NHS job interview help

[Glitterball93]

Hi, I have been invited to interview for a team secretary position at my local NHS Hospital, having applied for similar roles before and never heard back, I am over the moon to have received an interview invite this time.
If anyone have any interview tips or could advise me of the questions they may ask, i would really appreciate it.
Thank you :)

Congrats!

There is always a question around your understanding of equality and diversity, best regards way to prepare is look through the job description and pick out the skills they are looking for and have an example of how you have demonstrated these in the past.

Also look at the trusts values as most questions are based around these and again how you have demonstrated those in the past or what you understand what good looks like for each.

It’s always a good idea to have an understanding of the framework around the area you are applying to.

Good luck!!!

I had one yesterday for a HCA position and was asked about confidentiality and professional behaviour.

Always mention patients in your first answer!

Put patient care at the centre of your replies. Questions like, "What is your understanding of this role?"
"I believe this job will be about supporting clinicians to provide a high standard of excellent care to patients attending this service..."
"What interested you in this position?"
"I believe I have the skills and qualifications... Blah blah blah... But I am really keen to work for the NHS and work in a role where I can be involved in supporting patients to access quality care. I hope to be able to assist the team in this process..."
Also try and talk specifically about the department you are applying to support so it appears that you want THIS job in THIS department. Show that you've done your research about what the service / department does, or even just have an awareness about the patient group.

Good luck !

Their competency framework is usually included in the ad, along with a list of competencies you'll be assessed on. If not, ask for it.

Check what competency level the role sits at (probably the lowest one for this role) and start to study and remember the key points of the competencies that you can include in your answer.

They'll be scoring you on hitting these points so you need to include as many as possible to get high scores.

Your examples will be a big part of that too. When they say "tell us about a time when you...", make sure you use the STAR technique and spend most time on the A (action)

Good luck

I’ve only done clinical job interviews but one that always comes up is something along the lines of ‘what is a team and how do you fit into it’ Also, find out what the trust values are and give an example for each eg if one was Respect how have you treated someone with respect in the past. Good luck.

I’ve no idea if this is even possible now but within a clinical setting it always looked extra good if you asked for an informal visit before the interview.

Agree about knowing the specifics of this role. ‘I’m particularly excited about the prospect of supporting the work of this team in their approach to Y treatment/ care.’

Good luck.