Nurse wanted in Haderslev, with the role as unit leader in the health unit

Would you like to use your nursing expertise within a framework where you work clinically across the board, cross-disciplinary, and with a clear societal impact, combined with a newly established function as unit leader in the Health Unit

The position is as a rule 37 hours per week, and intended to be filled on 1 January 2027 or by agreement.

About the workplace

As a contracted prison nurse, you will be based under the Health Unit in the Central Office West at Denmark’s Prisons, with primary service at Haderslev Prison, where, in collaboration with the prison’s doctor and psychiatrist, you will be responsible for delivering the health care to the inmates.

In the role as unit leader, the management responsibility is primarily to perform professional leadership and contribute to the operations management of your own unit, which will consist of the seven southern and Sønderjylland sites. You should be able to thrive in a role where the unit leadership function is still under development, hence the task portfolio will develop and expand along the way.

You must be able to balance daily operations with professional leadership, focusing on professional sparring and development of task execution. Through your leadership you should help create a clear direction and security for the staff, and support a work environment characterized by professional responsibility, collaboration and respect for each employee.

In Denmark’s Prisons we offer somewhat different frameworks, where a key competency for you must be the ability to positively collaborate in a multidisciplinary environment with prison guards, nursing colleagues, doctors, psychiatrists, external partners such as hospitals and addiction centers.

The Health Unit provides health services at levels comparable to general practice - with a particular focus on complexity, social vulnerability, substance abuse, mental distress and chronic illness.

The job as a prison nurse

The clinical tasks are highly varied and of varying complexity and can best be likened to the workflow in a general practice, as inmates contact the nursing clinic with issues they would normally address with their GP.

It is crucial in the job that you want to work with a patient group living in a jail/prison environment and often having multifaceted, complex health problems of physical, psychiatric and social nature, often combined with compliance problems.

The strengthening of the role in the expansion includes enhancing the professional input for vulnerable individuals – for example through early detection, continuity, stable medication, focus on patient safety and close multidisciplinary collaboration, as well as a rehabilitative approach where we support the inmate’s self-care, coping and health competencies. This can include targeted guidance, motivational conversations and support to navigate treatment and appointments – also with a view to better sector transitions upon release.

Prison nursing requires high professionalism as well as an empathetic, humane, inclusive and acknowledging approach, where it is often required to “think outside the box” within the given framework to solve the task.

The nursing tasks include

• Initial health interviews at admission with a focus on screening for chronic and mental disorders.
• Independent nursing consultations based on the inmates’ somatic, psychiatric and chronic problems, including advising on and guiding health-preserving conditions and self-care.
• Referral to, participation in, and follow-up on doctor/psychiatrist consultations.
• Planning, follow-up, monitoring and coordination of new and ongoing treatment courses of both acute and chronic character, including performing EKG, LFU, wound care, vaccinations and similar clinical work.
• Management of medication dosing for the site’s inmates.
• Acting as a health professional sparring partner for prison-related colleagues.

The managerial tasks include

• Contribute to coordinating and ensuring operations in the unit.
• Ensure that the health professional tasks in your unit are carried out within applicable law, professional guidelines and organizational frameworks.
• Ensure quality, patient safety and professional development in the unit.
• Hold both mono- and multidisciplinary meetings at the unit’s sites.
• Responsible for quality assurance/competence development/implementation of instructions and guidelines, both mono- and multidisciplinary in the unit.
• Contribute to creating a good working environment by following up on and ensuring well-being, security, collaboration, and professionally handling conflicts.
• Ad hoc tasks such as surveying health needs among inmates, introducing new nursing colleagues, teaching medication management and XMO training for officer colleagues.

Who are you, as a nurse and a leader?

We are looking for an experienced nursing colleague with proven leadership experience, and where the professional and personal toolbox is in order. You should fundamentally be motivated by the idea that leadership is about the opportunity to influence decisions and development – rather than the right to command. You should also be able to navigate a complex, dynamic and different environment, with clear frameworks but basically a place and a nursing community with ambitions. We focus on quality, standardizing workflows, patient safety and competence development.

