Staff Nurse - SAU

Job Overview

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN NTERNAL ROLE FOR EMPLOYEES OF THE RUH ONLY

Are you a motivated and compassionate nurse looking to work in a fast‑paced, dynamic clinical environment? Join our Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU), a 16‑bedded unit providing high‑quality care to patients requiring urgent surgical assessment and treatment.

SAU specialises in general surgery, ENT, and urology, with a high patient turnover that offers excellent opportunities to build and develop a wide range of clinical skills. In addition, we run a Surgical Same Day Emergency Care (SDEC) service, comprising a dedicated waiting area and eleven trolley spaces, enabling rapid assessment and timely decision‑making for our patients.

We operate

24 hours a day, delivering safe, effective, and patient‑centred care, and you’ll be supported by a friendly, experienced multidisciplinary team committed to excellence and continuous improvement.

This is an exciting opportunity for nurses who thrive in a busy environment, enjoy variety, and are passionate about delivering outstanding care.

Main duties of the job

As a Staff Nurse, you will act as a Named Nurse, maintaining professional accountability for assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating programmes of care within a supportive team‑nursing framework.

You will play a key role in coordinating patients’ discharge arrangements in line with the RUH Discharge Policy, ensuring safe, timely, and well‑planned transitions of care. Working collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team, you will promote a patient‑focused approach, placing dignity, choice, and compassion at the heart of everything you do.

An important part of the role is supporting and educating patients and their carers, providing clear information to help them make informed decisions and adopt healthier lifestyles where appropriate. You will ensure all patient documentation is completed accurately and to Trust standards, while maintaining confidentiality at all times.

You will also contribute to maintaining a safe and well‑organised ward/department environment, support the development and monitoring of protocols and care pathways, and actively promote effective communication across the team.

Working for our organisation

We are proud to be part of BSW Hospitals Group - a formal partnership between the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. With a combined workforce of over 17, 600 colleagues, and budget of 1.6 billion the Group is united by a common purpose to deliver the best possible care to over 1 million people.

We are creating a health and care system that works with the people we care for, reducing the differences people currently face in access, experience and outcomes, improving the experience of our colleagues and tackling shared challenges like sustainability and finances. Every improvement we make across our Group will be guided by what creates the greatest benefit for our colleagues, our patients, our communities and our partners.

By working together, we make a real difference for our patients, each other, and our community. Every role matters in delivering the exceptional, person‑centred care we’re proud of.

We’re committed to a compassionate, inclusive culture where kindness is championed, differences are valued, and diversity makes us stronger.

We want to support you to thrive, taking your career to its full potential. We prioritise staff wellbeing – and yes, we even have a pool!

Discover what it’s like to live and work in Bath, explore our RUH staff benefits, and learn how we’re building healthcare for the future through the Dyson Cancer Centre and our commitment to research.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

Acting as a Named Nurse, to maintain accountability for assessing, planning,

implementing and evaluating programmes of care within the framework of team

nursing.- To co-ordinate the patients’ discharge arrangements in accordance with the RUH

Discharge Policy.- To promote a patient focused approach to care in collaboration with all relevant health

professionals.- To educate patients and their carers as required where a need has been identified.- To provide information which enables patients to make choices about adopting a healthy

lifestyle.- To complete patient documentation to Trust standard.- To maintain a safe ward/department environment.- To assist in establishing and monitoring protocols/care pathways.- To participate in the promotion and maintenance of effective communication.- To ensure patient confidentiality

Person specification

Essential

Essential criteria

• NMC registered

Desirable

Essential criteria

• Surgical experience

Please note - Due to recent changes in UK immigration and visa rules applicants who do not currently have the right to work in the UK may not be considered unless an alternative right to work solution can be provided. Candidates requiring sponsorship (or will need sponsorship at the end of a current visa e.g. those with graduate visa's) should review the eligibility criteria on the gov.uk website before applying: Prove your right to work to an employer: Overview - GOV.UK

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if we receive a high number of applications. We strongly encourage you to complete and submit your application in good time to ensure it can be considered.

Documents to download

• B5 (PDF, 341.1KB)
• Join the RUH (PDF, 1.3MB)

Further details / informal visits contact

Name Sophie Boorman / Hannah Walton Job title Senior sister Email address ***email_hidden*** Telephone number 01225825652