Job overview
As a Band 6 Staff Nurse within our Emergency Medical Receiving Unit (EMRU) and Acute Receiving Unit (ARU), you will play a key leadership role in delivering high‑quality, safe, and efficient care within our fast‑paced acute admissions areas. You will provide advanced clinical assessment, support early recognition of deterioration, and coordinate initial treatment for patients presenting with undifferentiated acute medical needs.
You will act as a visible clinical leader on shift—managing acuity, overseeing patient flow, and ensuring effective delegation across the nursing team. Working closely with the multidisciplinary team, you will help facilitate timely senior review, diagnostics, treatment, and safe onward transfer or discharge.
Band 6 nurses in EMRU/ARU support the development of junior colleagues, supervise students, and contribute to a culture of learning, safety, and continuous improvement. You will play an active role in maintaining high governance standards, supporting key pathways such as sepsis, acute cardiac care, respiratory deterioration, frailty, and other time‑critical conditions.
This role offers an excellent opportunity to further develop advanced acute care skills, leadership capability, and contribute to shaping safe, responsive patient care in our emergency medical pathway.
Main duties of the job
Provide advanced clinical assessment and early interventions for patients presenting with undifferentiated acute medical conditions. Act as the shift coordinator, managing patient flow, monitoring acuity levels, and ensuring safe and effective deployment of staff. Lead on early recognition and escalation of deteriorating patients using NEWS2, clinical judgement, and established escalation pathways. Support timely senior medical review, diagnostics, and initial treatment, ensuring care is delivered in line with national and Trust guidelines. Supervise, mentor, and provide clinical support to Band 5 nurses, HCAs, TNAs, and students, fostering a positive learning environment. Ensure safe delegation of tasks and maintain oversight of clinical workload across the unit. Contribute to high standards of patient safety through robust handovers, medication safety, sepsis/ACS/NIV pathways, VTE assessment, and safeguarding processes. Work collaboratively with the MDT—including medical teams, pharmacy, therapies, site flow, ED, AMU/wards, and specialty in‑reach—to maintain smooth and efficient patient journeys. Support the delivery of quality improvement, audits, incident reporting, and pathway development, promoting continuous service development. Ensure accurate and timely documentation using EPR, electronic observations, e‑prescribing, and real‑time monitoring systems. Uphold infection prevention standards, professional accountability, and Trust values at all times.
Working for our organisation
What does Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust offer you?
As part of our BHT family, you’ll benefit from learning and development opportunities to support your career progression.
We offer flexible and agile working opportunities, alongside your NHS benefits of generous annual leave entitlement, pension and access to NHS discount schemes.
We provide a range of health and wellbeing services to promote a healthy, happy workforce.
Why work for us?
Our vision is to provide outstanding care, support healthy communities and be a great place to work.
Our mission is to provide personal and compassionate care every time.
Our CARE values are collaborate, aspire, respect and enable.
Person specification
.SKILLS & Competencies
Essential criteria
1. Ability to organise and manage day to day departmental activities and the activities of large multidisciplinary team within this
2. Communication skills – able to relate and communicate with patients and staff at all levels and from different professions. Adapts communication style as necessary and is able to work with and through others
3. Team building and working skills – able to lead a team to achieve results
4. Understanding of the issues pertaining to clinical risk management
5. Ability to utilise research in clinical practice
6. Problem solving skills – able to respond to unexpected issues and provide first line response and to identify appropriate sources of secondary support
7. Highly self-motivated – Possesses high internal work standards, sets themselves and helps others to set attainable goals; wants to do things better, to improve, to be more effective and efficient; measure progress against target
8. Flexibility – Able to adapt to ensure achievement of objectives within constantly changing situations and environments
9. Customer focused – committed to ensuring a positive hospital experience for patients and their relatives/ carers
10. IT/Computer Skills
Desirable criteria
11. Understanding of the issues pertaining to change management
KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE
Essential criteria
12. Demonstrate clinical expertise, relevant to the area
13. Demonstrable interest in and commitment to the professional development of others
14. Able to contribute to the development of students, nurses and oneself
15. Able to contribute to develop the workplace as a learning environment
16. Awareness and understanding of current health issues and in particular to demonstrate a good understanding of the NHS Plan and recent initiatives
Desirable criteria
17. Previous experience of leading change in a clinical environment
18. An understanding of HR processes and issues pertaining to staff management
19. An understanding of nursing issues in relation to finance management
EDUCATION, QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Essential criteria
20. 1 st Level Registered General Nurse
21. Further professional studies relevant to the clinical area
22. Mentorship programme or equivalent teaching qualification
Desirable criteria
23. Degree in Nursing or Equivalent
SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES
Essential criteria
24. There is an expectation that all staff will work cross site
PPE requirements: Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust requires all colleagues to wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) in accordance with our infection prevention and control procedures.
COVID-19 and Flu vaccinations remain the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the viruses when working in our healthcare settings. We encourage our staff to be vaccinated when recommended.
Application deadline: This post will close on the closing date stated at midnight, however if we receive a large number of applications or there is a change in circumstance, we may be required to close a job before the advertised date.
Application information: If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records (ESR) system.
Shortlisting: The monitoring and safeguarding sections are not made visible to the shortlisting panel. The safeguarding section may be made visible to the interview panel, dependent on the role being recruited into.
Travel expenses: It is Trust policy that travel expenses for interviews will not be reimbursed.
Smoking: All Trust sites are NO SMOKING. Smoking in all areas of the buildings and premises is prohibited.
Employer certification / accreditation badges