Lead Advanced Clinical Practitioner - Acute medicine

A Vacancy at University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.

A rare opportunity has arisen for a dynamic Lead Advanced Clinical Practitioner (Band 8B) to join the Acute Medical SDEC team here at UHD.

UHD consist of 3 hospital sites Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, currently there are 2 Acute Medical SDEC services, one at Poole and one at Bournemouth. the Trust is currently undergoing huge transformation under the New Hospital programme with extensive investment across all our UHD sites, this is turn will see Poole hospital transformed into a new planned care site and Bournemouth becoming the main emergency and acute care site.

Acute Medical SDEC at this point will move to a newly designed unit at the Bournemouth site only. This investments means that Bournemouth Hospital will not just have one of the largest Emergency Department in the Country, but also the biggest Acute Medical Admission Units.

The new SDEC will provide the ideal space for the service to move to an SDEC first approach, providing better pathways and earlier access to treatment in a less invasive environment, given patients better access to faster diagnostics and decision making. Promoting safer, high quality care for our patients.

the successful candidate will be expected to work autonomously in their role along side the MDT and other healthcare professionals with in the limitation of scope of practice, whilst encouraging Junior ACP to do the same, supporting them through their professional journey.

To be responsible for the rapid assessment, diagnostics, and treatment of individuals within Medical SDEC/Acute Medicine service using an advanced level of professional accountability, autonomy, and judgement, underpinned by Masters level theory and experience. This includes highly complex decision-making across a broad range of differentiated and undifferentiated individual presentations and complex situations, synthesising information from multiple sources to make appropriate, evidence-based judgements and/or diagnoses.

To provide clinical leadership to the ACP team and work with others within the directorate to determine the priority workload of the team across the department.

To plan and manage complete episodes of care, working in collaboration with the consultants and others, delegating and referring as appropriate, to ensure timely, effective management and optimise health outcomes, in line with the evidence base and nationally recognised best practice.

To play a key operational role and maintain a pro-active approach to managing and leading clinical pathways and flow.

Working closely with a multi-professional team, lead the ACP service in delivery of high quality, performance, and financial frameworks.

To promote and implement service and policy development and redesign, impacting beyond own area and other disciplines, informed by current best practice and evidence-base, in accordance with values-based care of the trust.

UHD are investing, developing and transforming Trust services in line with the New Hospital Programme. As part of this, some services may move site this year or next, either temporarily or permanently. Recruiting Managers will be happy to answer any service-specific questions at interview.

If a role or service relocates as part of a planned move, excess mileage will not be reimbursed. Travel from home to the new work base will be classed as a normal commute. Any other changes will be managed under Trust or national terms and conditions.

UHD has active networks including Women’s, BAME, Pride, EU, Pro Ability, and Armed Forces. We support Disability Confident and Armed Forces Covenant interview schemes.

AI tools may be used, but applications must honestly reflect your own skills and experience. Integrity is key to our recruitment process.

The post holder will undertake the following in

Acute Medicine

Use their expert knowledge and complex decision-making skills in unpredictable situations and making a differential diagnosis.

• Complete a full system physical examination.
• Take a systematic patient history.
• Screen patients for early signs of disease and risk factors.
• Carry out where appropriate a range of invasive and non-invasive diagnostic and therapeutic procedures to agreed levels of competence.
• Order a range of diagnostic’s tests and procedures.
• Make diagnostic decisions based on pathology or imaging results.
• Initiate prescribed treatments and medication.
• Devise an individual care plan that includes all aspects of multidisciplinary care.
• Refer to other health professionals as appropriate.
• Discharge patients from hospital / service or arrange for their transfer of care to another health care setting.
• Responsible for the leadership, of all enhanced and advanced practice staff, both trainees and qualified within Acute Medicine, as well as supporting educational supervisors and engaging with Higher Education Institutes (HEI’s) for the delivery of academic modules.
• Lead on training and development of the ACP workforce within UHD Acute Medicine department
• Maintain appraisals and mandatory training of staff within UHD Acute Medicine ACP team via delegated teams.
• Responsible for monitoring of risk and governance within UHD Acute Medicine ACP team and implementation of any actions
• Responsible for local complaints and LERN within Acute Medicine related to the Advancing Practice team.
• Promoting research, quality improvement and audit within the ACP workforce to support service development.

Key Working Relationships

Internal

• Line manager.
• Consultants
• Directorate SLT
• Senior Matron
• SDEC Lead Cons
• Emergency Medicine SLT

External

• Members of the public
• GP surgeries / community nurses/practitioners
• Community Admission Avoidance Services
• Higher Education Institutes and colleges including Bournemouth University
• Regional Advanced Practice Faculty & networks
• National Centre for Advancing Practice

This advert closes on Tuesday 26 May 2026

Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme

Disability Confident

About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.