Job overview
A unique 4-month opportunity to lead safe and effective discharges while ensuring excellent patient care in the Patient Lounge through winter.
We are seeking a motivated and experienced Registered Nurse to join our team as IDS Patient Lounge Senior Staff Nurse (Discharge Coordinator & Patient Lounge) on a fixed-term basis from December 2025 to March 2026. This is a key role within the Trust, providing senior nursing input to both the Integrated Discharge Service and the Patient Lounge, supporting safe, efficient, and patient-centred discharge processes across UCLH during the winter period.
The successful candidate will play a vital role in coordinating safe, timely, and effective transfers of care from UCLH to community services, while also ensuring high standards of care, safety, and comfort for patients within the Patient Lounge. Working as part of the multidisciplinary team, the postholder will contribute to improving patient flow, preventing unnecessary readmissions, and enhancing the overall patient experience.
This hybrid position offers a unique and exciting opportunity for a skilled healthcare professional to further develop leadership, coordination, and discharge planning expertise in a dynamic and innovative environment. The role also provides scope to influence service development, support junior colleagues, and ensure patients remain at the centre of every discharge decision.
Main duties of the job
Dual Role: Patient Lounge Management + Hospital-Wide Discharge Coordination o The Band 6s will not only oversee the patient lounge but will also function as discharge coordinators, supporting wards with both complex and straightforward discharge planning with the support of the IDS senior team. o This dual responsibility enhances efficiency, reduces reliance on junior staff, and ensures that discharge activity is aligned with hospital priorities for flow this winter. Key responsibilities include: • Leading and coordinating discharge planning across multidisciplinary teams • Operate the Patient Lounge service until 10pm on weekdays and between 8am–6pm on weekends, working flexibly to meet service needs. • Ensuring seamless transitions of care between acute and community settings • Collaborating with patients and their families, internal departments, and external healthcare partners • Promoting best practices in discharge planning to improve patient outcomes • Supporting the safe, efficient, and effective running of the Patient Lounge, ensuring a positive patient experience during the discharge process We are looking for someone who is proactive, well-organised, and committed to delivering high-quality patient care. Prior experience in discharge coordination or a similar healthcare role is highly desirable. To be successful in this role, applicants must have a keen interest in improving the patient experience of discharge planning and patient flow across the wards, while ensuring continuity of care between the acute and community setting.
Working for our organisation
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is one of the most complex NHS trusts in the UK, serving a large and diverse population. We provide academically led acute and specialist services, to people from the local area, from throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. Our vision is to deliver top-quality patient care, excellent education, and world-class research.
We provide first-class acute and specialist services across eight sites:
• University College Hospital (incorporating the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Wing)
• National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery
• Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital
• Eastman Dental Hospital
• Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine
• University College Hospital Macmillan Cancer Centre
• The Hospital for Tropical Diseases
• University College Hospitals at Westmoreland Street
We are dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of many complex illnesses. UCLH specialises in women’s health and the treatment of cancer, infection, neurological, gastrointestinal and oral disease. It has world class support services including critical care, imaging, nuclear medicine and pathology.
At UCLH, we have a real ‘One Team’ ethos, and our values – safety, kindness, teamwork and improving, are central to the way we work. This is supported by our staff, who voted us as the #1 NHS Acute Trust to work for in the whole of England.
We are committed to sustainability and have pledged to become a carbon net zero health service, embedding sustainable practice throughout UCLH. We have set an ambitious target of net zero for our direct emissions by 2031 and indirect emissions by 2040