Medical secretary interview

[Treeoflife21]

I have my millionth interview to day and decide this type of role but every time I rbi k I’m prepared, they’ll throw me a complete curveball and I’ll just go completely off topic. How do I make sure this doesn’t happen? Also, I have several ‘star’ examples but my memory is so rubbish I’ll forget half of what I want to say. I’m also having a test. It doesn’t specifically say trying test but I am hoping that’s all they mean but what other test could I expect? I’m nervous now as my maths is crap lol. As a typing test though, the last time I was a flop and just hope that doesn’t happen this time.

Thinking of some of the things our fantastic medical secretaries deal with (note, I'm in paediatrics):
-coping with angry parents on the phone
-coping with upset parents on the phone
-coping with cross GPs on the phone
-typing letters with clinical language
-typing child protection reports with distressing details (I always warn them if one of those is coming in)
-improving the letters of consultants for whom English is a second language
-keeping a list of contact details for the secretaries of just about every specialist in the region, to enable easier referrals
-keeping all the various esoteric forms that some specialists demand for referrals
-prioritising the consultants' outpatient workload
-helping new consultants figure out how to manage outpatient workload
-organising consultants and pretty much being our external memory drives

Did I mention that my secretary is absolutely amazing, and the rest if the team are also awesome. I'd be lost without them.

Hi thank you for your reply. Not off to a great start - some of my typing there was shocking haha. Hope I do better tomorrow!
i appreciate all that input and advice there. It gives me more understanding of what might be expected of me - and yes it will also be paediatrics.

Best of luck.

This is a great list.

I'd also make sure you are prepared for questions on confidentiality and verifying the identify of phone callers.

You might also get asked about how you prioritise tasks.

Good luck!

Thank you - I was unsuccessful (again). Thinking about questions, my mind always goes blank when they ask me if I have questions on my own. Usually by the end of them speaking they’ve told me everything I need to know lol. What are suitable questions I could ask NHS interviewers?

Hi so just wanted to come in and say I will be starting my new job soon!! Thanks everyone for all the great advice, I’m so excited for the new role.