Practice Educator Full Time

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us.

Please see below for detailed job description of the role.

Main duties of the job

Southampton Children’s Hospital Education team and E1 Ocean Ward are looking for an enthusiastic, motivated nurse who is interested in providing clinical support and education within the clinical environment. This is a 9-month fixed term secondment contract to cover maternity leave. We care for children from across the regional cardiac network and carry out surgical and interventional procedures here in Southampton.

You will work alongside our friendly, supportive education and nursing teams to facilitate learning and practice development of registered and non-registered staff and students working on this specialist ward. You will also be involved in the planning and delivery of our regional cardiac education programme.

This job will vary between a clinical and non-clinical focus but is there to assess the quality of practice learning environments and to propose interventions for improvement for all types of learners.

The role also entails developing, delivering and evaluating the education delivery across the area of specialism. As ‘experts’ in the relevant field, the role also supports the delivery of high-quality care to our patients/service users.

Working for our organisation

University Hospital Southampton is one of England’s largest acute teaching Trusts, offering a wide range of learning and development opportunities to support your career aspirations.

Located on the south coast with an international airport and direct rail links to London, Southampton offers an ideal setting to live and work, with the New Forest, South Downs and Jurassic Coast.

We believe that using technology wisely shows strong time management and commitment to innovation. However, personalizing your recruitment application to highlight your unique skills and experiences is crucial. Relying too heavily on generic, AI-generated content instead of drawing from your own strengths and accomplishments may lead to your application being rejected if multiple candidates present identical or similar information.

At UHS we’re committed to providing a flexible working environment where possible. Whether you are balancing family, study, or your wellbeing with your career, we want to support you so you can help our patients.

At UHS, we proudly champion individuality, recognizing that outstanding care is only possible with a diverse, inclusive team. We’re committed to creating an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory environment where everyone feels valued, safe, and empowered to make a meaningful impact in our communities. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to join us in building a healthcare community where everyone can belong, thrive, and contribute.

Roles And Responsibilities

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Ensuring safe and effective patient care through training

• Balance the needs of the service with the educational needs of learners.
• Enables and encourages learners to take responsibility and accountability for their own practice.

Establishing and maintaining an environment for learning

• Encourages learner participation, through equality of opportunities and acknowledgement of diversity; facilitate an open, honest and quality patient focused learning environment.
• Involves the multi professional team in the planning and delivery of coaching, teaching, supervision and/or assessment to support knowledge, skills and behaviours in line with trust values, policies and regulatory body or Higher Education Institution (HEI) requirement.
• Fosters an inclusive learning environment and relationships and where appropriate supports placement of students/learners.
• Ensures safe and appropriate use of educational and teaching resources and equipment.

Teaching and facilitating learning

• Uses a variety of methods to deliver education, adjusting accordingly to learner needs, preferences and neuro diversity where possible.
• Provide supervision, assessment, teaching, mentoring and coaching.
• Ensures that education provision is forward facing with a focus on research, innovation and environment.
• Maintains accurate records e.g. registers and assessments.

Enhancing learning through assessment

• Audits and documents educational progress utilising effective feedback strategies which support development and wellbeing.
• Supports assessment of performance competencies/ proficiency in line with relevant formative and summative criteria.

Supporting and monitoring educational process

• Supports educators and managers in complex decision making relating to student placements and learners’/staff members competence and fitness to practice.

Guiding personal and professional development

• Supports and provides pastoral care to staff and/or learners. Providing constructive feedback on performance and supporting line managers with human resources requirements.
• Supports reflective practice and Continuing Professional Development to support revalidation requirements and lifelong learning.
• Engages with widening participation and career event planning to showcase learning and career opportunities within your sphere of expertise.

Continuing professional development as an educator

• Acts as a role model/mentor through professional values, behaviours and practice and to demonstrate lifelong learning.
• Builds strong and effective relationships across local, divisional, trust-wide and external networks

What We’re Looking For

We’d love to hear from children’s nurses with experience of working in a leadership capacity, who can evidence ongoing education and qualifications appropriate to this speciality. You must be able to demonstrate a compassionate approach to patient care and the public, as well as the ability to meet robust clinical operational and educational demands.

As well as the relevant NMC registration and evidence of proven clinical ability in paediatric nursing, we’re looking for:

• Evidence of on-going personal development
• Proven management and education experience
• Good planning and organisation skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Be supportive and motivate a team to provide safe care of the highest quality to all our patients and their relatives.

The Children’s Hospital offers fantastic training and development opportunities, giving you the best possible platform to achieve the career you want.

Applicants should have post qualifying experience in the relevant specialty, which includes working in an acute paediatric cardiac environment. It is desirable to have the flexibility to work the full range of shift patterns within a 24 hour period.

Attached you will find the person specification document which provides more detail about the essential and desirable skills and experience needed for this role. We highly recommend you review this document and use it when completing your application as these criteria are used by hiring managers as guidance during shortlisting.

For an overview of the main duties of the role please see the ‘Job Description and Main Responsibilities’ section below. To understand the day-to-day responsibilities in more detail please read the full job description document attached.

Person specification

Qualifications, Knowledge And Experience

Essential criteria

• Professional requirements e.g. Registered Nurse or Registered Professional or Non-registered support worker etc.
• Professional knowledge acquired through degree education or equivalent experience
• Mentoring / coaching / education qualification to postgraduate diploma level or equivalent evidence of supporting learners in practice.
• Evidence of ongoing professional development
• Significant experience within relevant field
• Experience of educating others in a formal or informal setting
• Broad awareness of Trust initiatives/pressures

Desirable criteria

• Education at a master’s degree level
• Further education at a master’s degree level in relevant practice area
• Leadership qualification or significant equivalent experience
• Previous Band 6 experience
• Further evidence of speciality competence

Trust Values and Behaviours

Essential criteria

• Patients First
• Always Improving
• Working Together