How to avoid the 3 worst nursing interview pitfalls

Hands up how many of us have sat in an interview and sweated, cringed and stumbled over what we really wanted to say? I know I have! And the only outcome is you don’t get the job (unless you’re really lucky) and you beat yourself up over it for days after. So, I’ve put together 3 top tips to help avoid the nervous verbal incompetence!

1. Prepare for the inevitable stumbling question ‘So tell us a little about you’.

All an interviewer really wants to know when they ask this  is how well do you work with other people, are you friendly, patient, and can you use your own initiative as well as working in a team. The only way to give a really good answer to this is to prepare it first! Jot down a few points about how great you are and practice putting into coherent sentences. Don’t get too well rehearsed – they don’t want to hear you just reel off a speech in the interview!

2. ‘What are your weaknesses?’

This sounds like a horrid question to get in an interview, but you can make it work to your advantage if you’ve done your preparation. The interviewer is looking to see if you can be analytical about your own behaviour and objective enough to take action. The best way to counter this question is give a specific example of when you have been weak in a situation and give an explanation of how you would have handled things differently. Make sure they understand that you can learn from your experience and take change on onboard.

3. ‘What would you do in this situation: (fill in an awkward example relevant to the position you’re going for!)?”

This boils down to making sure you know your subject! Be on the ball with new policy, practices and health & safety. Make sure your clinical knowledge is really top notch and that you can be concise and calm when presented with a difficult situation. If you don’t understand the scenario given, feel free to ask qualifying questions to be sure you understand exactly what they are presenting you with. The only preparation you can do for this is to think through and practice speaking through different scenarios that might occur in your new role (which if course you will get!).

All that remains is not to panic. If you naturally panic, sweat and go into meltdown before an interview be sure that you shower before you go, use a strong deodorant, don’t wear clothes you aren’t comfortable in, do you hair early so it’s not fly away when you arrive and most importantly walk into the building with your head held high. An air of confidence is very reassuring and even if you don’t feel it inside, it can be projected so your body language displays it.

Better dementia training for nurses is needed according to new report

The Alzheimer’s Society has published a report entitled ‘Counting the Cost, caring for people with dementia on hospital wards’ in which it states that patients with dementia are staying in hospital far longer than those without dementia who are admitted for the same treatment.

Patients with dementia occupy a quarter of all hospital beds, and the study of 2,400 people found that these patient’s endure longer stays in hospital which affects their mental and physical state in such a way that the majority leave hospital in a worse condition. Just over a third of patients left hospital to go to a care home unable to return home because their condition had deteriorated so much.

The report also calls for more specialist training for nurses in the care of dementia patients. The results of the study show that 89% of nurses questioned found caring for dementia patients “very or quite challenging”. The RCN supports the findings and is backing the recommendation for more training to be made available and calling the situation “simply unacceptable”.

Margaret Haywood receives the Nursing Standard Patient’s Choice award

So is it true that times heals all if the cause is a moral one? Not one moment ago Margaret Haywood was struck off by the NMC for whistleblowing on the neglect suffered by patients at a Sussex hospital, now her efforts are recognised with the Nursing Standard’s Patient’s Choice award.

Ms Haywood put her career and future job prospects on the line to bring to the attention of the media the poor standards of care that patients were experiencing. She was subsequently struck off by the NMC on a charge of misconduct after secretly filming inside the hospital for BBC’s Panorama programme. Had it not been for the overwhelming public support of her cause, she may still never be able to practice as a nurse again.

The public have certainly voted with their feet so to speak, one patient said she nominated Ms Haywood for the award because she “felt so strongly about standards of care she put her job on the line”  (Source: BBC News)

Now that this individual case has been resolved, the RCN is developing guidelines on how disputes and concerns should be raised in the future to ensure that there is a recognised channel for issues of this nature to come to light. Ms Haywood told the BBC,

I still believe it was the right thing to do, and this award makes it even better. I still say my actions were justified, and getting this award gives me a lot more credibility.

She will soon start her new role training nurses and carers.

Can anyone be a nurse? What qualities and skills do you need?

The short answer is no I don’t think just anyone can be a nurse. It takes a certain type of character and several essential personality traits to be successful in a nursing career.

I think if you are naturally calm under pressure, resourceful, able to multi-task accurately and empathise with people you will make a brilliant nurse. Of course there are a plethora of other skills required, but I think if you fit the above, you have a really good grounding for the industry.

In my opinion nursing isn’t just a career, it’s a calling and a way of life. It takes a great deal of effort, commitment and sheer perseverance to complete a nursing qualification to then go into an industry where (in all probability) you will work very long hours with very few breaks and quite often, in understaffed areas. To some people that would be their idea of hell, and if you’re reading this thinking I could never do that, then I would suggest that you give it a really good think about choosing a nursing career.

It’s a shock to the system for anyone, even the most committed, when they find their first shift as a staff nurse is 14 hours long and starts at 7am; but if you can pull just an ounce of confidence and determination from inside you then you can do it! I’m not saying it will get easier after that, but you can be sure that most people are in the same boat and finding it just a tough.

Give yourself the advantage in the job application game

We love helping everyone get the job they want, so we’ve come up with a few ways of making your CV and application as good as they can possibly be.

By following the few simple steps below, you can improve the way you present yourself to a recruiter so you get that all important interview to prove just why they need you!

Step 1: Give your profile a polish and shine

Your personal profile on Nurses.co.uk is one of the most powerful tools you have when applying to jobs. Recruiters see your profile before they view your CV, so use it to your advantage by providing an accurate, descriptive summary of who you are and what your experience is.

