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NHS Southampton Jobs 2026 — Staff Nurse PICU (Band 5) with Skilled Worker Sponsorship, Last Date 10 November

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust — Southampton, United Kingdom

By Muhammad Younus, Editor Posted: 07 Oct 2026 Updated: 06 Nov 2026 14 min read

NHS Southampton Jobs 2026 announce 1 vacancy for a Staff Nurse in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, and the last date to apply is 10 November 2026. The post is a Band 5 role in the Trust's 15-bed PICU, caring for critically ill children at one-to-one level-3 care, and the advert states in plain words that applications from job seekers who require current Skilled Worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. The salary is £32,073 to £39,043 a year, pro rata, the contract is permanent and full-time or part-time, and applicants must be a qualified nurse registered on the appropriate part of the NMC register. The advert's reference number is 188-NM071026, and applications are made online through NHS Jobs.

About University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in England, based at Southampton General Hospital on Tremona Road in Southampton, and it provides hospital services for Southampton and specialist services for patients across the south of England and beyond. The Trust is a major centre for cardiac care, neurosurgery, trauma and children's services, and its Paediatric Intensive Care Unit is a 15-bed unit that looks after critically ill children who need the highest level of intensive care, including children who need cardiac surgery, neurosurgery, trauma care and ECMO, which is a form of life support that takes over the work of the heart and lungs. The PICU team works around the clock, and a Staff Nurse in the unit cares for one child at a time at level-3 care, which means constant bedside nursing with continuous monitoring. For a nurse from Pakistan, this is a chance to work in one of the most demanding and most respected areas of children's nursing in the NHS, in a unit where the work is intense but the learning is deep, and where the team includes specialist doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. The Trust's size also means there are real routes to develop further, from paediatric critical care courses to senior band posts, and the advert itself notes that adult nurses with critical care experience may be considered, which opens the post to a wider group than children's nurses alone.

Vacant Positions — Post-Wise Details

The advertisement lists a single vacancy, and the number of posts is not stated anywhere in the advert itself, so this article treats it as one post, as the advert describes one named role with one reference number. The table below gives the post with its band, the salary printed in the advert, the registration required, and a short note on the work.

• Staff Nurse — Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): Works in the Trust's 15-bed PICU at Southampton General Hospital, giving one-to-one level-3 care to critically ill children, including cardiac, neurosurgery, trauma and ECMO patients, on a rota of 50 percent days and 50 percent nights.

Eligibility Criteria — Who Can Apply

• NHS Southampton Jobs 2026 need a Qualified Nurse with a Degree or Diploma, registered on the appropriate part of the NMC register — child branch, or adult branch with at least 1 year of ITU, A&E or paediatric experience.
• Applicants must hold current UK professional registration, as the advert states word for word, and adult nurses with critical care experience may be considered, with the advert advising them to contact the unit for details.
• Evidence of teaching or supporting learners is required, because PICU nurses help students and junior staff learn at the bedside.
• Awareness of evidence-based practice and infection control is required, since the unit cares for children at the highest level of dependency.
• Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled Worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications, as the advert states word for word.
• Desirable, though not essential, are acute paediatric or critical care experience and a level 1 to 2 paediatric critical care course.
• The post is permanent and full-time or part-time, with a rota of 50 percent days and 50 percent nights and 24-hour shifts, so applicants must be able to work nights and weekends.
• The advert does not state a number of posts, so this article treats the vacancy as a single post; applicants should apply on that basis.
• The closing date is 10 November 2026, and applications must be submitted through NHS Jobs before that date.

NHS Southampton Jobs 2026 set the registration bar first, and it is stated plainly in the advertisement. Applicants must be a qualified nurse with a Degree or Diploma, registered on the appropriate part of the NMC register, and the advert adds that applicants must hold current UK professional registration. The child branch of the register is the direct route, but the advert is deliberately wider than that: an adult-branch nurse with at least one year of ITU, A&E or paediatric experience may also be considered, and the advert advises such nurses to contact the unit for details before applying. That matters for Pakistani applicants, because many nurses in Pakistan trained on the adult side and then worked in intensive care or emergency care, and this advert gives them a genuine route in, provided the critical care experience is real and recent. Beyond registration, the advert asks for evidence of teaching or supporting learners, because a PICU nurse is expected to help students and junior colleagues learn at the bedside, and it asks for awareness of evidence-based practice and infection control, which are central to a unit where children are ventilated, on inotropes or on ECMO and where infection control failures can be fatal. Desirable, though not essential, are acute paediatric or critical care experience and a level 1 to 2 paediatric critical care course, so a nurse who already holds such a course has an edge, but a nurse without it is not excluded. On sponsorship, the advert is clear: applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications, which means an overseas nurse is judged on the same criteria as a UK nurse. The working pattern is demanding and applicants should be honest with themselves about it: the rota is 50 percent days and 50 percent nights, the unit runs 24 hours a day, and the nursing is one-to-one level-3 care, so the post suits a nurse who is comfortable with nights, with long shifts and with the emotional weight of caring for critically ill children.

