lead nurse

lead nurse

A nurse in the UK who is responsible for two or more wards or a department—e.g., surgical or medical diagnostics and imaging in hospital. Lead nurses responsible for an entire directorate are often labelled clinical nurse manager. Depending on the role they shoulder, lead nurses are often less involved in clinical nursing and more involved in management on a clinical level.
Lead nurses are usually at pay band 8a, but can reach up to 8b/8c, which corresponds to H grade under the Whitley system, which was officially retired with the Agenda for Change system but may still be used in the working parlance.