Location: Sutton (with cross-site responsibilities: Chelsea & Cavendish Square)
Hours: Full time (37.5 hours/week)

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is looking for an experienced and dynamic Lead Gastrointestinal Clinical Nurse Specialist to lead our dedicated GI nursing team. Based in Sutton, this is a pivotal cross-site role covering GI medical oncology, clinical oncology, and surgery. You will provide advanced clinical care as a clinical nurse specialist while line-managing a team of Clinical Nurse Specialists and support staff across our Sutton, Chelsea, and Cavendish Square sites.

Working closely with the Lead GI Nurse and divisional leadership, you will shape patient pathways, promote excellence in specialist nursing practice, and lead initiatives to enhance patient experience, service delivery, and team development. You'll be central to driving clinical innovation, quality improvement, governance, and workforce development while maintaining a visible clinical presence.

Main duties of the job

Key highlights:

• Lead and support a highly skilled team across three sites
• Manage complex caseloads across the GI cancer pathway
• Drive strategic service improvements and champion patient experience
• Influence divisional and Trust-wide nursing development and leadership

We are looking for a committed nurse leader with:

• Experience in GI cancer care, with a strong understanding of the patient pathway across medical, surgical, and/or clinical oncology settings.
• Leadership and management experience, including the ability to line-manage and support a multi-site team, promote professional development and lead on recruitment and workforce planning.
• Advanced clinical skills, to manage a complex caseload and deliver expert care throughout the cancer pathway – from diagnosis through treatment and survivorship or end-of-life care.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the confidence to represent GI nursing at divisional and Trust-level meetings, influence service delivery, and work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams.
• A passion for innovation and quality improvement, with ability to lead service development projects, contribute to audits and research, and deliver exceptional patient experience.
• Experience in governance, education, and staff development, and a commitment to promoting a learning environment and evidence-based practice.
• A flexible and proactive approach to cross-site working and service needs.

Working for our organisation

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust is a world-leading cancer centre. Our role is to offer our patients the best cancer care available anywhere in the world, and to continue to make a global contribution to finding better ways of diagnosing and treating cancer. We employ over 4,500 staff in a diverse range of careers including nursing, medical, science, radiography, pharmacy, occupational therapy, finance and administrative services. We have two hospitals – one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey – as well as a Medical Daycare Unit in Kingston Hospital.

At The Royal Marsden, we deal with cancer every day, so we understand how valuable life is. When people entrust their lives to us, they have the right to demand the very best. That's why the pursuit of excellence lies at the heart of everything we do.

At the heart of the hospital is our dedicated team. We offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment, a wide range of staff benefits, learning and development opportunities and clear career pathways. There are opportunities to work flexibly across a range of areas and specialities and we welcome flexible working requests from point of hire to support employees work life balance. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our values and can play a crucial role in our on-going achievements.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification:

• Provide a clear focus for nursing, maintaining a highly visible and authoritative presence within the units. Ensure the delivery of high-quality care where patients’ needs are central, regardless of the care setting.
• Offer strategic direction to ensure the nursing service remains responsive, forward-thinking, and adaptable to external changes and pressures.
• Continue to undertake clinical duties and manage a personal caseload.
• Ensure the CNS team operates at an advanced practice level, delivering timely, well-documented specialist care within their areas of expertise.
• Ensure compliance with Trust policies and procedures within all nursing teams.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

• Degree in Nursing (Adult)
• MSc or working towards in relevant subject
• Relevant formal teaching / mentoring experience
• Evidence of continued professional development

Experience

• Significant post-registration experience in GI oncology (medical, clinical and/or surgical), including experience as a Clinical Nurse Specialist to be confident and competent in using the required skills to do the job
• Clinical management experience
• Experience of managing staff
• Demonstrable experience in a range of cancer care settings
• Budget Management / management of resources
• Experience in chemotherapy administration

Skills/Abilities/Knowledge

• Experience in a specialist GI nursing role
• Evidence of good leadership qualities, including delegation, motivation, influencing skills and co-ordination of teams
• The ability to communicate effectively in both written and spoken English to a wide range of people both internally and externally, often involving highly complex or sensitive information
• Ability to innovate and respond to change
• Ability to interpret and implement new policies into workplace procedures
• Evidence of commitment to patient & carer involvement in care
• Knowledge of clinical governance issues and risk management strategies
• Ability to make decisions, organise & prioritise
• Excellent interpersonal skills with particular ability to liaise effectively with multidisciplinary team members
• Evidence of working well in a team
• Ability to demonstrate self-motivation
• Experience and ability to manage conflict situations
• Computer Literacy
• Experience of disseminating work through presentation/publication

The Royal Marsden values diversity and is committed to the recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority groups. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we are working to create a workplace that enables all staff to reach their full potential. We are committed to this because we know that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even greater positive impact for the people we serve.

Due to the high volumes of applications we receive, we reserve the right to close any adverts before the published closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. We advise you to submit your application as early as possible to prevent disappointment.

All applicants will be contacted by email to the address supplied on your application. Applicants are advised to check their email accounts regularly and to ensure that email filters are set to allow our emails.

Flu Vaccination – What We Expect of our Staff

At The Royal Marsden we have an immune compromised patient population who we must protect as much as we can against the flu virus. Each year, seasonal flu affects thousands of people in the UK. Occurring mainly in winter, it is an infectious respiratory disease capable of producing symptoms ranging from those similar to a common cold, through to very severe or even fatal disease.

The wellbeing of our staff and patients is of the upmost importance to us, and it is the expectation of The Royal Marsden that all patient-facing staff have an annual flu vaccination, provided free of charge by the Trust.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.