Salary & Benefits

The advertisement prints the salary as £32,073 to £39,043 a year, pro rata, for a Band 5 post on the NHS Agenda for Change pay structure. This is the full range printed in the advert, and this article gives no other figure. Band 5 is the standard band for a newly qualified and early-career staff nurse in the NHS, and the range reflects the spine points within that band, so the exact starting salary is fixed at appointment according to the successful candidate's experience and the Trust's placement on the band. The figure is printed pro rata, which means a part-time nurse is paid the same hourly rate for the hours actually worked, and the salary is paid monthly through the NHS payroll. Because the figure is printed in pounds sterling, Pakistani applicants should note that the salary is paid in the UK and is subject to UK tax and National Insurance, and the cost of living in Southampton, a city on the south coast of England, is lower than in London but still higher than in most parts of Pakistan, so the headline figure should be read alongside the cost of housing and daily expenses. No separate allowance figure is printed in the advert, so this article does not add one. The salary is the single most concrete financial fact in the advertisement, and it is the figure the Trust will use when it issues the contract, so applicants should use it as the basis for their decision.

Selection Process

The advertisement does not publish a written test syllabus, a test date or an interview date, and the selection process follows the standard NHS Jobs route. The applicant creates an account on NHS Jobs, finds the advert by its reference number 188-NM071026 or by searching for the job title, reads the job description and person specification, and submits an online application with a supporting statement that shows how they meet the essential criteria, above all NMC registration and the clinical experience the advert asks for. The Trust shortlists from the applications received, and shortlisted candidates are invited to interview; the advert does not state whether the interview is in person or online, so shortlisted candidates should expect the Trust to confirm the format when it contacts them. Adult-branch nurses with critical care experience are advised in the advert to contact the unit before applying, and the contact named for such enquiries is Pam Modelly. After interview, the successful candidate goes through the standard NHS pre-employment checks, including references, occupational health clearance, identity and right-to-work checks, and, for a Skilled Worker applicant, the Certificate of Sponsorship. The decision of the Trust is final, and the closing date of 10 November 2026 is the deadline for applications, so the application must be submitted through NHS Jobs before that date.

Documents Required

• Passport, valid for travel to the UK and for the Skilled Worker visa process
• Proof of current UK professional registration (NMC registration) on the appropriate part of the register
• Nursing degree or diploma certificates and academic transcripts
• Evidence of at least 1 year of ITU, A&E or paediatric experience, if applying from the adult branch
• An up-to-date CV showing nursing posts, critical care experience and dates of employment
• Two professional references, ideally from a current or recent employer in a clinical setting
• Evidence of teaching or supporting learners, such as a mentorship or teaching certificate
• Paediatric critical care course certificates, if held, at level 1 to 2
• English language evidence, as required by the NMC and the UK visa route
• Proof of address and identity documents for the NHS pre-employment checks
• Employment history with explanations for any gaps, as the NHS Jobs form asks
• Occupational health and immunisation records for the pre-employment health check

Terms & Conditions

The advertisement carries the conditions printed on the NHS Jobs page, and the important ones are worth reading. The post is permanent and full-time or part-time on Agenda for Change Band 5, with the salary printed as £32,073 to £39,043 a year, pro rata. Applicants must hold current UK professional registration, and the advert's sponsorship section states that applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. The working pattern is 50 percent days and 50 percent nights in a 24-hour unit, and the nursing is one-to-one level-3 care in a 15-bed PICU. One point of care for readers: the posted date given in this article, 7 October 2026, is read from the advert's reference number, 188-NM071026, which follows the NHS pattern of encoding the posting date in the reference; the closing date of 10 November 2026 is the date printed for the advert. The advert's reference number is 188-NM071026, and the advert page is reached through the NHS Jobs link given in the source box of this article. Applicants are advised to confirm all details on the live advert page before applying.

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