Clinical Nurse Specialist - Fetal cardiology

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

A children’s healthcare facility in London is seeking an experienced Clinical Nurse Specialist in Fetal Cardiology. The role involves providing expert counselling and support for families, managing a caseload of patients with complex cardiac needs, and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team. Ideal candidates will have strong clinical and leadership skills, a relevant degree, and experience at band 7 level. The position offers a competitive salary of £56,276 to £63,176 per year pro rata.

Qualifications

• Sufficient experience at band 7 level or equivalent.
• Experience of leading and managing a team.
• Detailed understanding of audit and research methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Provide effective nursing leadership and expertise within the fetal clinical nurse specialist teams.
• Support and prepare families who have had an antenatal diagnosis of CHD.
• Ensure accurate written documentation of contact with families.

Skills

Excellent clinical skills

Relevant specialist skills

Interviewing skills

Computer literacy

Presentation skills

Education

Possession of a relevant honour's degree

Recognised teaching qualification

Assessing and mentoring qualification

Job description

Clinical Nurse Specialist - Fetal cardiology

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 08 October 2025

We are looking for an experienced motivated children's cardiac specialist nurse to join our current dynamic fetal nurse specialist team. We are looking for a children's cardiac nurse with vision and enthusiasm to contribute to the continued quality and the developmental success of the service, with a commitment to children and families both internal and external to the trust. This is a central role in coordinating care, providing expert counselling and acting as a key point of contact for families at what can be a challenging and uncertain time. The role includes managing your own caseload of families with complex cardiac needs. You will work closely with the multi professional team, including the fetal cardiologist, paediatric cardiologists, paediatricians, fetal sonographers, obstetricians, fetal medicine midwives, local community services and allied health professionals to deliver seamless family centred care.

A thorough knowledge of congenital heart conditions and fetal circulation is essential to support family decision making and support. We will support your individual ongoing development with a tailored educational pathway.

Main duties of the job

Provide effective nursing leadership and expertise within the fetal clinical nurse specialist teams.

Use expert and specialist nursing skills in the clinic setting to support and prepare families who have had an antenatal diagnosis of CHD in partnership with consultant fetal cardiologist and multidisciplinary team (MDT).

Observe the national cardiac standards set for fetal cardiology

Act as an expert resource to the families of complex cardiac patients

Use expert and specialist nursing skills to support and prepare families who have had an antenatal diagnosis of CHD in partnership with consultant fetal cardiologist.

Provide expert ongoing support of the mother and family around prenatal fetal diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) up to birth and until follow up by cardiologist or relevant postnatal team within GOSH or local care.

Provide nursing leadership to develop, deliver and evaluate services

Support the effective management of patient activity throughout the care pathway with a focus on continuous quality improvement

Contribute to the service development plans as appropriate

Ensure that all staff have up to date clinical skills, knowledge and competence.

Foster an environment conducive to learning, inquiry, and research

Initiate and lead improvement, audit and research studies relating to nursing and multidisciplinary care, within the specialist areas of practice, presenting findings through presentations and writing for publication

About us

We are keen to make our workforce as diverse as the communities we serve, and we hope to attract applications from underrepresented groups, including people with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritage, people with a disability, and people from LGBTQ+ communities. By growing an ever more diverse workforce, we'll have a greater range of perspectives and knowledge, meaning that we can provide the children and young people at our hospital with even better care.

Our hospital is committed to creating an environment that is open and inclusive. Our staff are encouraged to engage with colleagues through the following networks: REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) ENABLED (Enhancing Abilities & Leveraging Disabilities Network), PRIDE and Women's networks; all of which are sponsored by a member of our Executive Management Team.

We want to ensure that all of our people, regardless of their background, are seen and heard. We want to attract applicants that share our commitment to inclusion and that understand diversity is a strength that is embraced and valued.

Job responsibilities

Clinical

Use expert and specialist nursing skills to support and prepare families who have had an antenatal diagnosis of CHD in partnership with consultant fetal cardiologist

Provide expert ongoing support of the mother and family around prenatal fetal diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) up to birth and until follow up by cardiologist or relevant postnatal team within GOSH or local care

Ensure accurate written documentation of contact with families, GOSH services and external clinicians on electronic patient records

Liaise with relevant GOSH and local services including social work, psychology, palliative care

Provide communication and counselling to support parents within the outreach networks that provide obstetric services

The post holder will support and where able provide bereavement counselling or refer onto other professionals locally those families who opt for termination of the affected pregnancy.

