NHS administration role interview

[pumpedupkick]

I have an interview on Thursday for the position of medical secretary within the NHS.

Does anyone know what kinds of questions they will ask so I can prepare for these?

Does anyone have any general interview tips, particularly the dreaded 'what's your biggest weakness?' 'Tell me about yourself' questions?

What should I wear? I thought a long black shirt dress, tights, black flat shoes and a yellow blazer jacket would be ok or is that too formal? Or too informal?

I've been in my current job for 10 years so haven't had an interview in a long time and I really want this job and more importantly I think I would be really good at it but I'm aware my experience is limited so I need to stand out in other ways. I have been over the NHS values and prepared a few answers surround these but any help would be very much appreciated, I'm very nervous!

Tia

IME you also need to look at the values of the particular trust you’re applying to. They’ll likely ask about how you would prioritise X,Y & Z (in which order) GDPR, what would you do in certain scenarios. Your outfit sounds fine. Good luck!

@ChocolatePotCafe thank you! I think it's the fear of the unknown that's making me nervous.

Vision and values of the trust

Confidentiality - GDPR, Data Protection Act, Caldicott Principles and what would you do to ensure patient confidential?

confidentiality

Time management - how would you prioritise workload, customer service skills, IT skills, team work, dealing with upset patients, confidentiality, GDPR, good telephone skills, when to raise a concern
You could be asked questions on any of the above, but they are more likely to be scenario based, so you could be asked to give examples of how you have handled these type of situations before or most likely, scenarios you could encounter in this role and how you could handle them. Remember to include in your answers you would refer to trust policies, which are likely to be held on the intranet, remember to include you would always ask if unsure. If they have a question about an incident of something going wrong or a patient being aggressive, make sure you include you would report it via your manager or any incident reporting systems the trust has Be aware of the PALS service to refer patients to for compliments and complaints.
Think of some questions you would like to ask, i.e how has COVID affected their particular work etc

Good luck with the interview

Thanks everyone this is so helpful knowing what sorts of topics will crop up during the interview, and being able to gather examples ahead of time.

There is also an audio typing test after the interview, does anyone have any experience of this?

Good luck 👍. Typing test is just usually a short letter to see how accurate and quick you are. You will be given a set amount of time to complete. You don't need to be super fast, they just want to make sure you can do audio and that you aren't awful with the terminology. If you don't have one already, invest in a medical dictionary (and an old copy of bnf from eBay for drug spellings).

Just to echo the trusts visions and values. In the examples based questions ensure that you weave those buzzwords into your answers.

Expect a question about confidentiality and if the role is working with children or vulnerable people I would prepare an answer about what you would do if a patient made a disclosure to you

Thank you so much everyone!

I GOT THE JOB😁😁 I'm over the moon and it's thanks to all of the answers here so again thank you all!

Congratulations! 🎊

Congratulations! Well done. Welcome to Med Secy land 🍾🥂. You'll be soon swearing at incomprehensible dictation like the rest of us 😁

Awww congratulations!