About Us
DaVita UK delivers life-saving kidney care to over 2,000 patients across England & Wales. DaVita UK is one of the 14 countries which form DaVita International focusing on transforming care and improving quality of life for people receiving dialysis treatment globally. When you join the DaVita Village, you’re joining a winning team with Community First, Company Second culture

We’re proud to be an independent, nurse-led provider, working in partnership with the NHS to deliver the highest standards of care using cutting-edge technology in welcoming, modern environments.

Role Overview
We’re looking for a Head of Nursing to join our Nursing, Quality and Clinical Governance Team. In DaVita, we champion a Community First, Company Second culture. As the Head of Nursing, you’ll be integral to promoting this, leading the way, and creating a great place to work for teammates.

The Head of Nursing is the organisation’s senior operational professional nursing leader, providing visible, credible and compassionate leadership across renal dialysis services. The postholder supports the delivery of safe, effective, person-centred and evidence-based care across a geographically dispersed network of clinics.

Working with the Director of Nursing and Quality, Medical Director, operational leaders, Clinic Managers, nephrologists and NHS partners, the postholder translates nursing, quality and patient-safety priorities into reliable clinical practice. The role provides professional leadership and assurance for nursing standards, clinical competence, education, workforce capability, clinical risk, patient safety, safeguarding and continuous quality improvement.

A strong clinical presence is essential. The postholder will engage directly with patients, nurses and clinic leaders and ensure that learning from incidents, complaints, audit, patient experience and clinical outcomes leads to demonstrable and sustained improvement.

Professional nursing leadership

• Provide senior professional leadership to the nursing workforce across all renal dialysis services.
• Act as a visible and accessible senior nurse, promoting compassionate care, professional accountability and continuous improvement.
• Advise senior leaders, Clinic Managers and nursing teams on complex nursing, professional and clinical-practice matters.
• Promote practice consistent with the NMC Code, organisational policy and evidence-based standards.
• Provide leadership on scope of practice, delegation, supervision and professional accountability.
• Ensure the nursing voice informs organisational clinical and operational decisions.
• Champion openness, inclusion, psychological safety and learning.

Renal dialysis clinical practice

• Provide senior nursing expertise for the safe delivery of haemodialysis and ensure standards reflect current evidence, professional guidance and contractual requirements.
• Lead and assure practice relating to haemodialysis treatment and monitoring; vascular access assessment; AV fistula and graft care; central venous catheter management; infection prevention and control; medicines management; recognition and escalation of deterioration; intradialytic hypotension and other complications; fluid management; vascular access incident prevention; emergency response; safeguarding; nutrition and hydration; falls prevention; patient education; and supported self-management.
• Work with medical and nursing colleagues to ensure clinical pathways and escalation arrangements are clear, safe and consistently implemented.

Quality and clinical governance

• Work with the Director of Nursing and Quality to maintain effective clinical governance arrangements and provide appropriate nursing assurance to relevant committees.
• Review clinical quality indicators and workforce data to identify variation, deterioration, emerging risk and opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure concerns have proportionate improvement plans, accountable owners, timescales and escalation arrangements.
• Undertake clinical visits, quality reviews and professional nursing assurance visits across clinics.
• Support dashboards covering incidents, vascular access events, infection, medicines, hospital transfers, clinical deterioration, emergency events, falls, complaints, safeguarding, experience, vacancies, turnover, training, competency and audit.

Patient safety and learning

• Provide senior nursing leadership for the identification, management and reduction of patient-safety risks.
• Support implementation of the NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework where applicable to organisational and contractual arrangements.
• Participate in or lead proportionate learning responses, including After Action Reviews, SWARM reviews, multidisciplinary case reviews, thematic reviews, clinical audit and structured investigations.
• Ensure learning is translated into practice change and monitored for effectiveness and sustainability.
• Promote human factors, systems thinking, restorative approaches and psychological safety, while maintaining appropriate professional accountability.
• Identify recurring themes and systemic risks across the clinic network.

Clinical deterioration and emergency care

• Lead systems for recognising and responding to deteriorating patients in satellite dialysis settings.
• Ensure appropriate observation, escalation and emergency-response processes are embedded in nursing practice.
• Support implementation and evaluation of NEWS2 or another approved track-and-trigger system where used.
• Ensure nurses understand escalation routes and responsibilities when urgent medical assessment or transfer is required.
• Review significant deterioration events, emergency transfers and resuscitation events to identify learning.

Nursing education and clinical competence

• Provide strategic leadership for nursing education, competence and professional development.
• Maintain an organisation-wide competency framework with Practice Development Nurses, educators, Clinic Managers and operational leaders.
• Assure induction, renal education, preceptorship, competency assessment, mandatory training, simulation, resuscitation, medicines, vascular access and deterioration training.
• Ensure education priorities respond to incidents, audit findings, outcomes and capability gaps.
• Develop clinical career pathways, succession plans and future nursing leaders.

