Nurse Band 5 supporting statement: what posts ask for

A Band 5 staff nurse statement answers the person specification line by line: registration, recent clinical experience, assessing and recording care, teamwork and some supervision of others. This guide reads four Band 5 person specifications, the national Band 5 profile and the NMC Code, and shows how to give each line an example.

What Band 5 means

The NHS Employers nursing profiles have a version history that reads "Updated versions published June 2025". Their Band 5 job statement includes "Provides nursing assessment of patients/clients" and "Provides clinical supervision to other staff, students". It adds that a Band 5 nurse "May be responsible for work allocation and checking of tasks of support staff and/or less experienced staff". The knowledge line reads "Professional, clinical knowledge acquired through training to degree or equivalent".

All four person specifications below also ask about leadership or supervision, as essential or desirable.

What four Band 5 person specifications ask for

Two are PDFs from The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and NHS Lothian; neither carries a date in its text. Two are NHS Jobs adverts: East Cheshire NHS Trust (posted 29 September 2025) and Wirral University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (posted 23 March 2026). Both adverts had closed when read on 6 November 2026 but still showed their person specifications, and adverts can be taken down, so those links may stop working.

Group	The line, in the document's words	Document and status
Registration	"Registered Nurse"	Shrewsbury and Telford, essential
Registration	"Registered Nurse NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council)"	East Cheshire, essential
Registration	"1st Level NMC Registration"	Wirral, essential
Qualifications	"Educated to degree level"	NHS Lothian, essential
Qualifications	"Degree or willing to work towards degree."	Shrewsbury and Telford, desirable
Code	"Understanding of NMC Code, safeguarding and consent; working knowledge of NHS values and standards"	East Cheshire, essential
Experience	"Evidence of recent acute or relevant clinical experience (including student placements)"	East Cheshire, essential
Experience	"Experience of maintaining accurate records"	Wirral, essential
Skills	"Able to assess, plan, implement and evaluate patient care; effective documentation skills"	East Cheshire, essential
Skills	"Ability to prioritise and make sound decisions, sometimes under pressure."	Shrewsbury and Telford, essential
Leadership	"Evidence of professional leadership and team working."	NHS Lothian, essential
Leadership	"Previous experience mentoring students or supervising junior staff"	East Cheshire, desirable

Read the status as well as the line. Education to degree level is essential at NHS Lothian and a degree is desirable at Shrewsbury and Telford, and Wirral lists "Relevant Degree or willing to register to work towards degree" as desirable. NHS Lothian says "In order to be shortlisted you must demonstrate you meet all the essential criteria and as much of the desirable as possible". Its last column marks every row A and I, so each one is assessed from the application form and at interview, and only the qualifications row adds C, copies of certificates.

Registration and the Code

The NMC Code (published 29 January 2015, updated 10 October 2018) says "It is against the law to claim to be, or to practise as, a nurse or midwife in the UK, or as a nursing associate in England, if you are not on the relevant part of our register." Registration is a fact about you, so state it plainly where the form asks for it.

East Cheshire also asks for an understanding of the Code. The Code is set out under four headings: prioritise people, practise effectively, preserve safety, and promote professionalism and trust. Pairing its lines with the criteria is this guide's reading, not a rule from any trust or the NMC:

• Wirral asks for "Experience of maintaining accurate records". Code 10.1 says to "complete all records at the time or as soon as possible after an event".
• East Cheshire asks for the ability to "take delegated responsibility". Code 13.3 says to "ask for help from a suitably qualified and experienced professional to carry out any action or procedure that is beyond the limits of your competence".
• East Cheshire's desirable line is "Previous experience mentoring students or supervising junior staff". Code 9.4 says to "support students' and colleagues' learning to help them develop their professional competence and confidence".

If you are newly qualified

East Cheshire's experience line includes "(including student placements)". Wirral lists "Suitable for newly qualified or experienced staff nurse" as essential, and its advert says "A Trust preceptorship programme is available to all newly qualified staff". The Shrewsbury and Telford line asks for "Experience of working in an acute healthcare environment" and does not say whether placements count, so check your own advert. NHS Lothian lists "Post registration professional practice in keeping with the key result areas of the role" and "Experience in performing individual performance review." as essential, so check whether you can show them. Wirral's summary also speaks to a "student nurse looking for their first post"; if you are not on the register yet, say so and do not write that you are. Where placements count, name the ward, the length of the placement and one task you did on it.

The shape of one answer

The two criteria below come from the East Cheshire specification. The lines after "Made up" are illustrations to show how much one line holds. Use things that really happened to you.

Criterion: "Evidence of recent acute or relevant clinical experience (including student placements)"

• When and where: the ward and the dates. Made up: an acute medical ward, an eight-week placement in 2026.
• What you did: one task you carried out yourself. Made up: took observations for a bay of six patients, entered them on the electronic chart and told the nurse in charge about two early warning scores that had risen.
• What happened: what changed for the patient or the team. Made up: one patient was reviewed by a doctor within the hour.

Criterion: "Previous experience mentoring students or supervising junior staff"

• When and where: the setting and the dates. Made up: a surgical ward, 2024 to 2026.
• What you did: the support you gave and what you checked. Made up: showed a first-year student how to prepare a dressing trolley, then went through their record entries with them.
• What happened: what followed. Made up: the student carried out the next dressing under supervision and recorded it correctly.

Before you submit

• Your registration is stated plainly where the form asks for it, and each qualification says what you hold and the year.
• Each essential line has its own example, with a ward or placement, a task and a result.
• Leadership and supervision lines have a task in them, with who you supervised and what you checked.
• You have checked on your own advert and any attached person specification whether each line is essential or desirable.

Paste what the job asks for into the tool and press Make my checklist; if you have a draft, choose I have already written something and press Check what I wrote to see which lines still say Needs an example or Not mentioned yet.