Organise and run support group days and nurse-led clinics

Attend outreach clinics external to GOSH with consultant fetal cardiologist

Attend safeguarding and psychosocial meetings to ensure safety of the family and unborn baby

Use pathways of care to develop a streamlined and informed journey for families.

Maintain involvement with relevant professional bodies, i.e. PCNA, ARC, SANDS, Little Hearts Matter, British Heart Foundation and Childrens Heart Federation.

Management and leadership

Provide nursing leadership to develop, deliver and evaluate services.

Support the effective management of patient activity throughout the care pathway with a focus on continuous quality improvement.

Contribute to the service development plans as appropriate.

Assist the team in identifying potential cost reduction efficiency savings.

Act as a visible role model and foster an environment that enhances the patient family and staff experience

Provide expert professional advice and support to colleagues.

Ensure that all staff know where to access trust policies and clinical procedure guidelines and that staff adhere to these at all times.

In conjunction with managers and the Head of Nursing, ensure systems for the effective investigation and management of complaints and clinical incidents within the department are established, ensuring that lessons learned are shared within the unit, division and Trust as appropriate.

Actively promote and engage with the patient quality (safety, effectiveness and experience) agenda and the transformation programme locally and across the Trust.

Lead on relevant elements of the corporate nursing agenda for the specialty and undertake relevant Trust wide projects in agreement with the line manager.

Initiate and develop audits of service delivery and implement findings to improve patient care.

Act as an ambassador for the department and specialties both within and outside the trust.

Participate in events or publications that promote the trust and childrens nursing.

Develop and maintain written information for families and external health professions.

To offer education and support to all professionals caring for families with a child with congenital heart disease

Participate and present at relevant conferences as appropriate.

Develop a range of resources with colleagues to ensure support and education for families.

Collaboration at band 7 level across fetal and cardiac services to ensure seamless transition from antenatal to postnatal care.

Educational

Ensure that all staff have up to date clinical skills, knowledge and competence.

Foster an environment conducive to learning, inquiry, and research

Support the identification of the training and development needs of nursing staff

Play a lead role in educational development relevant to the specialty and patient caseload.

Contribute to identification of learning needs and development of appropriate multi- professional programmes on a national basis.

Provide support and training to other professionals both within the trust and in community/shared care settings to develop skills/knowledge to deliver appropriate specialist care to children and families.

Have a leadership role in the development, production and evaluation of national and international clinical standards / practice guidelines

Delivery of teaching to the teams within the GOSH network hospitals.

Research and Development

Initiate and lead improvement, audit and research studies relating to nursing and multidisciplinary care, within the specialist areas of practice, presenting findings through presentations and writing for publication.

Actively promote research awareness and evidenced base care to ensure that all families & children are cared for in accordance with the latest evidence.

Work within the research governance arrangements to support audit of practice and continual improvement - locally, nationally and internationally.

Develop and evaluate tools to audit practice within specialist area of practice.

As appropriate, to engage in research trials within specialist area of practice and publish results to increase the body of knowledge.

Keep up to date with emerging thinking / findings from other centres.

Work with others to maintain service database, including ensuring data entry, retrieval and analysis and provide activity reports as requested.

To use PROMS/PREMS to evaluate practice and improve patient care.

Person Specification

GOSH Culture and Values

• Our Always values
• On the relevant part of the NMC register i.e. Children's registered and evidence of revalidation.
• Evidence of ongoing, dynamic continuing professional development within the specialty, linked to demonstrable clinical competencies
• Assessing and mentoring qualification
• Possession of a relevant honour's degree
• Recognised teaching qualification

Experience/Knowledge

• Sufficient experience at band 7 level or equivalent, including relevant clinical environment
• Experience of leading and managing a team.
• Detailed understanding of audit and research methodologies
• Detailed understanding of audit and research methodologies
• Previous experience of change management and problem solving

Skills/Abilities

• Excellent clinical skills
• Relevant specialist skills and abilities for the post
• Interviewing skills
• Computer literacy, presentation skills and experience of databases.

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.

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

£56,276 to £63,176 a year pro rata per annum inclusive