Login here, then click on the view/edit link next to your current CV and follow the instructions.

The ideal profile should include:
a short description of your current role
your current band if you are an NHS worker
how many years experience you have in the field you are applying for
a few brief details about your career so far

Step 2: Watch our CV writing video and make some changes

We’ve put together a step by step guide to the perfect nursing CV. Watch it here and follow the advice to update your CV so it really has the wow factor.

Step 3: A good cover letter is as important as your CV

Recruiters often have very little time to read a CV in full, so make sure they get a good overview of who you are and what your experience is in the cover letter. Keep it short, space it in paragraphs and spell check twice!

So that’s a brief summary of the basics, make sure you start at the top and login to your account to update your profile.

Best of luck applying for your next job!

RCN advises all frontline Nurses and HCAs to have the swine flu vaccine

The RCN is advising that all frontline Nurses and Healthcare Assistants should have the vaccine to protect themselves and their patients from catching the H1N1 Swine flu strain. Dr Peter Carter is quoted as saying,

I would urge all frontline staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible. While most cases of swine flu are mild, nurses should be mindful of the effects on more vulnerable patients. Vaccination is a simple way for nurses to protect themselves, their families and their patients, so employers must ensure that staff have the time and the opportunity to access the vaccine. (RCN website 22.10.09)

For me personally, I don’t understand how a vaccine that has been produced so quickly can possibly have been researched properly. How can anyone know what the long term effects of this vaccine are? However, it has been reported by the media that this new vaccine has been modelled on the H5N1 vaccine and Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer at the DoH, is also advising that all frontline nursing staff should have the new vaccine.

Whilst I understand that the NMC code states that Nurses have a duty to act in the best interests of their patients and to cause them no harm, I don’t fully understand how Nurses can be seen to breaking this if they refuse the vaccine.

The Guardian website (22.10.09) reported that,

Professor David Salisbury, the Department of Health’s director of immunisation, said it was unfortunate that nurses could “knowingly leave themselves at risk”.

He added: “They have a duty to themselves, they are at risk. They have a duty to their patients not to infect their patients and they have a duty to their families. I think you solve those responsibilities by being vaccinated.

“The evidence that we’ve had is sufficient to persuade the regulators that these are vaccines that will be licensed.”

For me, I feel a little uncomfortable that the regulators have been ‘persuaded’ to license this new vaccine, and that’s enough to put doubt in my mind.

Been away for a bit, and Nursing Times this week!

I know I’ve not posted in a while, I’ve been away on a bit of a break to chill out and re-charge! Anyway, so now that I’m back I’ve just picked up the Nursing Times from last week (13-19 Oct) to find a flyer fall out of it advertising 60 giant fact sheets on the human body for only 99p! A bargain you might think, and it certainly appears that way as they clearly state there is no tie in to buy more.

Forgive me if I am a little synical, but one fact sheet shown in the flyer says ‘”The two lungs perform gaseous exchanges with blood pumped from the heart”. Doesn’t this sounds a little more like GCSE Biology than the highly regarded education level achieved by nurses? I realise these fact sheets have been pitched as an aide-memoir, but I think with that level of detail they aren’t even worth 99p!

The first paragraph inside the cover says “Now you can get to know your body inside our – how to recognise its messages so you can talk confidently to your doctor…”.

I’m positive that every nurse in this country who knows their stuff will have binned it (unless they have kids doing GCSE Science!)

Featured Nursing Event – Nurse Clinics 2009

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Friday 6th November 2009
Manchester Central Convention Complex, Manchester

With a keynote address from Peter Carter OBE Chief Executive and General Secretary The Royal College of Nursing, Member Prime Ministers Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery who will give an update on the national progress and developments of Nurse Clinics and developing nursing roles and challenging traditional boundaries.

The conference fee is £190 +VAT. To download a copy of the conference programme, please click here

http://www.healthcare-events.co.uk/ct/HP406/conf

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Nurses get to add their suggestions to the NHS cost-cutting measures

It seems that a rather large cheer is required because it has been confirmed that Nurses will finally get to make their suggestions to the powers that be on how to save money rather than make the enormous cuts in NHS staffing levels.

The Nursing Times (22-28 Sept) has reported that Dame Christine Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer for England, is going to ask Nurses how to save millions pounds in order to avoid ’slash and burn’ cuts from managers. Nurses are going to get a chance to provide evidence of systems or changes that are already in place and could be rolled out accross the country to save £20bn by 2014.

There is a three week windows starting this Thursday for proposals to be submitted via the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement’s website. Make sure you you contribute – this is chance to everyone to have a voice and hopefully save some jobs

The student nurse bursary debate rumbles on

Ok so here’s the latest update as I understand it. The whole point of the system shake-up is to make nursing more accessible to a wider range of potential candidates in order to avert the impending recruitment crisis. I think this a brilliant idea – the more people that have an opportunity to pursue their dream of a nursing career the better.

The review is expected to make nursing an all gradute entry profession by 2015 and to provide appropriate student funding to accomodate this. The consultation period is nearly upon us and it will continue until 11th December this year. There are two events planned as well, one in London on 27th Oct and one in Leeds on 4th Nov.

Let’s grab this opportunity to make our voices heard and make sure we get a better system of funding student nurses! You can take part in the consultation by:

• downloading a response form from www.dh.gov.uk,
• emailing bursaryconsultation@dh.gsi.gov.uk or
• writing to DH, Room 2N22, Quarry House, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7UE