Common NHS values-based interview questions for each of the six NHS values, how to answer them with STAR, and how to prepare from your supporting statement.
Most NHS interviews are values-based: alongside clinical or technical questions, the panel asks how you have behaved in situations that test the values the trust recruits for. The questions are predictable once you know the values, and the answers that score well have the same shape. This guide lists common questions for each NHS value and shows how to answer them.
What values-based interviewing is
Values-based recruitment was introduced across the NHS to make sure staff are selected for how they work, not only for their skills. It is built on the six values of the NHS Constitution, and many trusts add their own values on top. Check the advert and the trust's website: if the trust names its values, expect a question on each.
Nursing panels also often refer to the 6Cs of nursing: care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment.
Common questions, value by value
- Working together for patients: "Tell us about a time you worked with another team to get the right outcome for a patient."
- Respect and dignity: "Describe a time you had to care for someone who was difficult or whose views you disagreed with."
- Commitment to quality of care: "Tell us about a time you noticed something was not right. What did you do?"
- Compassion: "Give an example of when you went beyond your role to support a patient, relative or colleague."
- Improving lives: "Tell us about a change you suggested or made that improved care or a service."
- Everyone counts: "How have you made sure someone was not left out or disadvantaged?"
How to answer: STAR, with the value made visible
Answer each question with one real example in four parts: the Situation, your Task, the Action you took, and the Result. Spend most of the time on your action, say "I" rather than "we", and finish with what changed and what you learnt. Then make the link to the value explicit in one sentence, so the panel does not have to infer it.
For example, for "Tell us about a time you noticed something was not right":
"While recording observations I noticed two NEWS2 scores had been added up wrongly, so one deterioration had not been escalated. I escalated the patient straight away, reported the error through the incident system, and offered to run a short refresher on scoring at our safety huddles. In the next audit every chart checked was scored correctly. For me, quality of care means speaking up straight away, even about a colleague's error."
Prepare from your supporting statement
Your panel has read your supporting statement, and the best interview examples are often the ones you wrote there, told in more depth. Before the interview, list the examples in your statement against the trust's values, find one for any value you have not covered, and practise each answer out loud in about two minutes.
If you have not written the statement yet, or want stronger examples in it, the NHS supporting statement writer builds the evidence for each criterion of the person specification, and shows the trust's values through what you did, from your own CV and a few short answers. Read also NHS supporting statement for a band 5 nurse: what to include.
