Tips for nhs HCA interview please

Agirlhasnoname_3

Trying not to get over excited but I applied for a job working with the district nurses as a healthcare assistant a week ago, I currently work for the nhs but a different trust and on an inpatient ward.

This job is closer to home slightly more hours and on the community which I really enjoy after working as a home carer for 4 years. I'd also like to be a district nurse when I one day finish my degree (done 1 year but then discovered was expecting)

Anyway I kind of wrote it off until I got a letter in post this morning inviting me to an interview on 13th June! I fit the person specification exactly so I'm keeping my fingers tightly crossed.

Anybody got any tips to help me snag this job? I'd really really love it and the ones on the district for health cares are like hens teeth!

GothicStirling

What's your experience of values-based interviews? This seems to be the structure of NHS interviews now.


Do a bit of research, and find out what their Trust Values are, and make all your answers fit their Values statement. The most important will be something like Patient First, and you'll never go wrong by talking about patients. Other questions I can remember are (1) when have you excelled; (2) when have you been a role model; (3) when have you helped a work colleague; and (4) when have you made your workplace a safer place?


Remember to use the STAR method when answering questions (Situation/Task/Action/Result). So an answer would go like:


Situation: Recently I was responsible for meals on the Stroke ward,
and I realised a patient had not been served, and the
meal was cold.
Task: A Healthcare asked me if I could go to the kitchen for a
replacement meal. As this happened after the cut-off
time, I asked if someone would be able to help me with
washing dishes.


Action: I went down to the kitchen and I-waved the meal, and the
patient had a meal in 10 minutes


Result: The patient received a hot meal necessary for their
recovery, and we averted a serious situation by working
as a team in the patient's interest.


If you go to YouTube there are lots of videos that will help with these type of Competency questions, and formulate answers.


Also, prepare some

shortcrust

Don't leave them worrying that you won't stick around. Focus on why you want this job. If asked about the degree and future plans bring it right back to the assistant job - "That might be something for the future when my children are much older. What I'm focussed on now is this job because of x y and z" or the like.

Agirlhasnoname_3

Thank you for those helpful replies. I have a lot of stuff written down somewhere from when I had my interview with my current trust (been there a year and a half) and a lot of the stuff I remember from my nursing.

I will check out the trust for their values etc and write those down too. I always find I get caught out with those questions about strengths/weaknesses and always find they ask questions where I haven't done what they are asking about!

Agirlhasnoname_3

Oh and I defiantly want this job, if I got it id be planning on sticking around for the foreseeable as returning to nursing wouldn't be an option until all my children no longer need childcare

elsien

Safeguarding! That's sure to get snuck in in one guise or another.

Andy_L

"what do you know about the work of a district nurse?" could be a likely question