UK Hospital Staff Hierarchy

When it comes to organization structure in hospitals of UK, the hierarchy followed is strict and sophisticated.  All hospitals in United Kingdom follow the same structure as it makes way for smooth functioning and administration.

Each member of the staff is given a specific role and a set of unique responsibilities which they must follow with dedication as this helps in distribution of tasks and problem free working. If you are interested in finding out the UK hospital staff hierarchy then the following given information will prove helpful.

UK Hospital Staff Hierarchy

First Level Nurses

First level nurses are the most qualified nurses or member of hospital staff in UK. These nurses make for the majority of registered nurses in the UK and within this category lie many nursing positions which are given as follows:

  • General nurses
  • Staff nurse
  • Registered sick children’s nurse
  • Registered mental nurse
  • Registered nurse mentally handicapped
  • Registered fever nurse

Second Level Nurses

Second level nurses come at the next position in UK hospital staff and are also referred now to as enrolled nurses or state enrolled nurses.  They train for a period f 24 months in UK and are also entitled to use the title of registered nurses nowadays.

Specialist Nurses

Every hospital in UK also employs some specialist nurses who are employed to play a special role in the hospital.  They usually have experience of a lot of years in the industry and are divided into many titles and categories, which are given as follows:

  • Nurse practitioners – These are nurses who provide care at an advanced practice level. Their role is similar to that of a doctor in a UK hospital and they are mainly required to work in primary care or A&E departments.
  • Specialist Community Public Health Nurses – these nurses are also known as district nurses and health visitors and include occupational health nurses and school nurses.
  • Clinical Nurse Specialists –these nurses provide education for staff nurses and have some specialized skills and knowledge which others can learn from.
  • Nurse Consultants –these are high level clinical nurses who provide clinical training and education to those in their own department.
  • Lecturer-Practitioners – these nurses work in universities and NHS. They work for about 3 days every week in each setting and are often responsible for training pre- registration student nurses on specialist courses for post-registration nurses .
  • Lecturers – These nurses work full-time in universities and do both research and teaching tasks they have a minimum of a master’s degree.

Managers

Those nurses who have spent a lot of years in the clinical setting may choose to leave that role and join the NHS or the independent care sector management.  They may fill positions in the managerial department and may work as hospital administrators.  If they perform well and spend many years at this position, they may be promoted to the position of board member or director as well.  They can also work as regional manager, service manager or clinical nurse manager etc.