Neonatal Community Sister/Charge Nurse
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Job summary
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust seeks a Senior Sister/Charge Nurse for the Neonatal service. You will chair clinical leadership, oversee staffing and resource deployment, and drive high-quality, patient-centred care seven days a week.
You will work with neonatal, midwifery and obstetric colleagues to improve outcomes, support staff development and ensure compliance with standards and the NMC Code of Conduct. Closing date 29 September 2026.
Qualifications
- Registered Nurse with current UK NMC registration.
- Neonatal Intensive Care course (QIS) completed.
- Current NLS (Newborn Life Support) training.
- Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
- Experience in neonatal care and leadership is essential.
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop the neonatal team to deliver safe, high-quality care.
- Discharge planning and coordination for neonates with families.
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
- Promote bereavement care pathways and parent support services.
- Drive quality improvement initiatives and patient safety.
- Support and develop staff and students, with a focus on learning and accountability.
Skills
Education
Job description
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
The closing date is 29 September 2026
As a Senior Sister/Charge Nurse, you will play a pivotal role in leading your ward or department, ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, patient-centred care. You will provide visible leadership, manage a defined caseload, coordinate the day-to-day running of the clinical area and work closely with multidisciplinary teams and external partners to ensure seamless care delivery.
Working within a seven-day service, you will be responsible for staffing, resource management, clinical standards and service performance. You will support, supervise and develop staff and students, fostering a culture of learning, accountability and continuous improvement. Through effective leadership and workforce planning, you will ensure the efficient deployment of staff and resources while maintaining the highest standards of care.
The successful candidate will be a compassionate and motivated professional who leads by example, champions equality, diversity and inclusion, and is dedicated to supporting colleagues to achieve their full potential. You will actively drive quality improvement initiatives, promote patient safety and ensure compliance with Trust policies, procedures and the NMC Code of Conduct.
This is an excellent opportunity to make a lasting impact on patient outcomes, staff experience and service development while contributing to our mission of delivering exceptional care with kindness, expertise and respect.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinically experienced neonatal care nurse
Act as an expert healthcare practitioner demonstrating advanced clinical skills, knowledge and decision making beyond those associated with the general multidisciplinary team
Maintain and further develop own expert nursing practice skills, abilities and through effective role modelling ensure that the professional practice of colleagues is continually developed and enhanced.
Work closely alongside neonatal, midwifery and obstetric teams to provide specialist nursing advice and leadership using expert knowledge, practice and critical judgement skills continually seek to identify areas of care where current practices could be changed or modified to improve patient/parent outcomes.
To facilitate discharge of neonates providing initial support in the family home
To liaise with the multidisciplinary team in relation to the discharge and follow up of neonates
Liaise with Social Services where social circumstances raise concerns
Develop, maintain and promote robust bereavement pathways, ensuring all parents are offered choice/equitable access to bereavement support.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.
Our values
We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.
Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job
Providing and receiving highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating, training, empathic or re-assurance skills are required. This may be because agreement or co-operation is required or because there are barriers to understanding,
Demonstrate ability to communicate complex and sensitive information to patients, carers and other staff, taking into account the unique and complex psychosocial needs of this patient population.
Effectively utilise communication skills to empower families to make informed decisions.
Demonstrate exemplary interpersonal skills in communicating with families in the context of often challenging existing dynamics.
Diffuse potentially hostile and antagonistic situations with staff, patients and relatives, using highly developed negotiation and interpersonal skills
Provide expertise and support to nursing and clinical teams in the management of challenging interactions with families when required.
Actively promote the philosophy and vision of the role, regionally and nationally.
Support parents during follow up appointments by advocating for them as required and subsequently reinforcing information and explanations given.
Ensure that there is a clearly defined platform for parent experience feedback, and this is utilised to understand patient need and guide service development.
Demonstrate self-motivation, and the ability to work under own initiative and without direct supervision, being accountable for own actions.
Participate in Child Death Overview meetings (CDOP) and regionally as required.
Work collaboratively with hospital and local hospices in relation to neonatal palliative care and bereavement Support needs and priorities.
Before and after birth, perinatal health professionals should take active steps to recognise babies who would benefit from palliative care and to integrate this into routine care, participate in fetal medicine meetings.
