Lead Nutrition Specialist Nurse | Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Posting date:	07 October 2025
Salary:	Not specified
Additional salary information:	£55,690 - £62,682 Per Annum
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	06 November 2025
Location:	Rainhill, Prescot, L35 5DR
Company:	St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	7129348/409-7129348

Summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a highly motivated and knowledgeable Nutrition Nurse to join and lead our established nutrition service across MWL but based at the Whiston Hospital site.

We are looking for an enthusiastic, caring and compassionate individual, who has a keen interest in managing patients requiring artificial nutrition support and who is ready to work towards expanding, strengthening and developing the current service. The post holder will support the delivery of nutritional services within the Trust, working with the multidisciplinary team supporting medical, nursing and other clinical colleagues to ensure the quality of nutritional care to patients is maximised.

The applicant should have experience in providing in and outpatient care to patients with nutritional problems; they should be familiar with parenteral and enteral nutrition support and can plan, assess, implement and evaluate patients’ nutritional care. It is essential to possess excellent interpersonal skills along with the ability to work efficiently and independently.

You should be self-motivated and have a positive attitude towards change.

The applicant must demonstrate commitment to their own continued professional development and be committed to contribute to the long-term development of the nutrition service.

Ideally the successful candidate would have post registration course applicable to nutrition.
• The Lead Nutrition Nurse Specialist will be an integral part of the clinical management team supporting the Gastroenterology department during the work week.
• The Lead Nutrition Nurse Specialist will demonstrate advanced autonomous clinical practice working across traditional boundaries and augmenting the medical role, utilising assessment, decision making and diagnostic skills.
• By independently ordering and interpreting investigations, the Lead Nutrition Nurse Specialist demonstrates the ability to safely manage his/her own caseload, identifying the need to involve other members of the MDT, ensuring high quality, effective management of patients.
• The Lead Nutrition Nurse Specialist will take the lead, participate in educational sessions; clinical supervision; research, audit as well as quality and service improvement, ensuring high quality, effective management of patients.
• The post holder will abide by legal requirements and statutory rules relating to their practice maintaining standards of professional practice in accordance with the NMC guidelines

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

CLINICAL
• Provide advanced levels of clinical practice, knowledge and skills in Nutrition. The primary focus will be Nutrition patients.
• Undertake history and physical examination to accurately assess the patient’s condition.
• Requests interpret and act upon relevant diagnostic tests and procedures.
• Interpret, convey and act upon complex and conflicting information to MDT members/patients/relatives including in possible stressful situations, which may be delicate or offensive in nature (i.e. breaking bad news).
• Act as a clinical expert providing continuous support to the nursing staff and other MDT members within and outside designated area of work.
• Undertake advanced (invasive and non-invasive) procedures pertaining to patient need, in accordance with appropriate training and clinical supervision.
• Prescribe medication in accordance with current legislation and trust policy. Specifically, to prescribe parenteral nutrition and medications for short bowel syndrome.
• Perform clinic review of nutrition patients, providing support for consultants.
• Lead on service improvement
• Develop self-supported remote follow up clinic and provide support for nursing staff that run this service.
• Provide unsupervised support for acute medical admissions unit and emergency department including clinical review of day ward attenders
• Maintain comprehensive, contemporaneous and accurate nursing/medical records and documentation, utilising information technology where available to facilitate caseload management.
• Effectively manage acute life-threatening conditions in accordance with current ALS/ATLS/ALERT guidelines (as appropriate at area of work/need).
• Act as a role model through demonstration of high standards of practice, providing a clinical environment that motivates and encourages effective working partnerships.
• Participate in multidisciplinary ward rounds/board rounds, case conferences, clinical and audit meetings.
• Gain informed consent from patients for procedures undertaken by self or on behalf of others, both written and verbal, according to Trust policy.
• Provide evidence-based specialist knowledge and advice to patients, families/carers throughout the patient’s journey to meet their physical, emotional and psychological needs.
• Provide clinical expertise in the management of patients utilising specialist theoretical and clinical skills.
• Facilitate and support unit co-ordinators/ward managers to develop effective working relationships with the multi-disciplinary team to enhance the care and management of patients.
• Act as an autonomous practitioner exercising judgement, discretion and decision making in clinical care.
• Undertake nurse prescribing as part of designated role and provide autonomous practitioners.
• To support junior medical staff, sharing clinical workload and allowing junior doctors to achieve training and development requirements.

LEADERSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT
• Ensuring that the patient experience remains the focal point for service improvement within the Directorate.
• Provide clinical support to complaints and SIRI/SUI investigations.
• Support senior staff and clinical teams in maximising flow of patients through units to meet elective and emergency demand, utilising leadership and expert clinical skills.
• To contribute effectively to service developments both within the directorate and at strategic level.
• Attend Gastroenterology Governance and Business Meetings.
• To act as a role model by demonstrating excellent communication and listening skills with patients, relatives and staff.
• Active involvement in Senior Nursing Forum.
• Promote effective team working within nursing and medical staff on Gastroenterology wards.
• Provide support for senior nursing staff in relation to staff development and complaints.
• Participate in the recruitment and selection of staff.
• Lead/guide nursing and medical staff in the appropriate and timely care of the patient.
• Network locally, regionally and nationally to share and exchange ideas and principles.
• Provide an effective leadership role in contributing to own departmental issue pertaining to clinical governance agendas and shared governance within the Trust e.g. maintaining standards, risk management, clinical audit and research, standard setting, benchmarking, evidence-based practice, etc.
• To provide leadership to nursing staff and junior doctors regarding training and development ensuring the delivery of consistent high-quality care.
• To support Trust Management Teams with ongoing clinical care provision and assist with safe, effective flow through the Trust.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• Adherence to Clinical Nurse Specialist competency framework
• Attend mentor meetings with respective Consultants.
• Take responsibility for one’s own professional development and continually assess and acknowledge areas for development as they arise.
• Raise awareness of specialty conditions within area of practice by teaching and providing education across Gastroenterology, including specialist nutrition reviews.
• Support in the facilitation of an appropriate learning/practice environment for nursing, medical and Physician Associate students and new starters providing direct supervision and training.
• Assist in identified training and educational needs of the nursing staff/medical staff and participate in its delivery.
• Provide clinical supervision, mentorship, preceptorship and tuition to nursing and medical staff within the Medical Care Group.

CLINICAL GOVERNANCE
• Develop good working relationships with medical and nursing staff and other members of the multidisciplinary team within and other departments within the Trust and external.
• Act in accordance with the NMC guidelines/Code of Professional Conduct
• Attend Trust wide audit.
• Lead the reporting of clinical incidents/concerns and take appropriate action to address any safety and quality issues raised.
• Develop and implement policies and strategies in line with evidence-based practice e.g. NICE/DoH.
• Be involved in identification, development and implementation of relevant policy/guidelines to aid future management by the MDT (e.g. Ambulatory Care pathways).
• Facilitate and identify clinical audit/research and disseminate findings.
• Support, initiate and promote evidence-based practice, contribute to the development, monitoring and evaluation of clinical guidelines, standards and protocols and adhere to professional regulation
• Participation in the critical review of complaints, compliments and significant event analysis with a view to the continual improvement of patient care, ensuring lessons learnt and changes to clinical practice from RCA’s Trust Wide are communicated throughout the directorate and division and acted upon.
• Identify the need and undertake research and clinical audit in order to inform practice and improve the effectiveness of patient care
• Promote patient and public involvement in the development of services to improve patient care.
• Know about the Trust’s local policies/procedures.
• Understand the importance of sharing information, how it can help and the dangers of not sharing information.
• Be responsible for ensuring that there is adherence to child protection and safeguarding vulnerable adult protocols within clinical practice
• Be able to seek advice and report concerns, ensuring that they are listened to.


This advert closes on Tuesday 21 Oct 2025

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