Every day, people living with the impact of stroke are leaving hospital feeling scared and alone. You can be part of
our mission to ensure there is no life half lived in Scotland.
By joining Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS) as Lead Stroke Nurse – Borders, you can be the difference between
people simply surviving and people truly living.
This is a home-based role, and applicants can be located out with the NHS Borders area. You will provide support to
service users remotely and lead a team who deliver care across the region.
You will be part of Scotland’s leading charity supporting people with chest, heart, and stroke conditions to rebuild
their lives. Our Stroke Nurse Service, within the CHSS Community Healthcare Support Services, provides
person-centred, self-management-focused support to people and families affected by stroke or TIA.
As Lead Stroke Nurse, you will remotely manage and develop a team of registered Stroke Nurses and Health Care
Assistants, ensuring they can provide confidential, independent information, advice, and support to people
affected by chest, heart, and stroke conditions, as well as Long Covid. You will play a key role in implementing
organisational policies, monitoring performance, and driving continuous improvement to support the successful
delivery of our No Life Half Lived strategy.
We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with a clinical qualification and registration with a UK clinical body
(such as NMC or HCPC), alongside demonstrable management experience. Comprehensive stroke knowledge is
essential, and leadership experience is desirable.
The Hospital is situated on the outskirts of Melrose in the Scottish Borders. The Borders covers a large and
scenically beautiful area of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Predominately rural, it is historically a unique
part of the country, the home of the Border Revivers, where annually each town maintains its links with the past
during the season of Common Ridings. Seven-aside rugby originated in Melrose, and the Melrose event in
particular draws large crowds each year. The Borders has tremendous facilities for sport and leisure. Glentress
and Innerleithen mountain bike parks are world renowned for both cross-country and downhill biking. The
beautiful Berwickshire coast provides options for sea kayaking, surfing, diving and sea fishing. In addition,
there are facilities for fishing, golf, swimming, horse riding, cricket, football, hiking and many other
activities. Excellent cultural opportunities in terms of music and art societies, drama, and small theatres in
Melrose and Selkirk as well as amateur opera. There are excellent restaurants, cinemas and shops. Excellent
Fitness Centre in Galashiels and other Borders towns. There is a purpose-built nursery in the grounds of the
hospital.
The Scottish Borders offers all the benefits of rural life with very easy access to major cities such as Edinburgh
(37 miles) Glasgow (75 miles) Newcastle (75 miles). Edinburgh is renowned for its cultural activities in music,
including opera and ballet, theatre, cinemas (including a film theatre) and visual arts, and of course every
year there is the world-famous Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe Festival. Local transport links have
improved greatly in the last year or so.
The Borders Railway has train services to central Edinburgh running every thirty minutes (journey time 50 minutes
approx.). Tweedbank Station is a few minutes’ walk from the Borders General Hospital. There are rail links to
the rest of the country at Berwick Upon Tweed, and Carlisle and there is easy access to Edinburgh Airport
CHSS employees enjoy a variety of organizational benefits including Company pension scheme, generous holiday
allowance, company sick pay, employee welfare support and life assurance.
CHSS also supports flexible recruitment through Working Families, and we are “Happy to Talk Flexible Working”.
In line with our commitment to safeguarding, this role is subject to a PVG check. CHSS is committed to equality of
opportunity and to providing a service which is free from unfair and unlawful discrimination. We therefore aim
to ensure that no applicant, volunteer or member of staff is unfairly treated on the grounds of offending
background.