ITU & Critical Care Nurse Jobs: Shifts Available Now Across the UK

Looking for ITU or critical care nurse jobs? Novello has agency shifts available now in busy regions across the UK — Level 2 and Level 3 units, day or night, with your confirmed rate shown in the app before you accept. If you are an experienced critical care RGN with recent time in ITU, ICU or HDU, we would love to hear from you today. And if you are weighing up your next move, everything you need is below: where the work is right now, what it involves, what it pays and exactly what you need to pick up shifts.

Where we have ITU jobs right now

There are around 285 adult general intensive care units in the UK, and critical care is one of the most consistently short-staffed specialisms in the hospital — which means steady demand for nurses who can walk into a Level 2 or Level 3 unit and be effective. Novello books ITU, ICU and HDU shifts nationwide, and right now we are particularly busy in these regions:

• London — home to some of the largest critical care departments in the country. King’s College Hospital at Denmark Hill runs a roughly 60-bed critical care department across several units, Guy’s and St Thomas’ has multiple large ICUs including a dedicated ECMO service, and UCLH runs four general critical care units across its sites. We cover London.
• Greater Manchester — Manchester Royal Infirmary runs one of the larger critical care units in Europe, with around 18 ICU and 18 HDU beds, and Salford as part of the Northern Care Alliance is described as one of the largest critical care units in the UK. We cover Greater Manchester and neighbouring Cheshire.
• West Yorkshire — Leeds Teaching Hospitals runs five adult critical care units across Leeds General Infirmary and St James’s University Hospital, spanning general, neurosurgical and cardiac intensive care. We cover West Yorkshire.
• West Midlands, Merseyside and beyond — the major teaching hospitals in the West Midlands and on Merseyside carry large adult critical care units, and we also book steadily in Nottinghamshire and Oxfordshire, home to the Oxford University Hospitals adult ICU.

Working somewhere else? Register anyway — we book critical care shifts nationwide, and new work comes on all the time. Sign up in minutes or call 0333 307 8897 and tell us where you are.

What critical care nurses actually do

Critical care nursing is among the most technical and demanding work in the profession. You look after the sickest patients in the hospital, often one to one, and you carry a level of clinical responsibility that few other roles match. It is high-acuity work in ITU, ICU and HDU, and it needs nurses who stay composed when things move fast.

A typical shift can involve:

• Managing ventilated, sedated patients — monitoring, adjusting support and responding to changes minute by minute.
• Titrating vasoactives and inotropes — running the infusions that keep an unstable patient’s circulation stable.
• Invasive monitoring and lines — arterial and central lines, haemodynamic monitoring and interpreting the numbers they give you.
• Reading arterial blood gases — and acting on what they tell you about ventilation and perfusion.
• Organ support — including renal replacement therapy and dialysis for patients in multi-organ failure.
• Working within the multidisciplinary team — alongside intensivists, physiotherapists and pharmacists on a shared plan for each patient.

The recommended standard, set out in GPICS and the UK critical care staffing guidance, is a minimum of one registered critical care nurse to one patient for Level 3 care — advanced or multi-organ support — and one nurse to two patients at Level 2, for single-organ support and step-down. These are established professional standards rather than a statutory ratio, but they shape how safe units staff their shifts, and they are why skilled critical care nurses are always in demand.

Who you would actually work for

Most of the large adult critical care units in the UK sit within NHS teaching hospitals — the trusts named above run some of the biggest ICU departments in the country, and they are exactly the kind of units where agency demand is steady. As a Novello agency nurse you slot into those established teams on a shift basis, working alongside the substantive nurses, intensivists and wider MDT already on the unit. You bring your competencies; they bring the local systems and orientation.

What you need to work in critical care

• A valid NMC PIN as an RGN — registration is mandatory to practise, and your standard NHS-level compliance and mandatory training need to be up to date. Agency work also needs an enhanced DBS check.
• Recent ITU, ICU or HDU experience — and the competencies that come with caring for ventilated, high-dependency patients. You should be comfortable with organ support, invasive lines, rapid assessment and reading arterial blood gases.
• The right temperament — composed, confident and decisive. Critical care rewards nurses who think clearly under pressure.
• A critical care course can help — many nurses hold a recognised critical care module (often a 60-credit university course), and it is valued, but it is not something we treat as essential. Recent high-acuity experience and the competencies matter most.

As a general guide, agencies across the sector typically look for somewhere between six and twelve months of recent intensive care experience before booking critical care shifts — some ask for more, some less. It varies by agency and trust, so if you have solid recent ITU time and the competencies, it is worth talking to us. See what we look for on our critical care nursing page.

What critical care nursing pays

In the NHS, critical care posts typically sit at Band 5 and Band 6 under Agenda for Change. On the agency side, ITU shift rates run higher and vary widely by location, trust rate card and shift — weekdays, nights, Sundays and bank holidays all pay differently. Vague “competitive rates” help nobody, so we do not deal in them. With Novello, your confirmed rate is shown in the app before you accept a shift. No surprises, no chasing — you always know exactly what a booking pays before you commit to it.

Already experienced in ITU? You are exactly who our critical care teams are asking for. Register today and you could be browsing shifts this week.

Is agency critical care right for you?

It is a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer. Agency critical care suits nurses who already have the competencies and want to control their own schedule — picking up Level 2 and Level 3 shifts that fit around the rest of life rather than a fixed rota. You get variety across different units and the satisfaction of walking into a busy ICU and being genuinely useful from the first hour.

It is honest to say it is demanding. You are looking after the most unstable patients in the building, often one to one, and every unit does things slightly differently, so you need to orientate quickly. Nurses who thrive on agency critical care tend to be the ones who are confident in their own clinical judgement, adapt fast to a new environment and like the responsibility rather than shy away from it.

What makes it worth doing

Ask critical care nurses what keeps them in the specialism and the answers are consistent: the depth of the clinical work, the closeness of the team and the sheer impact. Few roles let you make such a direct difference to whether a patient pulls through. On the agency side you add flexibility on top — you choose where and when you work, your compliance, availability and pay all live in one place in the app, and your rate is confirmed before you accept. For experienced ITU nurses, that combination of demanding, meaningful work and real control over your diary is hard to beat.

Common questions

How much ITU experience do I need for agency shifts?

You need a valid NMC PIN as an RGN, up-to-date NHS-level compliance and recent ITU, ICU or HDU experience with the competencies that go with high-dependency and ventilated patients. Across the sector, agencies commonly look for roughly six to twelve months of recent intensive care experience, but that varies by agency and trust rather than being a fixed UK rule. If you have solid recent critical care time, talk to us.

Do I need a formal critical care course?

A recognised critical care qualification is valued and can be helpful, but we do not treat it as essential. What matters most is a current NMC PIN, recent high-acuity experience and the competencies — comfort with organ support, invasive lines, ventilation, vasoactives and reading arterial blood gases.

What is the difference between Level 2 and Level 3?

Level 3 covers advanced or multi-organ support — for example a ventilated patient needing several organ systems supported — and the established standard is one critical care nurse to one patient. Level 2 covers single-organ support and step-down or HDU care, where the recommended standard is one nurse to two patients. We book across both, day or night.

How do I know what a shift pays before I take it?

Your confirmed rate is shown in the Novello app before you accept a shift. Agency ITU rates vary by region, trust rate card and the day or time of the shift, so we show you the actual figure up front rather than a vague range. If it works for you, you accept; if not, you do not. Compliance, availability and pay all sit in one place.