Neonatal Staff Nurse (NQN)

Job summary

**Please ensure you upload a copy of your CV when submitting your application and provide information on previous or current placements.**

NHS Band 5 Salary: £32,073 - £39,043 per annum

Hours per Week: full time 37.5

Contract type: 3 X Permanent

If you are recently qualified or completing a Paediatric Nursing Degree, this year and are eager to build your career in neonatal nursing come and start your journey with us.

For this post we can only accept applications from students who have completed or are currently completing their qualification at a University in the UK and are due to qualify in 2026

Are you ready to become a NICU nurse?

Portsmouth Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are excited to be able to expand their nursing team and have vacancies for newly qualified nurses.

Main duties of the job

Job Purpose:

• Ensuring high quality nursing care is coordinated and delivered using a family focused model of practice.
• Work as part of a cohesive multidisciplinary team ensuring patient care is delivered smoothly and efficiently.
• The expectations within this job description will be achieved through hands-on clinical practice, education and training and research.

About us

Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veterans' status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

Details

• Date posted: 21 August 2026
• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 5
• Salary: £32,073 to £39,043 a year
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time
• Reference number: REF2509E
• Job locations: Queen Alexandra Hospital, Southwick Hill Road, Portsmouth, England, PO6 3LY, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

As a team, we have a clear vision for our future, to ensure we offer all staff the best opportunities within their career, and we are here to support and encourage you to develop expand your experience and knowledge of neonatal care.

Working on a Level 3 Bliss accredited tertiary neonatal intensive care unit you would experience caring for some of the most complex and pioneering medical care, including total body cooling, HFOV, Nitric Oxide Therapy and Laser ROP. You will also have access to extended role development in retrieval and neonatal life support, alongside rotational opportunities in Neonatal Outreach, Family Integrated and developmental care, Infant feeding, Education and Research teams.

We know that the secret to our success is through investment in our team, and so in return for your commitment and enthusiasm, we promise you:

Fully supported Induction and Orientation programme tailored to your needs. Supportive career development, including access to our neonatal preceptorship programme and qualified in speciality training. Access to continuing professional development at Southampton and Portsmouth Universities. A focus on staff wellbeing and emotional support, including access to our onsite wellness centre and training, including emotional resilience. Flexible working opportunities. NHS benefits, including Pension and Discount Schemes.

These first days are some of the hardest for our families if you are ready to face this journey with them, and make a real and lasting difference, we can't wait to meet you.

Key Responsibilities

• Promote and set high standards of nursing care and maintain the delivery of quality care within the trust policies, protocols and guidelines.
• Provide and deliver a high standard of evidence-based nursing care through the assessment, planning, and evaluating of individual patients needs based on evidence. Initiate and co-ordinate care in the clinical area for a specified group of patients.
• Recognise and respond to a change in patient status undertaking first line interventions within scope of practice and refer on to the appropriate clinician as required.
• Actively promote safe and effective working practices to prevent harm to the patients within your care and take part in safety audits to maintain high quality standards.
• Report, escalate and manage patient safety events and clinical emergencies as detailed in Trust-wide and local protocols and procedures.
• Be proactive in the prevention and management of complaints (formal and those via Patient Advice and Liaison Service) and when they occur investigate and respond in a timely manner.
• In conjunction with other team members, participate in quality monitoring and improvements via involvement in the Portsmouth Bundle.
• Contribute to a research culture within the nursing team to identify current knowledge and deliver evidence-based care.

For full job details, please refer to enclosed job description.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).