How To Answer Healthcare Support Worker Interview Questions

Healthcare Support Worker, Laura, offers her advice for a HSW job interview, with answers to common questions, as well as her own experience based tips to help you succeed.

Topics covered in this article

Introduction

Will My Interview Be Face to Face?

How Many People Will Be At My Interview?

How Long Will The Interview Take?

“Tell Me About Yourself?”

“What Skills Do You Need As A Healthcare Support Worker?”

“What Are Your Strengths & Weaknesses?”

Scenario Based Questions

“Are You Aware Of Confidentiality Policies?”

Asking Your Own Questions

Most Importantly, Just Be Yourself

Introduction

Hi everyone, my name's Laura.

Today, I'm gonna be talking to you about how you can prepare for your Healthcare Support Worker interview.

I'm going to be talking a little bit about what you can do to prepare for it. You can also read about Preparing For Scrub Nurse Interview.

And also then we're going to talk a bit about what questions you may be asked and look at what answers you could give to how you got that job.

So if you're interested in this, then please continue to watch.

And hopefully we can help you get that job you've always wanted.

See my previous video about how to become a Healthcare Support Worker, here.

Will My Interview Be Face to Face?

Firstly, a lot of people ask, especially now with the COVID pandemic, will my interview be face to face?

So I know a lot of places now are interviewing online, a virtual interview via Zoom.

This may be an option for you.

If it is, my advice would be to make sure you've got a good wifi connection.

You're in a clear area where they can see you well, and also you speak in a clear way and there's no background noise, which will interfere and disrupt the interview.

Whether places we'll continue to do them via Zoom is down to the employer, but I know a lot of people are.

If it's face to face, a lot of people will say, well, who interviews me, how many people will be there?

How Many People Will Be At My Interview?

So every time I've gone for a job as a Healthcare Support Worker, there's always been at least two people in the room with me.

So it tends to be a nurse or another Healthcare Support Worker.

And then it will either be someone from human resources or sometimes, very rarely, I have had a patient come in on the interview.

So there are some examples of who may be there.

How Long Will The Interview Take?

So what the interviews I've always been to for a Healthcare Support Worker have tended to be round about 20 minutes.

We have a little bit of an introduction where they ask me to tell them something about myself and then they'll ask about five or six questions.

And then they round it up with asking me if I've got any questions.

So 20 minutes, it's not very long.

And every Healthcare Support Worker role interview I've been for has been very relaxed.

And within five minutes, I feel really comfortable, which is a positive.

So try to relax on the day, I know it's hard and nerves can get the better of us, but we are only human, everyone's human.

We all get nervous at times.

Just go in there and try your best.

“Tell Me About Yourself?”

So some of the questions you might get asked in a Healthcare Support Worker role are firstly, tell me a bit about yourself.

So when I answer this question, I tend to tell them about my past work history, where I've previously worked.

And then after I've done that, I'll explain a little bit about myself personally.

So I might say, I'm a Mum, I'm married.

I got three children and I live blah, blah, blah.

So I might tell them what hobbies I've got or give an example of what I like to do in my spare time.

So that just gives them the chance to get to know you a bit as a person, it's not just all about work.

I tend to tell them partly my work history and partly a bit about my personal life.

“What Skills Do You Need As A Healthcare Support Worker?”

Some other questions you might get asked, are what skills do you need as a Healthcare Support Worker?

So I would say one of the main skills is communication skills.

They wanna know that you're going to be able to communicate with a wide variety of people, from the patients themselves, to family members, visitors who come to see the patients.

And also then, other people you're working alongside.

So nurses, managers, doctors, for example, in the hospital, there's loads of different people.

So knowing you can communicate and work in that environment with different people.

Some other skills I would say you need is you need to be able to listen to people and you need to be able to observe things and have good observational skills.

So working in a hospital as a health care support worker, a lot of the time, you're the person who are doing the patient's observations.

So being able to notice if things aren't quite right with the patient and being able to relay that back to the nurse or the doctors if you feel you have to.

So that's another skill.

Another skill I would say would be good timekeeping.

Working on a ward as a Healthcare Support Worker is very busy.

So knowing how to manage your time and get your duties done within the time you're there.

And it's about not letting things drag on and on.

And then you get to the end of the shift and you've got 1,000,001 things left to do.

“What Are Your Strengths & Weaknesses?”

So I would say that, also they may ask what your weaknesses and strengths are.

This is a difficult question.

My advice would be sit down, maybe ask a family member, what do you think my weaknesses are?

What you think I need to improve on?

Everybody has got a weakness and everyone has something they can improve on.

So being able to say that in an interview, but it's something you struggle with is good because it's something you can improve on.

I wouldn't worry about that or highlighting what it is, it's good that you know what it is.

Scenario Based Questions

Some of the questions they may ask would be scenario based questions.

So how would you deal with a certain situation?

If you saw a member of staff being cruel to a patient on a ward, what would you do?

Basically, they're gonna wanna know that you're going to work in a safe manner.

You're gonna keep the patients safe and you're gonna do everything in the best way possible.

You're gonna adhere towards safeguarding policies.

You're going to adhere to all the NHS policies you've got to follow.

You're not going to let that go unseen.

So it's about being able to say, I'm gonna stand up and if I see something happening that's wrong, I will come to see you.

I will intervene if necessary and it's knowing that you're gonna to be a voice for that patient as well.

So that's another question I would think about. And also, look at other scenarios.

They might ask you something, if you're having a difficult patient or a patient's really upset and they're struggling, how would you deal with that?

So try and think of some scenarios and put yourself in the patient's shoes or the staff member's shoes, and just think about how you would deal with that situation yourself.

It's always remembering to work in a way where you're calm, you're friendly, but you're working to provide the best care possible for those patients.

“Are You Aware Of Confidentiality Policies?”

So another question they may ask is, are you aware of confidentiality policies? Are you aware of data protection?

So knowing that you can't share information with everyone about patients is vital being aware of some of the policies.

My advice to you would be, if you're applying for a job in the hospital, to go on the NHS trust website for the hospital and just have a little look at different policies that they might have, have a read through them, and I'll just build up your awareness.

Asking Your Own Questions

And then finally, they will probably ask you if you've got any questions.

And sometimes I have asked, is there any chance of progression within this job role?

When I first worked as a Healthcare Support Worker and I went for my next job, I asked if there would be any type of progression and I was able to train to do venipuncture bloods.

So that's a good opportunity and it shows that you wanna learn more and you're happy to engage in further training.

That's always a good one to ask.

Most Importantly, Just Be Yourself

Most importantly, I think when you do have a Healthcare Support Worker job interview, the best thing to do is just be yourself.

Explain what previous experience you've got.

If it's not in a job role, it could be in a family role where you've cared for someone.

Maybe you've helped a neighbour who you live near to with shopping or anything like that.

Just look at all what you've done throughout your life aspects that can relate to this job.

But yeah, just keep calm, be yourself.

And if you find any question difficult, just don't be afraid to pause or ask them to repeat the question and take it from there.

But yeah, that's my advice.

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Good luck to any of you who have an interview coming up. Read also about Nursing Degree Course Interview Tips.

And if you wanna ask any more questions, please feel free to write them in the comments below, and I will answer them as soon as I can.

Thank you, bye.

You can also check this article about the average wage for a support worker.