Interview with NHS for the post of a Medical Secretary?
Asked by Angel
My interview is scheduled for next week. I would appreciate if anyone could give me some useful tips on the type of questions they would ask me? Maybe you are already working as a Medical Secretary within the NHS or have some hints that you can share with me to to be successful in this interview.

Best Answer:
Things that they might ask you: What prompted you to apply for the job in question? Tell me a little about yourself? As a trust we value equality and diversity, how will you bring this into your role as a medical secretary and how would you ensure that this is applied? (Hint: think disabled parking, ramps in the office, leaflets in languages other than english, booking interpreters, valuing workmates from other cultures) Some of our clients get distressed on the telephone. How would you deal with this? How does your prior experience fit this role? HINTS Show that you can work both unsupervised on your own and within a team. Show that you are flexible and happy to help others out. Make the point you are punctual and accurate in your work. Make reference to getting work done on time and correctly. Mention any secretarial qualifications you might already have. There might be tests - eg spelling test and a typing test. These will not be that hard, more like write an appt letter to Mr Brown regarding an appt next Thurs at 10 am. (Hint: When you do this, lay out the letter correctly with date, reference and address, think about putting in doctor's name and title that they will be seeing, details of how to find the clinic (say see attached map), put in that they can bring a friend or family member with them if they wish, state how long the appt might last) Final thoughts: it really won't be as bad as you might think. In my experience NHS interviews are much easier than interviews in corporate life. Be clean, smart, punctual, polite. Go for it.

This rather depends on whether you are being interviewed in the first instance by HR (which is usual in the NHS) or by the Team Leader for the Medical Secretaries. HR will normally ask you questions regarding your organisational abilities, your team working abilities and most importantly YOUR ABILITY TO PRIORITISE. So you may be asked a scenario such as: You will be working for the Senior Cardio Consultant, though you will also be asked to perform duties for Dr's Smith and Brown as well as any other work that may come through at busy times. The Chief Medical Officer asks you to photocopy a document for a meeting. You are already working on a transcription of minutes for the Senior Cardio Consultant and also need to type a number of results letters for both Drs Smith and Brown. Your lunch break is coming up in 10 minutes and another member of your team is struggling with a faulty filing cabinet. How do your prioritise your tasks? Other questions: What would you say your strenghts are? What are your faults? How would you say the people you currently work with/have in the past would describe you? Do you enjoy working in a team? What skills from your past job do you think would be useful here? Medical Sec work can be a little monotonous (tons of audio typing) and attention to detail is exremely important. So try to get in that you are 'a bit of a perfectionist' and that you are in the habit of re-reading your work before submitting it. Good luck.
Answered by Madam Rosmerta