbeing of the team is maintained. Continuously support in improving the morale of the team and implementing a culture of zero-tolerance for bullying and harassment.

Person Specification

Registration/Experience

Essential

1st level Registered Paediatric Nurse
Experience managing challenging situations
Able to contribute to the development of students, nurses and oneself

Desirable

Experience working within paediatric liver

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

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