Nhs Job advert extended

[GiraffeInABath]

Does anybody have any experience of nhs recruitment?
I’ve applied for a specialist nurse role (not a particularly popular speciality) so band 6 and Monday-Friday hours. The job was supposed to close tonight at midnight but has now been extended by another week!

I would say I have the essential job spec except for being 3.5 years qualified as opposed to 4 years. I showed my application to my boss etc who thought it was great. Any experience of why job adverts are extended? Is it due to a favoured internal applicant? This job was also advertised around 2/3 months ago and is now back on nhs jobs. I presume the previous candidate pulled out for whatever reason. I’m worried I won’t be offered an interview at all or will be interviewed but somebody else will already be lined up.

If someone else was lined up they'd have ni reason to extend advertising? More likely they haven't had as many applicants as they hoped for, so are extending to have a broader pool of folk to interview.

My guess would be that they didn't get enough applicants?

If they already had a candidate in mind, they would advertise it for the bare minimum time that they had to.

You may be the only applicant so they may wish to extend to see if they get any further interest. Good luck! X

Thank you for the replies! This makes sense! Hopefully I am selected for an interview alongside a few others. Thank you! X

I had this with my current nhs post. I got the job but no idea why it was extended. Good luck.

@hairypaws congratulations! I’m hoping the same happens for me. it’s really annoying as it makes me feel my application wasn’t you to scratch/I don’t meet the essential criteria.

A lot of public sector roles have to interview a minimum number of people, so need at least that many qualified applicants.

They will want a minimum number of qualified applicants in the interview pool. An extension suggests they haven't got that minimum yet.

Yeah, as others have said, it will be that they haven't got enough candidates for the interview pool...

I work in nhs recruitment. Most likely it has been extended due to lack of applications but it could also have been extended to allow someone internal, who has expressed interest, to apply (although usually in this case it would only be extended for a day or so).

Good luck!

I thought the exact same when it happened to me. There were 5 others interviewed so I don't think it was down to not enough applicants. No idea what the reason was.

I've recently recruited in the nhs and we extended so a particular applicant could apply as she was a good candidate but on leave until the deadline.