Ambulance Nurse

Job overview

Are you a Nurse and ready to take the next step in your post-registration career and have a passion for Pre-Hospital Emergency Care? Then our Ambulance Nurse role here at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is the job for you!

As an Ambulance Nurse you will be working as an independent clinician, supported by an Emergency Care Assistant as part of a two-person frontline ambulance crew responding to 999 calls delivering emergency and urgent care to our patients.

Here at SCAS we have embraced Nurses working in frontline roles since the early 2000’s incorporating the breadth of knowledge and skills you bring and share with your new colleagues enhancing our patient care, whilst our Paramedics support you in your pre-hospital practice.

Our training course to prepare Nurses for working in the ambulance environment has evolved over the years and continues to do so in response to feedback but has been running in its current form since 2018 with 10 cohorts having now completed the programme.

We are recruiting for the course starting on 25th August 2025 at our Education centre in Newbury.

We are recruiting for the following stations:

• Milton Keynes
• Stoke Mandeville
• North Harbour

Please be aware that there are stations with limited availability, and our current vacancies at these stations are subject to change and further stations could become available but this isn’t guaranteed.

Main duties of the job

As an Ambulance Nurse you will be working as the clinician on an ambulance with an Emergency Care Assistant or Associate Ambulance Practitioner and be accountable for the assessment, treatment, diagnosis, supplying and administering of medicines, scene management, discharging and referring patients in a range of urgent and emergency presentations in out of hospital settings.

You will be providing clinical leadership, mentorship, including newly qualified paramedics and students to support the delivery of a high-quality patient centered service.

We will support and develop you for the role through:

Our 16-week Pre-Hospital Emergency Care course which includes:

• Classroom learning
• Simulations in our state-of-the-art facilities
• Supervised practice placement
• Level 3 Certificate in Emergency Response Ambulance Driving
• Followed by a supportive 4-month preceptorship period

We are looking for applicants that are:

• Passionate about high quality patient care.
• Professional in everything you do.
• Compassionate and able to remain calm under pressure.
• Wanting a varied and challenging job.
• Able to work independently.
• Emotionally and physically resilient and a good communicator.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You must be able to commit to a full-time 16-week training programme which consists of:

• 1-week Induction
• 4-week Level 3 Certificate in Emergency Response Ambulance Driving course
• 5-week Classroom-based clinical course
• 6-week Clinical Placement with Work-Based Assessments
• Followed by a 4-month ‘preceptorship’ period

Throughout the course there will be a number of assessments including OSCEs, driving, manual handling, Applied Knowledge Test and final portfolio assessment.

It is important that you read through the Job Description & Person Specification for the role before completing your application, you can find these attached.

Detailed information regarding the criteria required for the Ambulance Nurse role is available within the Job Description and Person Specification, however, some of the essential criteria are:

• Educated to degree or diploma level for Nursing
• To be a Registered Nurse (Adult or Children’s) on Sub part 1 of the NMC register as either: - RN1/RNA: Adult Nurse, level 1 or RN8/RNC: Children’s nurse, level 1.
• Have 2 years post-registration experience in clinical practice, ideally in a generalist acute setting such as an Emergency Department, Critical Care or Acute Medical Assessment and/or Community Nursing
• RCUK or Trust Immediate Life Support certificate.
• Have a valid UK full manual B category driving licence and full C1 category licence with no more than 3 penalty points.

Driving is an essential skill for this role, C1 or C1 provisional category manual driving licence is essential at the point of application with no more than 3 penalty points.

We will accept applications from candidates with the manual B category licence, but we ask that you are actively applying for your provisional C1 entitlement on your license when you apply.

All candidates MUST have passed their C1 Theory tests before they will be allocated to our course, with enough time to complete the C1 practical tests, which MUST be passed at least 6 weeks prior to the course start date.

SCAS can support you with gaining your full C1 entitlement! We will support and fund your practical test through a salary sacrifice scheme, however we request that you successfully complete your C1 Theory and Hazard Perception tests and provide us evidence of this before we will book your practical training in.

Applicants who move home as a result of taking up employment with SCAS, may be eligible for assistance with relocation costs and we can offer you up to the sum of £8,000. Relocation expenses will be reimbursed in line with the Trust's relocation policy; further information is available upon request.

In return we can offer…

• Regular clinical updates.
• A progressive clinical career path with an opportunity to develop your career to a specialist practitioner, clinical mentor, team leader, education manager and other roles within our Clinical Coordination Centre.
• Opportunities to get involved in pre-hospital research. SCAS has previously been involved in trials such as Paramedic 1 (Lucas) & Paramedic 2 (adrenaline).
• Using technology to develop staff and improve patient care.
• Commitment to staff welfare and support.
• Investing in staff development through mandatory and non-mandatory training to continue your professional development.

The finer details:

• The induction, driving and classroom elements of the course will take place at the Education Centre of the cohort you are allocated to.
• The placement and Work-Based Assessment and Preceptorship period will all take place at your base station or nearby station in line with relief planning.
• If your application demonstrates that you are what we are looking for, then you will be invited to an online interview which will be conducted via Microsoft Teams.
• Fitness assessments will also be required and will take place from one of our Education Centres in either Bicester, Newbury or Whiteley. Further details will be confirmed to you following shortlisting.
• All successful candidates who are offered a job with us will have to undertake employment checks as part of our recruitment process, including, an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Baring Service) check, clearance from our Occupational Health department, references, ID and right to work verification.
• Our station availability is specific – please check the list of locations that are currently available on this advert before applying. You will be asked to complete a location preference form at conditional offer stage. We will take into account your preferences on where you wish to work, and best match this to our available vacancies at the time. We can’t guarantee placing you in your first preference but we will do very our best.

Top tips:

• Review all person specifications both essential & desirable.
• Fully consider the job you are applying for; what skills/abilities you have to offer, working in a front-line operational setting is extremely rewarding but it can also be both physically & mentally challenging.
• Demonstrate your work journey & why this is the right next step for you.
• Carefully read through your application before submitting.