Interview with Band 6 Deputy Ward Manager - Help

[Nurse Beth, MSN]

Dear Claudia,

Congrats on your interview!

When selecting a clinical improvement problem, pick one that is:

• Current
  
• Measurable
  
• Fixable
  
• Simple
  

Selecting a current and relevant clinical problem shows you are aware of current practice issues. One that is important to your Ward Manager will naturally be of higher interest to him/her, and win favor.

Find data and measurable statistics if possible to describe the current status of the problem. You can add anecdotal examples that add value and interest, as long as you have established some quantifiable metrics. Look for an opportunity to express the problem from the perspective of what's best for the patient.

Have an action plan to show how you will fix the problem. Address how you will achieve buy-in of staff. Aim for a budget-neutral solution. If resources will be needed, you should quantify the cost and explain how you will obtain funding.

Have a target goal for improvement, and a time frame for accomplishing this.

For example, if your problem is hand hygiene, you will draw from recent audits to show rate of compliance. If your current compliance rate is 72%, for example, your goal could be to achieve 92% compliance within 3 months.

Pull some references from WHO or other sources from the literature to illustrate the importance of hand hygiene.

You can talk about how it builds patient trust to observe nurses and doctors follow hand-hygiene.

One of your proposals may be to educate patients to Speak Up” and ask staff to perform hand hygiene. This could be through flyers, educating patients on point of admission, etc. You could have a staff contest to come up with a flyer, or a catchphrase for the campaign.

Hand hygiene is a simple, universal area for improvement. Many clinical problems go back to basic nursing care, so there's no need to pick something complex.

What have others found to be helpful when giving a presentation in an interview?

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Nurse Beth