Senior Sister/Charge Nurse

Working Full Time: 37.5 hours per week

We are pleased to offer an exciting opportunity for an experienced, motivated, and compassionate Senior Sister/Charge Nurse to join the Critical Care Senior Nursing Team at Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced senior critical care nurse to provide compassionate, visible, and effective leadership within a high-acuity critical care environment.

The successful candidate will support the delivery of safe, high-quality, evidence-based care in line with local and national standards, while promoting staff development, patient safety, and continuous service improvement. You will demonstrate a strong commitment to the Trust’s values and ensure these are consistently upheld within everyday practice.

You will be patient-focused and work collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team and Matron to ensure the effective coordination of patient care, staffing, governance, and quality standards across the unit.

You will support and develop the multidisciplinary team, manage clinical priorities within a dynamic environment, and act as a visible role model, promoting professionalism, leadership, and best practice throughout the service.

The post-holder will ensure that all areas of practice adhere to all current NMC guidance.

Establish standards of nursing care and ensure these are delivered at all times by regularly monitoring and evaluating patient outcomes.

You will lead in establishing and maintaining effective communication with patients, relatives and carers to always ensure their involvement in the decisions about treatment, planning and the delivery of their care.

Responsible for the management, supervision and support of all members of the allocated mentor group and others in the absence of their mentor, always acting as a professional role model.

The Trust’s services are provided from three locations:

• The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds.
• Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.
• Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire.

The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery

See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the ‘essential’ criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer ‘YES’ to the question: ‘Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?’

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies which is payable to the DBS Service. Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs will be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.​

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.