Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust; Bridport; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust recruits an Advanced Clinical Practitioner to work at Bridport Hospital. This full-time role requires autonomous clinical judgement, leadership and expert decision-making to support older persons inpatient medical and rehab pathways.

You will plan and manage complete episodes of care, undertake complex assessments, and collaborate with acute and community teams to ensure seamless patient pathways.

Qualifications

• Evidence of advanced autonomous practice in management of patients.
• CPD portfolio demonstrating leadership and research.
• MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice or equivalent route.
• Registered non‑medical prescriber.
• Teaching/assessing in practice qualification or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Plan and manage complete episodes of care with complex decision making.
• Undertake comprehensive specialist holistic assessments for highly complex needs.
• Communicate with acute, primary and social care to ensure seamless transfer of care.
• Undertake audits and service evaluations to drive improvement.

Skills

Advanced practice

CPD portfolio

MSc in ACP

Prescriber

Teaching/assessing

Education

MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice

Job description

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust

Advanced Clinical Practitioner

The closing date is 29 October 2026

Are you an experienced Advanced Clinical Practitioner looking to work in an outstanding CQC rated Trust? Join our dynamic, diverse and multi-professional team based at the Bridport Hospital.

You will be an established, autonomous and confident advanced practitioner with respect to complex clinical reasoning. To provide expert clinical advice, leadership and support ensuring needs of the service are met by exercising and demonstrating high levels of clinical judgement, critical analysis, and advanced decision-making skills. You will have a keen interest for Older Persons inpatient medical and rehab along with stroke neuro rehabilitation.

In return you will have access to our network of ACP's who are available to support you. The Trust is also implementing a programme of comprehensive changes relating to advance practice including supervision and ongoing development. This ACP post is a full-time role, which will cover weekdays and bank holidays which can be discussed further at interview.

This is a full time post of 37.5 hours per week.

Applications from candidates that require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are unfortunately ineligible to apply for this position.

Main duties of the job

The main duties of the job are to plan and manage complete episodes of care; undertake independent comprehensive assessment, formulate an impression / diagnosis and management plan for service users to incorporate pharmacological considerations; making complex clinical decisions regarding service user management and clinical outcomes.

Undertake comprehensive specialist holistic assessment of patients and carers where needs are highly complex. This involves planning, implementing and evaluating the care delivery according to changing healthcare needs and varying degrees of clinical risk.

Advise and communicate as appropriate with acute hospitals, primary and social care and community teams thus ensuring seamless continuity and transfer (if appropriate) of care for patients between other relevant health, social and third sector agencies, professionals and care settings.

Undertake audits and service evaluations to inform service improvement using evidence-based approaches to draw on best practice.

Employment in this post requires an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, which the Trust will cover the cost of.

About us

At Dorset HealthCare we're on a mission to empower people to make the most of their lives through our outstanding, joined-up healthcare services. We're a dynamic, forward-looking Trust, running 12 community hospitals, specialist inpatient facilities and a wide range of integrated community and mental health services for a population of almost 800,000 people.

We do things differently here - it's one of the reasons the CQC rated us 'outstanding' in 2019. It's also why 95% of patients across our services say they have a good or very good experience of our services and 89% of staff feel they can really make a difference. Whether you're looking to work with us in one of our bustling market towns, vibrant urban locations, thriving seaside spots, or among the rolling hills of Dorset, there are lots of ways you can make a difference in our communities.

Our 7,000-strong workforce is at the heart of what we do and our success is a testament to our brilliant people. We're all about building a workplace for the future, we believe in equal opportunities and we celebrate diversity. We're an inclusive workplace, where everyone is welcome, everyone can be authentic, and we are all encouraged to be the best version of ourselves.

Working with us you'll be part of a strong team, challenge yourself, build a career, and teach us what we don't know. And you'll be working towards our vision to be better every day through excellence, compassion and expertise in all we do.

Job responsibilities

For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post.

We understand that AI can be a useful tool when completing your application. However, we are seeing an increasing over-reliance of AI tools, which can negatively affect your application as it reduces a candidates individuality, and makes it difficult for us to gain a clear and authentic understanding of your experience, skills, and in turn your suitability for the role.

All submissions must be truthful and if you do use AI, it should only be used to enhance your application and not create your supporting statement in its entirety. Your supporting statement should be in your own words and must accurately reflect your personal experience and achievements. Where we have concerns that AI has been used to generate content that misrepresents your experience and suitability for the role, we may withdraw your application.

As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare offers support for people getting into work. We offer an employability service to support individuals with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support, please do contact [e-mail]

Person Specification

Knowledge Skills and Training

• Clear and demonstrable evidence of advanced, autonomous practice in the management of patients / service users
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development through an advanced clinical practice portfolio demonstrating advanced level practice across the four pillars of clinical practice, education, leadership and research
• MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice or equivalent route to Advanced Clinical Practice with evidence of meeting the nationally agreed capabilities (ie. PG Dip 120 credits in advanced clinical practice and successful completion of approved support portfolio route to advanced clinical practice)
• Registered non‑medical prescriber
• Learning and Assessing in Practice Qualification or equivalent practice assessor's training/recognition of teaching abilities.

Job Experience

• Demonstrates highly developed expertise and knowledge underpinned by theory acquired through CPD in relation to clinical assessment, treatment and evaluation
• Able to demonstrate advanced skills for assessing and interpreting complex client conditions, comparing a range of options and taking appropriate action
• Evidence of involvement in the development of programmes of care, protocols and audit

Management Experience

• Evidence of proactive involvement in the supervision and development of members of the multi-disciplinary team and able to demonstrate changes of practice through these
• Evidence of designing, delivering and evaluating education and training in practice

IT Skills

• Experience of effective use of electronic patient / service user record systems
• Able to analyse data and produce reports using Microsoft Excel and Word

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.

Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust