Senior Registered Nurse - IRAS/OPAT

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust; Colchester; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare provider in the UK is seeking a Senior Registered Nurse to enhance patient care within the Integrated Rapid Assessment Service and Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Team. This role involves managing a team and working to prevent unnecessary admissions, ensuring patients receive the right care. Candidates should have relevant nursing qualifications and experience in antimicrobial therapy and community settings. Competitive compensation and training opportunities are provided.

Benefits

Generous pension scheme

27 days annual leave

NHS discounts

Staff Health and Wellbeing program

Flexible working options

Qualifications

• Professional knowledge from training and experience to degree level.
• Understanding of legal frameworks regarding care.
• Experience working relevant to the care group.

Responsibilities

• Deliver nursing input to promote patient independence.
• Provide specialist input to patients within expertise.
• Support discharge and referrals to avoid unnecessary admissions.

Skills

Team management

Patient care coordination

Antimicrobial therapy

Palliative care

Community experience

Education

Registered nurse recorded on NMC register

Post qualification training in relevant fields

Job description

Go back East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Registered Nurse - IRAS/OPAT

The closing date is 15 October 2025

I am pleased to inform you that an exciting opportunity has arisen for a full time position as a Senior Nurse (band 6) role within the Integrated Rapid Assessment Service (IRAS) and Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Team (OPAT).

This is an exciting opportunity to enhance admission avoidance skills and manage patients under a virtual ward.

The role will involve working closely with all elements of the IRAS team and the emergency department to support discharges and provide additional services either by referral or signposting to prevent unnecessary admission and ensuring patients receive the right care in the right place.

The OPAT service manages a complex caseload of patients across the northeast Essex locality with referrals coming from the hospital, tertiary centres, GPs and specialist clinics.

Experience in palliative care, admission avoidance and antimicrobial therapy would be advantageous.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please complete an expression of interest form providing the skills, knowledge, and attributes you have that would make you suitable for the role. There may be an opportunity for a developmental role from band 5.

Main duties of the job

To work as part of the integrated team to deliver seven-day nursing input to patients with the aim of returning them to maximum independent living, within a stimulating environment actively promoting self-management on all activities of daily living. Working as an autonomous practitioner, the post holder will provide specialist input to all patients that fall within their specialist field of expertise. Work with colleagues across health, social care, mental health and voluntary sector to ensure holistic and joined up delivery of care. Empower patients to make decisions about their own care and encourage them to exercise their rights and choices, signposting them to relevant community and voluntary services and supporting patients' carers and assistants with management of risk. Manage the work of junior staff, assistants, students and volunteers in own professional area.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification

Experience

• Professional knowledge and skills acquired through a combination of formal training, short courses and experience to degree level or equivalent.
• Ability to manage a team
• Ability to act as care coordinator
• Awareness of national guidance relevant to own specialities, including consent issues and other legal frameworks relating to care group
• Understanding of the roles of other professionals
• Proven experience working relevant to the care group
• Supervise the work of students, assistants and volunteers
• Experience of managing the work of others
• Competencies relevant to specialism
• Experience in the community

Qualifications

• Registered nurse recorded on NMC register
• Relevant post qualification training through short courses and/or further study and experience, for example diagnostics and prescribing, working towards postgraduate level of study
• Evidence of on-going CPD
• Recognised registered qualification and further courses and experience relevant to role

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.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust