Interview or interrogation
Just call me Jennifer Ennis. I’m sure that’s who the world thinks I am with all these hurdles that are being put in front of me.
It started when I received the letter, inviting me for an interview for the Band 6 position on the ward. When I say ‘interview’, what I really mean is ‘interrogation’. Not satisfied that us mere mortals should sweat for a solid hour through a traditional interview, the powers that be have decided that selection of the fittest should consist of an assessment centre – whatever that means.
He’d got his Band 6 position late last year and hadn’t had to jump through hoops this size.
We looked at it together to try to decipher the size of this task. There would be a written assessment, based on a fictitious patient, to test my clinical skills. Then there was the role play involving a number of people to test my leadership skills.
And if we were still standing at the end of that, we would have an interview with a panel of three senior leaders – probably to test whether we’re still able to speak!
It was like the nursing pentathlon – and I am seriously not an athlete!
I rang Carla, just to clarify that I had applied for a Band 6 position rather than a Hospital Director’s role. She has every faith in me, just so long as I do the homework that she set for me as part of the preparation.
Despite my better judgement (I’d convinced myself I was happy to be a Band 5 nurse until I got married and had 23 children), I turned up for the assessment centre. It was being held in a conference centre close to the hospital and was the first time they had interviewed in this way.
From the look of the other candidates, I wasn’t the only one bricking it.
There was five of us in total and I felt completely out of my depth. They all looked so grown-up, even if they did look terrified. They were all suited and booted, as was I, but they looked comfortable in their clothes – maybe this was the Hospital Director’s assessment centre and I’d got it wrong again?
We sat there waiting for the selection committee to arrive, and I’m sure you could have heard a pin drop as they all trooped in. I must have visibly relaxed when I saw Steve there and I was very tempted to shout ‘yoo-hoo’ and give him a little wave. Instead, I sat bouncing on my chair like Tigger, hoping he would notice me – much to the scornful stares of the others.
The first hour consisted of the clinical assessment. Thankfully, it could have been written about one of my recent patients who had developed sepsis. We were required to give a detailed account of what our actions would be based on the symptoms that were presented to us. I tried to get the word sepsis into every sentence (literally), just in case they missed that I’d picked up sepsis. I decided to go a step deeper though and also described the impact it might be having on the patient psychologically and the importance of reassurance and presenting a calm persona.
The second part was more difficult. We had to role play a difficult CQC inspection with the panel members being an inspector and two of our team members. It was really challenging, especially as I knew Steve and kept asking him what he wanted me to do next! I think I really fluffed that bit.
Dinner time was my favourite part and my eating skills were clearly superior to those of my competitors. Who said you couldn’t eat soup with a knife and fork??
The team exercise was a bit of an eye-opener. We were clearly a real bunch of diverse personalities and there were 2 of them who nearly came to blows when faced with differing opinions. We had to solve a problem of suddenly being faced with being short-staffed and I had the audacity to suggest that we ask the charge nurses to pitch in and help us….you’d thought I’d suggested we strip off and run naked through the hospital!
The final leg was the face-to-face interview. To be fair, I’d lost the will to live by that point so I was fairly relaxed. The questions were so far removed from my Band 5 interview, with the emphasis on mentoring and leadership, that I felt resigned to falling at the last hurdle.
We don’t find out until next week, although I’ve heard a rumour now that there are two vacant posts to compete for…
As Matt says, I did my best and it’s all experience under my belt. I just need to keep practicing those hurdles, so with that in mind, I’m off now to don my leotard, metaphorically speaking of course; the world isn’t ready for that sight just yet.
Dame Jennifer has nothing on me!
Good luck! I hope you get the band 6 job.
ReplyDeleteI am unfamiliar with nursing bands. Is that equivalent to sister or senior staff nurse?
That interview process is similar to my interviews for gp training. Although we had 6 clinical stations where we had to do role play.. and nothing about the cqc probably because it didn't exist back then!
It's really hard to judge how well you've done because you often only remember the mistakes you made & somehow forget the parts that went well!
Let us know how you get on! Thanks
Good luck with your Band 6 post. Luckily I dd not interview for my Band 6 post and I don't think I would have liked to jump through all the hoops you say you did. I trained in 1981 when life was simple and nurses just went to work to care for patients. Paperwork and red tape has become a joke in the NHS now. I'm certainly not surprised there is a shortage of nurses.
ReplyDeleteI've left the NHS after 38 years service to join an Agency so I can get a better work/life balance. I'm taking a cut in pay but I'm hoping it's going to be worth it just to have Christmas at home with my family for the first time in decades :-)