Please only attend the Urgent and Emergency Care Centre if you are in need of emergency medical care.
NHS111 is available online to provide advice and signpost to appropriate local services.
Local pharmacists can also provide advice and treatment for most common injuries and illnesses.
We are a small and friendly, values driven Trust which puts our people first in the knowledge that an engaged and empowered workforce leads to good patient care.
It’s our goal to give all those who join our team the tools and the opportunities for them to grow and develop their careers.
Nursing is a dynamic, secure and rewarding career choice. As a Registered Nurse, you will be in demand across the UK and the world.
There are a number of different routes into nursing:
Check out the NHS careers website for more information on becoming a nurse.
Two local universities also have information about how to apply for nursing courses and what experience and qualifications you need to become a nurse:
The Education and Development team are here to support all our student nurses during their time on clinical placement at the Trust. Working together towards the key principles of the Safer Learning Environment Charter, we want to support and help our student nurses grow into our future workforce.
We will ensure all students attending the Trust on a placement are supported and prepared through our induction programme, and that they are offered a wide variety of learning opportunities to meet the requirements of their programme throughout their placement and through to registration.
We do this by:
The majority of early career nursing roles fall within the category of clinical practice, characterised by delivering direct care to patients and boasting the widest choice of roles at a variety of different settings and levels. Registered Nurses are advised to gain a few years' post-qualifying experience after completing preceptorship, before going on to managerial, specialist (enhanced) or advanced roles.
At TRFT, our career tree helps explain the different specialties you can work in. These include:
If you want to experience a clinical role in a different setting, as long as this is at the same banding, we offer a sideways transfer process to help you enjoy new challenges, work with a different patient group, or facilitate a lifestyle choice.
Sideways transfers also help build the range of your clinical experience if and when you do want to progress upwards. The sideways transfer policy is available on the intranet (the Hub).
Ward and department managers or deputy managers help patients by managing the nurses who care for them, drawing together patient experience and the coordination of the multidisciplinary team. They can also play an important role in providing staff with learning and development opportunities.
It’s not only about having line management responsibilities, you can act as a role model by exhibiting excellent values and behaviours, inspiring others, leading on change and implementing best practice.
If you enjoy situations where you can take the lead and like the idea of motivating a team, you may want to consider a leadership role. Leaders use all their resources to make best use of the efforts and ideas of every member of staff. They should be willing to work with change and uncertainty in the spirit of co-operation and respect.
Ask your manager about development opportunities, such as taking charge more often, training and developing new staff, undertaking additional courses and training, etc.
Find out what resources the Trust has to offer staff with regards to leadership. This could be something funded by CPD money (Royal College of Nursing Clinical Leadership Programme, Leadership Academy and any internal courses).
Research leadership initiatives in nursing, subscribe to journals, make contacts on LinkedIn and join professional networks for nurse leaders.
Ask your employer if you can shadow other nurse leaders. Try to shadow leaders from other departments in addition to your own.
Get involved with the Trust and enquire about attending future senior leadership, clinical governance or organisational meetings.
Use your contacts, colleagues, etc. to get in touch with nurses in leadership roles. Ask them if you can take their contact details for future reference.
Study all job vacancies for leadership roles at the level you want (e.g. band 6 / band 7). What roles are out there, and what type of experience and attributes are employers looking for?
Speak to your manager for support, and make sure any goals or aspirations are documented in your one-to-ones and appraisal.
Many nurses are drawn towards specialist roles because they have a particular interest or passion within a certain area of nursing and prefer the idea of being a clinical expert within that area. You could specialise:
Nurses working within specialist roles will have specialist skills, competencies and experience, and practice at an enhanced level. They will also usually have completed or will be working towards post-registration qualifications relevant to their specialist area, such as modules towards a degree pathway, SCPHN courses, or Masters programme. Although they work within a multidisciplinary team, they have a greater deal of autonomy and will be responsible for a caseload or group of patients.
Take it upon yourself to become an expert in your chosen field by reading journals, articles, books, attending conferences, joining professional networks etc.
Seek opportunities to get involved with initiatives, pilots or projects related to your target field.
Volunteer to become the 'link nurse' for your chosen subject within your unit (e.g. infection control, diabetes, nutrition, tissue viability, etc.)
Contact relevant departments, employers or organisations to arrange informal visits.
Ask to shadow specialist nurses.
Use your contacts, colleagues and friends to get in touch with specialist nurses and build up a list of contacts.
Try and network with specialist nurses or with employers, organisations or charities who employ or engage with specialist nurses.
Volunteer with a charity relevant to your chosen specialty for experience and to gain contacts.
Speak to your manager for support, and make sure any goals or aspirations are documented in your one-to-ones and appraisals.
If the idea of developing and using advanced skills, dealing with more complex patients and having more freedom to act appeals to you, you may want to consider an advanced nursing role.
Such roles are characterised by advanced clinical skills and competences, a higher degree of autonomous decision-making, along with the remit to diagnose, treat and prescribe. They require an education to Master’s level, as well as prescribing qualifications. 3 years post registration experience is often required.
Nurses in advanced roles practice across primary, secondary and tertiary care, from general practice, to emergency care, to specialties like paediatrics, neonatal care, cancer care, ophthalmology and orthopaedics. If you think you might be suited to an advanced role, you'll probably want to do some further research before you start applying.
Build up your clinical experience in acute care (can be in a hospital or community).
Keep your eye out for “trainee advanced nurse practitioner” vacancies. You may want to contact your local NHS trust for information.
Shadow nurses in advanced roles. This could be through your networking, informal visits or through your current employer.
Do your research and examine job vacancies for your target role or level to determine what experience or skills employers prefer.
Speak to your manager for support, and make sure any goals or aspirations are documented in your one-to-ones and appraisals.
If you're passionate about learning, enjoy sharing your expertise, or like the idea of supporting others to meet their goals, you may want to consider a role within education or the facilitation of learning and development.
This career path offers a chance to inspire others, and the opportunity to improve patient care by educating and mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Express an interest to your manager about coaching, training, teaching, or supporting colleagues and students. Make sure this goal in documented in your one-to-ones and appraisals.
Put yourself forward for opportunities such as being involved with inductions, acting as a buddy to new starters, designing training material, or project work around learning and development.
Become an educational link, develop communication strategies in area, and develop learning tools for area.
Ask your employer for information about becoming a practice supervisor or practice assessor within your workplace, or discuss support for gaining a mentoring or teaching qualification. You may want to undertake a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Education (PGCHE).
Use your contacts, colleagues, etc. to get in touch with nurses working in education or training roles. Ask them if you can take their contact details for future reference.
Shadow other nurses in educative roles. This could be through your networking, informal visits or through your current employer.
Do your research and study job vacancies within the education field. What experience, qualifications or skills are employers looking for?
Research nursing offers attractive career options, enabling nurses to use core nursing skills, contribute to the development of new evidence and improve patient care.
Opportunities for development may include senior researching roles, leading teams or research facilities (akin to the ward manager role), education or even being principal investigator on studies. Working in research may lead you to become interested in an academic career, and pursue a PhD, or a Professional Doctorate to become an independent nurse researcher.
Contact the research department and request to speak to the lead clinical research nurse for advice, shadowing or short term work placements.
Research whether there are any pilots, projects or initiatives around research, quality improvement, innovation in your organisation and ask to be involved.
Contact relevant organisations and companies to arrange informal visits, to gain more info, insight and contacts.
Shadow nurses in various research roles. This could be through your network, informal visits, or through your current employer.
Use your contacts, colleagues, etc. to get in touch with nurses working in research. Ask them if you can take their contact details for future reference.
Examine research nurse job vacancies to identify what experience, skills, or knowledge employers prefer.
Speak to your manager for support, and make sure any goals or aspirations are documented in your one-to-ones.
Matrons and lead nurses directly manage the ward managers and nurse specialists in their teams. They are vital to delivering high quality care to patients and their relatives. They are instrumental in promoting high standards of clinical care, reducing health inequalities and promoting equality for all, workforce retention and recruitment, staff education and development, compassionate, inclusive leadership and patient safety.
The matron and lead nurses’ role is the cornerstone of improving the quality of patient care. They do this through visible inclusive leadership and engagement with patients and families, frontline staff and senior management teams.
The matron and lead nurses’ role spans all fields within the healthcare setting such as the clinical care groups, infection, prevention and control, palliative care, tissue viability, community teams, safe staffing, education and safeguarding.
The head of nursing will directly manage the matrons and lead nurses in their clinical care groups and be responsible for the delivery of safe and effective nursing care. The head of nursing will be accountable for the delivery of an effective nursing service, including the delivery of a balanced budget and associated financial performance.
Heads of nursing provide key assurance to the board, providing evidence that the organisation is delivering safe care and supporting and developing staff to fulfil their roles.
They provide strong professional and managerial leadership to the general and specialist nursing teams to ensure high quality standards of care, clinical governance and effectiveness, delivering on key national and local performance targets.
Heads of nursing also play a key role in quality improvement across the care groups to help deliver the Trust's strategy and operational plan.
The chief nurse and deputies have a pivotal and transformational role in the quality of care and compassionate practice offered to our patients, now and in the future.
The scope of the role is broad. Chief nurses and deputies navigate a complex set of stakeholders and partners in the service of organisational values and delivering on the NHS Constitution.
Chief nurses can use their influence at board level to ensure that safeguarding, quality of care, patient safety and experience remain the guiding priorities for their organisation, working closely with executive and non-executive colleagues.
Research shows we are happier and more fulfilled when working within jobs that align with our values and priorities. Your values and priorities may be linked to the working environment or scope of a role, such as spending more time with patients, having more autonomy, or having opportunities for progression.
However, they may also be linked to lifestyle or work-life balance, such as being able to work part time, being able to work core hours, working flexibly, working from home, or being able to spend more time with family.
Many of our clinical areas now use team rostering to give you some flexibility and autonomy in building the roster for your clinical team. We also have a flexible working policy which can help you with your working hours and pattern.
Many nurses want to work part time for personal, health, family or lifestyle reasons. If you're already in employment, you may want to ask to drop your hours to work part time, either on a temporary basis or permanent basis.
If you're searching for roles with part time hours, some vacancies may be open to discussion when it comes to contracted hours, so always check the job advert. Even if a role is advertised as full time, you could contact the hiring manager to discuss.
Professional Nurse Advocate (PNA) training provides those on the programme with skills to facilitate restorative supervision to their colleagues and teams, in nursing and beyond. A version of this programme exists already for maternity colleagues, where outcomes point to improved staff wellbeing and retention, alongside improved patient outcomes. The training equips them to listen and to understand challenges and demands of fellow colleagues, and to lead support and deliver quality improvement initiatives in response.
For more information on nursing workforce and education, please contact the Education and Development Team.
To provide a real-life example of clinical academic career development at Rotherham, NHS England have created a poster showing the career path of community matron, Paula Berridge, from community staff nurse to her current PhD study.
Visit our research team's website for more information on our clinical research agenda.