Professional practice and NMC standards

• Promote compliance with the NMC Code and provide senior professional advice when concerns arise about practice, behaviour or competence.
• Support fair, proportionate and learning-focused management of professional practice concerns with HR and senior nursing leadership.
• Support revalidation and continuing professional development and act as a role model for integrity, professionalism and compassionate leadership.

Patient experience and involvement

• Ensure the patient voice informs nursing practice, education, service development and improvement.
• Review experience and complaint themes and ensure learning results in demonstrable change.
• Promote shared decision-making, supported self-management, dignity, privacy, equality and culturally responsive care.
• Ensure reasonable adjustments and individualised approaches are implemented for people with additional needs.

Safeguarding, infection prevention and medicines safety

• Provide senior nursing leadership for safeguarding with designated leads, including Mental Capacity Act, consent and best-interest principles.
• Work with the Infection Prevention and Control lead to assure standards relating to vascular access, central venous catheters, equipment and the clinical environment.
• Review significant or recurring infection events and ensure appropriate action and learning.
• Provide professional leadership for safe medicines administration, nursing medicines competence and reduction of medicines-related risk.

Clinical audit and quality improvement

• Promote the Model for Improvement, PDSA cycles, audit and feedback, and appropriate statistical process control.
• Ensure programmes use clear outcome, process and balancing measures.
• Help nursing teams use data for improvement as well as retrospective assurance.
• Identify unwarranted variation, understand contributory factors and spread effective practice.

Regulatory and external assurance

• Support compliance with relevant requirements of the Care Quality Commission, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, NHS England, NHS Wales, commissioners, the NMC, NICE, the UK Kidney Association and applicable renal service specifications.
• Participate in inspections and external reviews and support clinics to evidence safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led services.
• Contribute to organisational responses and improvement plans arising from regulatory or commissioning reviews.

Policy, leadership and culture

• Lead or contribute to evidence-based clinical policies, procedures, pathways and standard operating procedures, and assess their implementation in practice.
• Promote compassionate, inclusive and visible leadership and an environment in which staff can raise concerns and challenge unsafe practice.
• Coach senior nurses and Clinic Managers, recognise nursing achievement and contribute to the nursing strategy.

Management responsibilities

• Lead and line-manage designated senior nursing, practice-development and education roles.
• Set objectives, undertake performance reviews and support talent management and succession planning.
• Manage delegated nursing, education or quality budgets and prioritise resources according to patient risk and organisational objectives.
• Participate in recruitment and selection for senior clinical and nursing appointments.
• Deputise for the Director of Nursing and Quality within agreed delegated authority.

Key working relationships
Internal: Director of Nursing and Quality; Managing Director: Medical; Director of Ops and Clinical; Regional Operations Managers; Clinic Managers; Practice Development Nurses; Clinica Support Specialists; nurses and healthcare assistants; pharmacy; infection prevention; safeguarding; HR; governance; digital and data teams.
External: Consultant nephrologists; renal multidisciplinary teams; NHS Trust renal services; Integrated Care Boards and commissioners; NHS England and NHS Wales stakeholders; CQC and HIW; UK Kidney Association; higher education institutions; professional networks; patients, relatives and representative groups.

Key performance indicators
Indicators will be agreed through the performance and governance framework and may include:

• nursing clinical quality indicators and patient outcomes;
• serious patient-safety events, vascular access incidents and infection rates;
• medication incidents, deterioration and escalation compliance, emergency transfers and resuscitation events;
• clinical audit, competency and mandatory training;
• patient experience, complaints, safeguarding and reasonable adjustments;
• implementation and effectiveness of incident-learning and quality-improvement actions;
• regulatory and contractual compliance.
• Medical Outcomes and clinical KPIs

Performance should be interpreted using trends, variation, context and patient outcomes rather than relying only on arbitrary compliance thresholds.

What can you expect when you join?

• Competitive Salary
• 27 days annual leave including 8 days bank holidays.
• Company Pension Scheme.
• Company Car
• Life cover equivalent to 3 times annual salary
• Employee discount shopping schemes on major brands and retailers
• Electric car scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Holiday purchase scheme
• Broad range of learning opportunities, such as professional qualifications, collective/individual training, and personalised support programmes
• Attractive Employee Referral Rewards Scheme
• End of Year Voucher
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to a mental wellbeing
• An exciting, collaborative and driven multinational environment.
• A “community first, company second” culture based on Core Values that really matter.
• To live our mission: To be the Provider, Partner, and Employer of Choice.
• Dedication: above all, to caring for our patients and teammates

Location: National / multi-site – England and Wales
Travel: Regular travel across dialysis clinics and corporate locations
Salary: £80,000–£85,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Indicative appointment point: Approximately £82,500
Variable pay: Up to 10% annual performance bonus, subject to scheme rules
Responsible for: Senior nursing team, practice development and education function, and designated nursing leads

We are an equal opportunities employer.