CANCER, HAEMATOLOGY, AND SURGICAL SERVICES

CHUGGS – Cancer, Haematology, Urology, Gastroenterology and Gastro-Intestinal Surgery – is a diverse, interesting and challenging range of specialties where you will want to pursue your nursing career.

Our departments are on all three sites: Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester General Hospital, and Glenfield Hospital.

Extensive opportunities in CHUGGS

CHUGGS offers you extensive opportunities for further training and progression, enhancing your skills through our robust induction programme and individual development plans tailored to your future career pathway. Bespoke rotational opportunities are also available for our staff.

Whichever speciality you are interested in, our patients are at the heart of everything we do and we strive to make their experience a positive one.

We look forward to welcoming you to our teams who are passionate, motivated and dedicated to providing excellent care in our specialities.

All expressions of interest should be made by contacting:

Glynis Dublin 
Matron of Recruitment and Retention
[email protected] 

Ellen Slattery 
Matron of Recruitment and Retention
[email protected] 


Cancer (Oncology) Services

The Leicester Oncology service covers the full range of adult cancers, offering chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. We have a chemotherapy day suite as well as two friendly inpatient oncology wards where we provide curative and palliative treatments to patients with all cancer types. Patients can be admitted as an emergency or electively for radiotherapy, iodine, caesium, chemotherapy, investigations or treatment related toxicities. We also have a dedicated assessment unit for Oncology and Haematology emergencies. In addition to this we have a nurse led Acute Oncology outreach team. Responsibilities include supporting and advising teams in the management of patients admitted as an emergency due to complications of their treatment. Our cutting edge HOPE Unit is an instrumental department in the delivery of clinical trials of new cancer treatments. So whatever your interest, we have something for everyone.

Haematology

If you want to work with patients that you have the time to build a relationship with and support through milestones in their care, then you will want to join one of our dedicated Haematology or Oncology teams. We have a number of different wards and departments which you could choose to work within.

Nurses provide the majority of treatments, making them valued by multidisciplinary colleagues and patients alike. Treatments are many and varied and as well as treating with chemotherapy, you will also learn about plasma exchange procedures, stem cell harvesting, administration of clotting factors and how to provide palliative care advice and guidance– so there is a lot of opportunity for clinical development.

Leicester’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) provides specialist care for patients undergoing bone marrow or stem cell transplants. Day case patients are seen and assessed in a dedicated suite adjacent to the BMTU. Training in all aspects of caring for this speciality will be provided.

Our Haemophilia service specialises in the care of patients with bleeding and clotting disorders. Family testing and on-going support are provided to a range of patients, including pre-pregnancy, rheumatology, orthopaedics and paediatrics.

The Anticoagulation service is integral to UHL offering specialist support to patients from many specialties.  The excellent support offered by nurses managing patients in outpatient clinics, during home visits within the city as well as providing an in-reach service for the management of anticoagulation for inpatients is invaluable.

Our dedicated Cancer Trials Facility, The Hope Unit offers patients & nurses opportunities to be involved in a broad portfolio of studies across multiple tumour groups.

Urology

If you want a varied and exciting career, urology is for you.

Leicester General Hospital delivers Urology services for a local population of over 1.2 million and also takes tertiary referrals for complex cases from other NHS Trusts across the East Midlands and beyond.

It is a large & very busy department caring for patients in both outpatient and inpatient settings.  An award winning team of specialist nurses work closely with Urology cancer nurses caring for patients from diagnosis to treatment.

In addition our urology inpatient wards care for acutely unwell emergency patients and elective patients undergoing major surgery – therefore skills such as epidural, TPN, wound management, catheterisation, are all easily obtained. We also have a high turnover of patients requiring post-operative care following major & minor surgical interventions including robotic surgery.  We provide day case and clean room procedures such as bladder chemotherapy installations, stent removals, renal biopsies, prostate biopsies and much more. (attach urology clinic photo)  We see a large number of elderly male patients, consequently, Complex discharge planning is another valuable skill you will obtain in this speciality.  As the only Urology department in Leicester, we also take emergency admissions directly from GP’s and turn around 30% of our emergency admissions on the same day. Urology is one of the few specialties which give you the opportunity to care for both elective and emergency patients, young and older patients, minor and major surgery as well as end of life care and day case.

Gastroenterology

Leicester hospitals are privileged to be able to support patients who require specialist care provided in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy and our nurses are encouraged to develop extended roles ensuring the successful implementation of national strategies such as the Bowel cancer screening.

Inpatient care is based on the purpose built, air-conditioned, wards 42 and 43 at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Our wards are adjacent to the Endoscopy unit and interventional radiology suite and each ward has a number of en-suite side-rooms as well as 4-bed bays with individual bathrooms and dining tables.

We have a multi-disciplinary gastroenterology service encompassing Luminal, Nutrition and Hepatology services providing specialist care to patients with advanced liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease and complex nutritional issues.  A team of dedicated consultants, nurses, dieticians and allied health professionals work together supporting the care of clinically challenging patient needs.

Endoscopy is provided on each hospital site at UHL and offers diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in gastroscopy and colonoscopy, bowel cancer screening and is one of the leading centres for Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangio-Pancreatography (ERCP). This unique speciality affords nurses exceptional training and learning opportunities leading to a bespoke career pathway for Nurse Endoscopist.

Gastro-intestinal Surgery

Comprising of inpatient wards treating a variety of elective and emergency surgical and longer stay patients. Surgical interventions undertaken at LRI include Oesophageal & Gastric cancers and a range of colorectal procedures.

Glenfield Hospital provides Hepatobiliary (HPB) services including all emergency biliary admissions for conditions such as acute pancreatitis, obstructive jaundice and biliary stone disease. This is definitely a fast paced, exciting speciality with lots of learning & development opportunities.

The Surgical Assessment Units (SAU) provides triage care for emergency surgical and urology patients. They are busy yet organised, fast paced workplaces that allow you to focus and develop your patient assessment skills with ambulatory care provided as required.

The pathway for elective surgery provides nurses the opportunity to care for patients during Pre assessment and Day case admission. Post-operative recovery is delivered in our upper Gastrointestinal, Colorectal and Urology care wards by experienced staff with expert knowledge and skills. (attach photos- Day case team & Day case sign??)

If you are looking for an exciting opportunity to work with dedicated clinicians whilst managing a challenging and diverse variety of surgical conditions, then this may be the specialty for you.