Interview Tips and Clinical Governance
Preparation is the first essential step towards a successful interview, read below for some items that you need to think about, and if you are a nurse please make sure you read the section on Clinical Governance at the end of this article:
- Know the correct address and time of the interview, the interviewer's full name, the correct pronunciation and her/his title.
- If you need to supply documents remember to double check that you have all of them.
- If you need to supply verbal referee details, please make sure you have the name, title, address and phone number, email/fax and if possible try to find out when they will be available over the next week.
- Read the information that Geneva Health has sent you about the potential employer, familiarise yourself with the location, the services offered at the organisation, professional development opportunities etc. Have a look at their website if possible.
- Prepare questions to ask during the interview, remembering that an interview is a two way process. The interviewer will try to determine through questioning if you have the qualifications and experience necessary to do the job. You can determine through questioning whether this employer will give you the opportunity for the growth and development you seek.
Your questions may include:
- Specifics about the hospital and the services offered
- Shift and rota patterns
- Anticipated induction or orientation program
- Opportunities for specialist courses and professional development
- Accommodation
- Grade, position and salary
Some "do's" and "don'ts" concerning the interview
- Do plan to arrive on time or a few minutes early. Late arrival for a job interview is never excusable.
- Dress professionally and conservatively, paying attention to all facets of your dress and grooming.
- If you have been sent application and occupational health forms, please complete these neatly and completely, and take with you to your interview. If you are being interviewed over the phone, send the completed forms to your Geneva Health consultant as soon as possible prior to your interview.
- Do greet the interviewer using her/his first name.
- Do shake hands firmly.
- Do wait until you are offered a chair before sitting. Sit upright in your chair, look alert and interested at all times. Be a good listener as well as a good talker and smile!
- Do look the interviewer in the eye while you talk to her/him.
- Do follow the interviewer's leads but try to relate your background and skills to the position.
- Don’t answer questions with a "yes" or "no". Expand and explain whenever possible giving details about yourself and your experience, which relate to the position.
- Do be honest and truthful.
- Do make sure that your good points get across to the interviewer in a factual, sincere manner. Keep in mind that you alone can sell yourself to an interviewer.
- Don't ever make derogatory remarks about your present or former employers.
- Smile!
The interview
You are being interviewed because the interviewer wants to hire staff - not because they want to trip you up or embarrass you. During the interview, they will be searching for your strong and weak points, evaluating you on your qualifications, skills and experience and they will probably probe to determine your attitudes, skills, stability, motivation and maturity.
Be prepared to answer questions such as:
- Why do you want to come and work in the UK?
- What do you want from your next career move?
- What areas/specialty(ies) are you interested in working in? What do you enjoy about it?
- Why would you like to work at this hospital/with this service?
- Where do you see yourself in five years time? Why?
- What are your strengths? What are you really good at?
- What are your major weaknesses? What have you done to improve them?
- Would previous colleagues recommend you? What do you think they would say?
- How do you keep yourself up-to-date?
- How do you deal with stress?
- What research have you looked at recently and how would you apply this to your practise?
- What does teamwork mean to you?
- What does accountability mean to you?
Behavioural questions:
- "Tell me about an occasion when you were in an emergency situation; what happened, what was the outcome?"
- Also be aware of questions related to cultural safety this is an important issue for many employers, e.g. "what does cultural safety mean to you?" "How do you reflect cultural safety in your practice?"
Be aware of:
- Poor personal appearance.
- Failure to look interviewer in the eye.
- Being overbearing, aggressive or over confident.
- Expressing thoughts in an unclear manner, poor diction or grammar.
- Lack of career planning - no purpose or goals.
- Lack of interest and enthusiasm - passive and indifferent.
- Over emphasis on money - interested only in salary.
- Lack of tact, maturity or courtesy.
- Lack of appreciation of the value of experience.
- Failure to ask good questions about the job, ward or hospital.
- Persistent attitude of, "what can you do for me?"
Closing the interview
- If you are interested in the position, then tell the interviewer you are very keen. If she/he offers a position to you, and you want to accept it, accept on the spot. If you wish some time to think it over, be courteous and tactful in asking for that time. Set a definite date when you can provide an answer.
- Don't be too discouraged if no definite offer is made, or specific salary discussed. The interviewer may be interviewing a number of candidates and will probably want to interview everyone before making a decision.
- At the conclusion of the interview, thank the interviewer for her/his time and consideration of you.
Endeavour to conclude the interview having answered the two questions uppermost in the interviewer's mind:
1. Why you are interested in the job and the organisation.
2. What you can offer the hospital/service.
After the interview: please call your consultant at Geneva Health to review your interview and discuss the outcomes.
Research and Useful Information to know before your Interview
Please have a look at the websites that we recommend below as these are vital to you when you are considering a move to the UK. Any person who interviews you will be interested in what you know about nursing in the UK. This encompasses the notions of 'Clinical Governance' and the meaning of words such as 'Accountability', 'Autonomy' and 'Advocacy' as they pertain to your role as a nurse. If you understand the concepts mentioned above thoroughly, as well as being well versed in your particular speciality - you will enter your interview with more confidence and will give yourself a greater chance of success.
www.nursing-standard.co.uk - this is the Royal College of Nursing Website and discusses the role of a nurse in the UK as well as a lot of other helpful information.
www.doh.gov.uk - the Department of Health website and is very useful.
www.nmc-uk.org - the Nursing and Midwifery Council website.
Clinical Governance
This is an integral part of the drive to make nursing in the UK more patient focused. The aim of clinical governance is to ensure, improve and demonstrate the quality of clinical care. The term covers tasks that staff have been carrying out for many years - such as managing complaints, reviewing how well we treat and care for our patients, and developing policies and procedures to lessen the risk of errors and misunderstandings.
The Government introduced the term 'clinical governance' in January 1998. The idea is to improve the nursing care, making it more systematic, more open and more inclusive, involving our patients and the local community.
A quality organisation will ensure and expect you to understand that;
- quality improvement processes (eg clinical audit) are in place and integrated with the quality programme for the organisation as a whole,
- leadership skills are developed at clinical team level,
- evidence-based practice is in day-to-day use with the infrastructure to support it,
- good practice, ideas and innovations (which have been evaluated) are systematically disseminated within and outside the organisation,
- clinical risk reduction programmes of a high standard are in place,
- adverse events are detected, and openly investigated; and the lessons learned promptly applied,
- lessons for clinical practice are systematically learned from complaints made by patients,
- problems of poor clinical performance are recognised at an early stage and dealt with to prevent harm to patients,
- all professional development programmes reflect the principles of clinical governance,
- the quality of data collected to monitor clinical care is itself of a high standard.
There is increasing emphasis on reducing and managing "risks" within the hospital ensuring that, when weaknesses are identified lessons are learned, actions are taken and improvements implemented.
-- 2005-07-30