Triage Nurse - Ophthalmology

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 22 January 2026

Do you want to be part of a team who have an excellent reputation for delivering a high standard of care with innovative working in a rapidly changing environment?

The band 6 Ophthalmology Triage Nurse provides advanced clinical assessment, prioritisation, and management of patient presenting with acute or urgent eye conditions.

If you like a challenge, are able to work at a very fast pace, enjoy working with a multi‑disciplinary team and can give our patients the dignified care they deserve then this could be the job for you.

• Perform rapid accurate triage of patient presenting with eye emergencies.
• Identify red‑flag conditions such as, acute angle‑closure Glaucoma, Endophthalmitis, retinal detachment, eye injuries and eye infections.
• Escalate urgent cases to Ophthalmology on call promptly
• Caseload management
• Maintain accurate and timely recording on Epic
• Monitor the work flow of the emergency clinic
• support junior staff
• Use clinical expertise and works in a collaborative way to extend the role of nursing and wider MDT to meet the needs of the patient, carer, and family.
• Act as a role model to develops and encourage harmonious working relationships and professional rapport within the department and with other disciplines, departments, and external agencies.

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here -

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

• Registered Nurse with experience in Ophthalmology
• Post registration qualification relevant to area up to postgraduate
• ILS certificate as relevant to the area
• Student assessor
• Advance practice modules at level 7
• Leadership modules

• Experience leading teams
• Coaching/Mentoring
• Managing change
• Evidence of managing and improving the patient experience
• Experience in triage
• Previous experience at Band 6
• Evidence of involvement in research and audit
• Evidence of teaching

• Sound evidence of clinical knowledge
• Articulates understanding of a Band 6 triage role and expectation in practice
• Articulates understanding of prioritising clinical issues
• Articulates understanding of managing clinical risk.
• Provides evidence of clinical reasoning and decision making in nursing practice
• Experience in allocating staff members to appropriate patient cases
• Rota management
• Caseload management and patient flow

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust