- 04 October 2018
- 6 min read
I just had my first nursing job interview and here's what I learned
SubscribeLaura recorded this video just hours after her first job interview as a qualified Mental Health Nurse. Here's how it went and what she learned.
Here's an abbreviated transcript
I want to talk about my interview experience for my first ever job as a qualified mental health nurse. It's a preceptorship role. I actually just did the interview today and it went really well! Two hours after I left the unit I received a phone call to say that I'd got the job and I accepted it!
So I am super excited.
However, I know how nerve-wracking it can be preparing for an interview especially if it is your first one like today was mine.
So I thought it would be good to put together a little video just talking about how I approached the situation and give some tips that I found useful.
My experience
The interview process for me wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be.
I went into the psychiatric hospital unit, I sat down in the waiting room and then I was called through.
It was like the clinical lead of that Hospital site and there were two people and that was that woman and then another woman who was the clinical lead for another site.
They talked to me a bit and went through the the necessities of am I fit to work and they talked about salary and annual leave all that and then they gave me eight scenarios - I'll give you one example: they said ‘you go into a patient's room and you find them unconscious on their bed and you're unable to rouse them - what do you do?’.
They also sort of tested my knowledge on things like the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act.
It was really good but also they were so friendly it made it a lot easier. When I did get a bit stuck, because there were a couple of questions where I was getting stuck with what to say, they didn't just sit there they prompted me and they knew that I knew it and they were assisting me in demonstrating.
About this contributor
Mental Health Nurse and Campaigner
I'm passionate about opening up conversations around mental health. I'm also a mental health nurse. I've studied Psychology (BSc Hons 1st Class) and mental health nursing. In addition to nursing, I've held volunteer roles including ones that seek to assist with mental health support.
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