Health Improvement Advisor for Tobacco Dependency

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen to join our passionate and committed team of Health Improvement Advisors for Tobacco Dependency. You’ll be part of a small, friendly, and motivated team delivering Inpatient and Maternity Tobacco Dependency Services across our hospitals.

In this rewarding role, you’ll work directly with acute inpatients, providing compassionate, evidence‑based support to help them quit smoking. A hospital admission can be a pivotal moment for many long-term smokers and even just staying smoke free during their hospital stay, greatly improves health outcomes. This includes delivering personalised behavioural support and ensuring timely access to Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) and onward referral to community stop smoking services as well as following patients up at 28 days to check their progress and offer further support.

You’ll also contribute to training clinical staff, promoting the delivery of Very Brief Advice (VBA) and accurate recording of smoking status, while leading by example to embed a strong Smoke Free culture. You may also on occasion, support our maternity smoke free service.

We’re looking for enthusiastic individuals with a passion for health promotion and behaviour change, excellent communication skills, strong attention to detail, and confidence using complex IT systems. This service plays a vital role in delivering the NHS Long Term Plan and Saving Babies Lives, offering the chance to make a meaningful difference to patient care.

Main duties of the job

This role supports the delivery of the core aims of the Tobacco Dependency Programme, in line with the NHS Long Term Plan by providing Tobacco Dependency treatment in Acute Inpatient settings. Working as part of a Trust‑wide team across all University Hospitals Sussex sites, you will work directly with Acute inpatients in CHICHESTER, delivering support through evidenced based personalised behavioural support, NRT and onward referral.

You will have strong record‑keeping and IT skills, enabling you to work confidently across multiple clinical systems and maintain accurate databases for national outcomes reporting. Excellent communication and rapport‑building skills are essential, including the ability to use Motivational Interviewing techniques. You will work both collaboratively within a cross‑site team and independently, managing patient consultations with minimal direct supervision. You will build excellent relationships with clinical teams in wards to support early identification and management of tobacco dependence for identified smokers.

The role also includes delivering training to clinical staff on the importance of providing Very Brief Advice to support smoking cessation. You will lead by example, helping to embed and sustain a Smoke Free culture across the Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please note: This role does not meet the minimum criteria for visa sponsorship under the current UK immigration rules, which set specific salary and skill thresholds. As such, we are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. Applicants will therefore need to already have the right to work in the UK to be considered. We include this information at the outset to provide clarity and avoid unnecessary inconvenience for applicants.

If you do not meet the sponsorship requirements, and you are applying using a Graduate visa as your right to work, you must have a minimum of 18 months remaining on your visa at time of application.

Please refer to the Job Description for a detailed outline of the main responsibilities for the role of Health Improvement Advisor for Tobacco Dependency.