We place particular emphasis on the following criteria

• It is an unwavering requirement that you have been trained as a nurse for several years and have proven leadership experience.
• That you are objective and professional in your attitude and conduct.
• That you are loyal and can balance local interests with the interests of the whole.
• Show integrity and like to lead by example for appropriate behavior.
• Adapt to changing circumstances and be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses.
• You must have a high degree of self-management, independence, responsibility and the ability to contribute positively and constructively to the unit.
• You must be able to work in a structured way, with a focus on patient safety, both as a nurse and in your leadership role.
• You must have good collaboration skills with the ability to engage in problem-solving in collaborative relationships, as multidisciplinary collaboration with the prison’s other professional groups is of crucial importance in daily life.
• You are present and equipped with a friendly, calm, positive and humane life view and are happy to invest yourself to create a good shared working environment with learning, job satisfaction, well-being and good collaborative relationships in the foreground of the unit.
• You are equipped with good pedagogical abilities and can communicate safely and clearly for guidance to both inmates and staff.
• You should have broad medical experience from eg acute/ somatic, addiction treatment, home care, psychiatry or social medical services.
• You should rest in your professional competence and have an interest in a complex clinical field where somatic, psychiatry, addiction and social vulnerability often overlap.

Salary and employment terms

Employment and remuneration are in accordance with the collective agreement between the Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (CO10), as well as the state nurses' collective agreement and the agreement on a new pay system for civil servants and civil servant-like nurses in the state between CO10 and any local agreements. Additionally, allowances may be agreed based on experience and qualifications.

• The position is a full-time role with an average weekly working time of 37 hours. You should expect the split to be approximately 50/50 between operations and leadership.
• At a minimum, two operating days per week in Haderslev Prison are expected. The remaining time will take place among colleagues at the unit’s sites.
• There is a good opportunity to influence the planning of your own working time based on operations. Working hours are always daytime, with fixed attendance after agreement at 7:30/8:00 and time off after agreement between 14:30/15:30.
• You must be prepared that there will periodically be a need to help cover other sites, and join our on-call arrangement, where we support with health professional assistance to sites in the West Prison Circle by email.
• The employment area is Denmark’s Prisons, Kredskontoret West in the Health Unit. The workplace is currently located at Haderslev Prison, Laurids Skausgade 1A, 6100 Haderslev.
• The position is expected to be filled on 1 January 2027 or by another agreement.

About us

The Health Unit is a unit within Denmark’s prisons, where the health and personnel responsibility for the medical and nursing group is placed under a health leadership consisting of a Chief Medical Officer and a Chief Nursing Officer, supported by future three unit leaders, and a coordinating department doctor.

We offer you among other things professional sparring in everyday work, focused supervision, relevant continuing education and participation in courses, including a diploma module for prison nurses The Criminal Justice System , a diploma-awarding NADA course, participation in professional theme days with other nursing colleagues in the area at least twice a year, in addition to online webinars with professional content every month. If you have not demonstrated leadership education, you should be interested in this.

In the Health Unit we provide health care equivalent to general practice to the region’s approximately inmates, distributed across 29 sites, covering prisons, open and closed facilities in Jutland and Funen.

Haderslev prison has 20 places. The prison mainly receives male pre-trial detainees.

You can read more about us on the website Danmarks Fængsler - We run the country’s prisons

Safety work in Denmark’s prisons is an integral part of the job and is highly valued. There is zero tolerance for violence and threats.

Application

The position is applied for electronically via the link "Apply for the position".

Application, CV and documentation of education as well as other relevant material must be received in the recruitment system no later than 6 November 2026.

We expect to conduct interviews in week 46 in Kolding.

A condition for employment in the position is that you, if called for an interview, consent to Denmark’s Prisons obtaining and assessing information about you in the Central Criminal Register. If you are called for an interview, you must bring photo identification, e.g., passport or driver’s license.

If you have questions about the position, you are welcome to contact by email to Chief Nursing Officer Camilla Lund Hansen at email; [email protected] .

Denmark’s Prisons encourages all qualified applicants regardless of age, gender, religion or ethnic background to apply.

We look forward to receiving your application and hope you would like to become part of the Health Unit in Denmark’s Prisons, Prison Circle West.