Nursing and Midwifery interview guidance
Preparing for your interview
Observe the world around you
What stories and events are currently influencing healthcare? What’s your opinion on the latest news?
Do your research
Could you meet the expectations? Use this exercise as a chance to reflect on your own character. Remember this might not be a career with regular hours!
Familiarise yourself with the NHS
The NHS values underpin the key attributes of all healthcare professionals. Consider your previous relevant experience and think about how you can demonstrate them. Read the NHS constitution.
Have your documents ready
If you need to show any documents, they will be listed in your email from admissions. Make sure you have them to hand and familiarise yourself again with the answers you gave to your personal statement questions on your UCAS form!
Plan some questions
Remember this is your chance to find out about us too – so talk to us when you get the chance!
What are you going to wear?
Try to dress smartly. We want to see that you appreciate and respect that you’ll have to adhere to a dress code both on placement and once you enter the workplace as a qualified professional.
Course specific information
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BSc (Hons) Nursing courses
The interview process will consist of an interview with a member of nursing academic staff who, on occasion, will be joined by a member of staff from a Trust partner or by a service user.
As part of the interview process you are likely to be asked to discuss a scenario from practice. Your observations and understanding of these scenarios will be scored alongside additional questions related to patient care and the values of the nursing profession. This will help us decide whether to offer you a place to study Nursing with us.
Interviews are designed to help us to assess not only your communication and comprehension skills, but also your understanding of the role of the nurse.
PLEASE NOTE: If you have applied for multiple nursing courses you will only have ONE interview during which you will be assessed for all courses/fields you have applied to.
Interviews take place via Microsoft Teams. You can download the Microsoft Teams app for free. Microsoft Support has technical guidance should you need it. We recommend that prior to your interview that you check your Wi-Fi connection and IT equipment are working correctly.
Have a drink to hand and your photographic ID. Good luck!
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Midwifery - BSc (Hons) and MSc courses
Your interview will consist of a series of short, structured interview questions used to assess qualities such as cultural sensitivity, maturity, teamwork, empathy, reliability and communication skills.
We are looking for candidates that demonstrate the values and behaviours that align to the NHS Constitution and the Nursing and Midwifery Council requirements for midwifery, as well as general skills such as compassion, initiative, self-insight, resilience, organisational and problem-solving skills.
You will book your slot for an online interview via our applicant portal, details of which will be in your email from admissions offering you an interview.
When you start the interview, you will be asked a series of pre-recorded questions, each of which has a four-minute response time. Your recorded answers will be marked following your interview by various members of the midwifery community at Birmingham City University.
Remember practice makes perfect, so think about asking someone you trust to give you a ‘mock’ interview.
Smile and relax, this is about presenting your strengths as a future student and a potential midwife.
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Return to Practice - Nursing
Interviews take place via Microsoft Teams. You can download the Microsoft Teams app for free. Microsoft Support has technical guidance should you need it.
You will need to be in a quiet area with an electronic device which has a microphone and camera during the interview. We strongly recommend that you use a headset with a microphone for the meeting, to ensure you can hear the questions and give clear answers.
You will be interviewed by the course leader and a Practice Placement Manager from one of our local Trust partners.
Interviews typically last 30 minutes.
You will be sent this information along with contact details and a link to join your interview.
Your interview will consist of 8 questions, 4 of which will be provided to you in the email to give you chance to prepare.
Please make sure that you have returned any documents that have been requested by admissions before your interview.