Unit Senior Nurse
Job reference: 260474
Salary: Band 8A (£65,125 - £70,303)
Job closing date: 21/10/2026
Job Type: Nursing and Midwifery
Location: Kirklands - NHSL Headquarters
Employment type: Fixed-term or Secondment
Hours Per Week: 36
Employer (NHS Board): NHS Lanarkshire
Department: Nursing and Midwifery

About The Organisation
Here at NHS Lanarkshire, we put the patient at the heart of everything we do. Each colleague within the organisation plays a key role in how we deliver our healthcare services.

We proudly serve a population of 655,000 across rural and urban communities in both North and South Lanarkshire. NHS Lanarkshire is comprised of Acute Services (which currently provide hospital based services over 3 main sites), Corporate & Property & Support Services, North and South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnerships which provide integrated primary healthcare and social care services to local communities and surrounding areas.

The Role
This Senior Nurse post will provide clinical leadership and specialist nursing expertise to support the delivery of the Non-Medicines Prescribing Optimisation Programme (NMPOP) across NHS Lanarkshire. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and motivated nurse leader to shape and deliver a high-profile NHS Lanarkshire transformation programme, leading innovative prescribing optimisation work that will lead to service redesign, improve patient care, reduce unwarranted variation and influence practice across primary and community care services.

The post holder will provide strategic and professional leadership and deliver clinically led review, optimisation, audit and improvement activity relating to high-cost non-medicines prescribing, including wound management products, urinary products, stoma products, oral nutritional supplements and other priority workstreams identified within the programme.

The post holder will work collaboratively with GP practices, district nursing teams, treatment room staff, specialist nurses, community nursing services, dietetics, pharmacy teams and other stakeholders to:

• Improve formulary compliance.
• Reduce unwarranted variation in prescribing.
• Support person-centred optimisation of non-medicines prescribing.
• Deliver prescribing reviews and service redesign initiatives.
• Contribute to the achievement of recurrent prescribing savings while maintaining patient safety and clinical effectiveness.
• Develop and embed sustainable governance, audit and reporting processes that support ongoing prescribing optimisation.

The post offers a unique opportunity to combine senior clinical leadership, quality improvement and service redesign, working with multidisciplinary teams to deliver sustainable change and leave a lasting legacy across NHS Lanarkshire. It would be suitable for a forward-thinking senior nurse, providing the opportunity to lead a Board-wide improvement programme, influence strategic decision-making and drive measurable improvements in quality, safety, patient experience and value.

Please note this is a fixed term post until 31/03/2028. Where a post only has temporary funding and an existing member of NHS Lanarkshire staff wishes to apply, this will be treated as a secondment. The employee MUST already have written agreement from their line manager to be released on a secondment before applying for the post.

In this key role, you will:
Clinical Leadership

• Provide professional nursing and clinical advice in support of the Associate Director of Nursing, Unit General Manager, Associate Medical Director, Clinical Directors and Service Managers
• Assist in planning, priority setting and decision making to ensure that patient care and organisational goals are met.

Clinical Governance

• Assess, appraise and critically apply the evidence-base for Clinical Practice.
• Be wholly accountable for his/her own nursing practice and take every reasonable opportunity to sustain and improve the knowledge, skills and values required for safe and effective practice.

Operational Role

• Provide operational line management responsibility for designated Lanarkshire wide services e.g. palliative care, mental health practice development
• Deputise for the Associate Director of Nursing when required, providing professional advice and support to the Divisional Nurse Director on all aspects of the Service.

Public Health

• Identify and promote the need for health improvement and prevention of ill health.
• Participate in identifying health care needs of local population to ensure adequate service provision.

What You'll Bring:

• Registered Nurse with valid NMC Registration
• Educated to/working towards/operating at Masters Level
• Be able to demonstrate knowledge of NHS Scotland's Leadership Qualities framework or equivalent framework
• Management knowledge gained through experience and continuous professional development
• A driving licence is required; this must be a full UK/EU/EEA licence.

What we Offer

• Annual Leave - 35 days including public holidays
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Annual incremental salary progression
• Paid sick leave increasing with length of service
• NHS discounts and more.

NHS Lanarkshire is dedicated to building a diverse workforce where everyone can thrive, develop, and succeed based on their skills, knowledge, and talent - regardless of race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, or care experience* or any other dimension that can be used to differentiate people from one another.
*Care experienced applicants include those who have lived with foster parents, kinship carers, or in residential/secure children's settings.

For informal discussion, please contact Donna Richardson, Deputy Associate Nurse Director – Adult Services & Care Homes in North Lanarkshire on Donna.Richardson@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

If you have any questions about the recruitment process or require support with your application, contact Marion Bisset, Recruitment Administrator on marion.bisset@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

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• Show us the real you: Your application should reflect your skills, experience, and motivations authentically.
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Tip: Think of AI as a helper, not a substitute. We want to understand you, not an AI tool.

Interested?
Full details about the role are provided in the attached Job Description and Person Specification.

Please review our Application Guidance which explain key information including closing dates, amendments, right-to-work requirements, sponsorship eligibility and important points to be aware of before submitting your application.

You can also learn more about working with NHS Lanarkshire by viewing our Information Pack.

Unless otherwise stated, the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CVs will not be accepted.

Supporting Documents
Job Description (DOCX, KB)
Person Specification (DOCX, KB)

Apply through our website.