Represent through attendance and presentation at relevant local, national and international conferences/forums.
Participate in the Annual baby Remembrance Service, Wave of Light, Baby loss Awareness week.
Support the implementation of agreed clinical guidelines, documentation and education strategy produced by East of England Network
Promote change in nursing and clinical practice in order to improve the recognition and management of babies and their families from hospital to home.
Participate as part of the senior nurse team within Bedfordshire Hospitals
Delegate and empower staff without abdicating overall, continuing responsibility.
Raise concerns with regards to risk, danger, malpractice or wrong doing by following the Whistleblowing policy and supporting processes.
Network with other community and outreach services to attend national bench-marking groups to share best practice and influence best practices
Work in partnership with third sector organizations to facilitate a system wide approach to bereavement care
Support community team with early discharge and community follow-up
Identify babies ready for discharge and be proactive in the discharge planning from hospital
Support Outreach lead and attend all relevant psychosocial/neonatal discharge planning meetings when required. To discuss and identify babies and families suitable for earlier discharge and prevented readmissions.
Attend outreach meetings deputizing for the Outreach Lead, such as, weekly consultant catch up, safeguarding, fetal medicine, complex baby meeting, pediatric palliative and other strategy meetings.
Provide expert specialist advice to patients, carers and staff in the healthcare setting.
Act as a mentor and teacher, providing mentorship and support and demonstrate exemplary practice to all members of the healthcare team.
Identify educational and training needs of multi-professional teams.
In collaboration with academic institutes, contributes to the development in the curricula relating to the specialty.
Promote evidence based practice within wards and departments.
Ensure continued personal development of knowledge and expert skills.
Promote and contribute to a positive learning environment.
Explore the development of / promote professional educational opportunities relating to bereavement and palliative care locally, regionally, and nationally for hospital staff.
Take responsibility for and actively participate in own personal development plan and performance review/appraisal with the Line Manager.
Take part in monthly clinically visible leadership days
Work closely with Research and Innovation to promote research, disseminate outcomes and findings to support evidence based practice.
Lead and support in auditing service evaluation and research of neonatal palliative care and bereavement support programmes.
Work with the clinical research teams to facilitate research opportunities for our patients, to drive new opportunities for patient-centred research.
Regularly undertakes work audits and participates in research activity which includes participating in clinical audits and making recommendations for practice.
Contribute to the multidisciplinary perinatal mortality reviews and the dissemination of learning and feedback following review.
Facilitate and support in the development of evidence based guidelines for use in clinical practice.
Participate in Quality Improvement projects as the service require
Please see attached information.
- oRegistered Nurse
- oCompletion of Neonatal Intensive Care course (QIS)
- oCurrent NLS training
- oEducated to degree level or equivalent level of experience
- oResearch experience
- oQuality Improvement Projects
- oTeaching and Assessing course or equivalent
- oGood inter-personal and Communication skills, including clear, concise written skills.
- oGood level of IT i.e. Email/Internet
- oAbility to work and communicate as part of the multidisciplinary team
- oAbility to support mothers to feed their babies in a non-judgemental, empathetic and mother-centred way
- oEffectively carries out tasks related to audit and evaluating services
- oAbility to plan workload and supervise others effectively to meet service needs
- oAbility to deliver on the Key NICU performance indicators
- oProject leadership skills
- oChanges in nursing practice to improve patient care
- oExperience of preparing infants with complex health needs for discharge
- oEvidence of involvement in project management
- oExperience with dealing with Neonatal/Child Bereavement
- oExperience with PMRT/MBRRACE-UK/CDOP
- oDesigning and implementing training programmes on NICU
- oKnowledge of teaching and learning
- oAble to participate in audit in order to improve the service
- oKnowledge of National Neonatal policies & guidelines
- oFully aware of the children's Act & National/Local Safeguarding Children Board legislation
- oCare of and discharge preparation for the infant with complex health needs
- oUnderstanding and participating Baby Friendly Initiative
- oAbility to travel
- oExperience in change management and/or quality improvement initiatives
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.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
£39,959 to £48,117 a yearper anum pro rata
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