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NHS Community Nursing Interview Advice and Tips. Here are my tips and advice for bagging yourself that amazing career out in the community. I had my interview last week and was successful!! I'm so excited to qualify this year and start an amazing career out in the community.
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I got the job! Yes! I got the job! Music
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Hi everyone and welcome if you're new to this channel my name is Claire Carmichael
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I'm a final year nursing student UK based and I've got six months left OMG
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So I don't think I can go into actual questions that they asked me
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but I'm just going to give you some little things to look around
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because they might ask you out there in the community but I think I'm allowed to share what sort of questions around the topics
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but just not the actual question I think So this vlog is all about your band 5 community nurse interview
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so if you are looking to apply into the community if you've already got that interview and you're wondering what to do
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what to research, what to look up all of that jazz, don't worry I'm going to give you as much help and advice
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hopefully as possible to make sure you smash that interview and get an amazing career ahead of you
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So firstly, just as I like a little icebreaker this particular trust asked me to write down the 6 C's of nursing
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and how I would apply those into the community setting which I thought was a really nice way to sort of break the ice
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and get you talking about those sort of things so I did print it out, I put my 6 C's, I put a little description of what I would do
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and how I would achieve this out in the community setting and then when I went into the interview they said
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OK have you got your 6 C's ready? I said yes I have had it in my folder and I said do you know what? No
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I'm not even going to look at it, I said I'm just going to keep it there I'm not going to open it, if my mind goes blank then I've got it for reference
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but it's the 6 C's, I should know the 6 C's off by heart by now
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and how I'm going to do that every day out there whilst I'm working as a qualified nurse
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so I did that, I literally closed my book and said I've got this hopefully
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and I reeled off my 6 C's, I went into detail about how I would do that
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so that started off well I think, I think that was just my little edge I think
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just to give me that little bit of a confidence boost and to get me going without having to worry or overthink things
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I think that that just really helped me personally whether you'll get that sort of situation in your interview, who knows
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it depends on the trust and what they have in place for their interviews I suppose
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but you might get a question on the 6 C's or how you will apply those 6 C's to your role wherever you are
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you might be asked about safeguarding and what the term vulnerable patient means
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or vulnerable person means, so just have a look at safeguarding look at safeguarding in the trust that you're applying to
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and if they've got any guidelines or policies just have a quick look at those
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but just mainly know the sort of risks around safeguarding what you would do in any situation that you discovered a safeguarding incident
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and how you would sort of implement that into your nursing role as well
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because safeguarding is massive at the minute, I don't think this is just for community I think this is probably for quite a lot of roles out there
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as nurses we have to be aware of it especially with the recent Panorama programme that was on recently
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with the horrible abuse that's happened, it's massive at the minute so just look around safeguarding and vulnerable adults and what that means to you
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and you're going to be okay so I was asked a few questions actually on assessment tools
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which was the only question I think that stumped me because I thought
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is it the same as when the assessment tools we use on the wards in the acute setting as community
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I know in GP they use a lot of mental health assessment tools, things like that
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but I was trying to think, oh my god, okay what assessment tools would they use
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so I just literally had to just go through every assessment tool I could possibly think of
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and just give every answer possible, I think but just to look around what assessment tools are used in the community for patients
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and just know a little bit about them just in case that is one question that they ask you
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because I had that question and luckily I was okay I think
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but just to make you aware, they might ask you about assessment tools and it's always better to be prepared
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pressure areas, so I had quite a few questions actually, more than I expected
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around pressure areas and pressure ulcers and how to prevent these and how to do so in the community
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and luckily for me, I love pressure areas and wounds and I've had some training recently
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so I was okay with those questions I think and I was actually chuffed when they asked me
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so I said yes, I know this, I know this, come on so yeah, look up pressure areas, look up pressure wounds, look up pressure ulcers
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look up prevention of pressure areas out in the community especially and just have a look into that more
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and the sort of assessment tools you would use and what you would do if you discovered a pressure area
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just look around those sort of things because that's more than likely going to be a question you might get
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I also had a question all about loan working and it's something that you have to be aware of in the community
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how to protect yourself and maintain your own safety because we're so concerned about patient safety and making the patient better
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we never think about ourselves and actually we are alone in the community
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we are going out to patients, we don't know what's behind that door so what are we going to do to make sure that we are safe
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and that is quite a really good question that sort of threw me and I was like, actually that's a really good question
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I think some trusts have alarms so you as a community nurse will have an alarm on you that you can press
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I never ever thought about something like that I just thought, well all patients are lovely
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but actually sometimes you might be at risk out there and you have to make sure that you're safe
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so just have a look into loan working what you're going to do to protect yourself, not just the patient
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another question that's quite a common one again for not just this role but any role in nursing
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and even as a healthcare assistant I've always had this question thrown at me
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so it's more than likely you might get this question so they will want to know what skills you have got
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that you can bring to the team what your best qualities are, your strengths, your weaknesses
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that sort of question, so just make sure you know and get your best skills out there and sell yourself on this question
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along with the skills you want to know why you want to work in the community what is it about community nursing you really love
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and just make sure you shine and show that passion for community nursing
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why do you want community over the acute board tell them, tell them how much you love community
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and how much you're going to be the best nurse possible for them and yeah, again, just sell yourself
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but they'll want to know why community and they'll want to know your skills
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what do you think your biggest challenge is going to be going from student nurse to qualified nurse in your first 12 months
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they might ask what you sort of foresee and this is a question that I actually got asked in my university interview as well
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so I think this is quite a common one that people use because they want to see that you're actually thinking ahead
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and you're recognising your weaknesses as well as what challenges you might have
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but whatever answer you give always, always, always back it up with your solution
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don't just say I'm going to have this challenge and end it you have to say I've recognised that this is going to be a challenge
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and this is how I'm going to achieve it and just get over the challenge and have an amazing career
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and tackle those challenges you need to always give a solution no matter what your answer is
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and lastly you might also get some questions around infection control because out in the community it's a completely different sort of area
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you're in the person's home so it's going to be quite hard to do things like aseptic technique, you know, your sharps
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if you're taking bloods, if you're doing diabetic checks, the sharps bins and things like that
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the orange bags, so you have to really think okay, what am I going to do out in the community if I've got a wound that needs aseptic technique
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and just make sure that you know around that sort of infection prevention
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and infection control in the community and what you're going to do, give an example as well
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I've got quite a few examples I think because I was really starting to think about it and I was like, oh okay this, oh actually what about this, and yeah this
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I went off on a tangent I think with that one I was in my interview for an hour might I add
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but I think I got everything in there that I needed to so just make sure you use all examples, give a good explanation
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and a bit of detail on how you're going to prevent infection
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and how you're going to maintain infection control just have a look at the trust
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there should be some guidelines and policies around infection control as well
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I know out in the community you will have your own sharps bins you will have your own orange bags
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you'll have your own wipes, you'll have your own alcohol gel those little things, you'll have your own dressing packs
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to put out on the table so you're just going to have to do the best you can basically out in the community
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and with the equipment that you have on you which you will take and not forget
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to maintain that infection control and my final final tip of the day
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relax and smile because this is the hardest thing to do when you've got an interview and you're nervous
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trust me, I hate interviews and they make me really nervous, mind goes blank
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and I start shaking and stuttering but do you know what, you just have to take a deep breath
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and think do you know what, out of all those people that have applied for this position
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they've chosen you for this interview they've seen something in your application
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and they want to speak to you and you need to sell yourself
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just make sure that you do that and sell yourself and just try and relax
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even despite the nerves and do you know what, nerves is a good thing
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because what I find is if I'm nervous about something it means I care
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if I get emotional about something, it means I care so I think they're expecting to see those nerves
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because it does show that you actually care about the role and getting the job basically
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sorry, on an actual last note now I've got another thing to add, sorry
10:33
so at the end of your interview they might ask Kofi, have you got any questions for us
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and this is something that I always struggle with because I always think, what shall I ask them
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because sometimes they cover everything in the interview like this interview that I just had
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they actually covered quite a lot they talked about the development because I was going to ask about progression
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and what I can do within the trust and that was one of my questions but they'd actually answered that already
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just from talking to them I was thinking, oh god, what can I ask now
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so some questions that you might want to ask if they don't cover it in the interview
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is, ask about progression ask about sort of development opportunities training opportunities they have
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you can ask about CPD because revalidation, you need CPD in training
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so you can interlink those you could ask about their perceptorship programme
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if they have one, if they don't what have they got in place to make your transition from student nurse
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to qualified nurse more smooth and sort of ease you in what sort of induction programmes they have
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little things like that and lastly, this is something I actually googled
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was this question and one of the results that came up is my personal, personal favourite
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so, one of your questions you might ask is what they love about the trust
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and why they love their role that they're in I just thought this was an amazing question
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I thought, actually I've never thought to ask them this never thought to ask someone actually, what do you love about this job
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and I just thought it was great so that's a really good question ask them why they love their job
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and just remember they're just people as well they're not scary they're there to interview you
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and hopefully give you a job just try and relax if you're getting stuck on a question
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just take a minute to relax it's not a race nobody's timing you in this interview
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like I said, mine took an hour because I just talked and talked and talked forever
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but I think that's because I did actually feel comfortable in this interview
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and I really wanted it and there was nothing stopping me from getting this job
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let me tell you I've waited too long so that's it from me
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I hope I've given you some good advice good tips, hopefully if you need any more information
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you know you can always message me comment below inbox me on Instagram, Twitter
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any of those Facebook let me know if you've had an interview
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let me know if you're going to an interview let me know if you've got the job oh my god
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if you've been to an interview comment below for some advice and tips
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that I haven't already given for other people to see help each other out
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come on we need each other guys it's teamwork so yeah, so
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that's it from me as I said I shall see you all next week
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and anyone that's applying for jobs out there anyone that's got an interview massive, massive, massive good luck
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you're going to smash it
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