Post by Deborah Udy Okusaga Akanne (@deborah_udy_okusaga)

You Asked For Feedback After Your NHS Interview. You Received Three Lines. Here Is What Those Three Lines Actually Mean — And What The Panel Cannot Tell You.

If you have attended an NHS interview this year and been unsuccessful, there is a strong chance you received feedback that sounded like one of these:

"We felt the successful candidate had more NHS-specific experience."

"Your answers lacked specific examples relevant to our Trust."

"We were looking for someone who demonstrated stronger clinical governance awareness."

And you read those three lines and thought — I do not know what to do with this.

You are right. Because those three lines are not the real feedback.

They are the sanitised, legally defensible, HR-approved summary of a structured scoring decision that involved multiple assessors, a detailed marking matrix, and criterion-by-criterion evaluation.

And they contain the real answer — but in a different language than the one you need to understand it.

Let me translate.

"More NHS-specific experience" does not mean you needed to work in the NHS before applying. It means your answers did not use the NHS's specific governance frameworks — Datix, PSIRF, NEWS2, SBAR, Good Medical Practice, Duty of Candour — to describe clinical events you have actually experienced. You have the experience. You do not have the translation.

"Specific examples relevant to our Trust" does not mean you needed to know the Trust's internal details. It means your answers were generic — "I always prioritise patient safety" — rather than evidenced — "During my ICU rotation, I identified a medication discrepancy, escalated using SBAR to the registrar, documented the event in our incident reporting system, and participated in the case review the following week." Specific. Named. Outcome-evidenced.

"Stronger clinical governance awareness" means your answers described clinical governance as a concept — "I understand the importance of clinical governance" — rather than as a documented personal practice. The panel was looking for you to name the frameworks by name, describe your participation in them with specific examples, and demonstrate that governance is not something you understand in theory but something you practise daily.

The gap is not clinical. It is linguistic.

And the linguistic gap is closeable — with the right preparation.

DM me "FEEDBACK" and I will translate your specific interview feedback into the exact preparation you need before your next application.

Post 3 drops at 11:00 AM — the Service Improvement question. The one that decides your band at interview. And the one nobody is preparing you for.

#NHSInterview2026 #IMGDoctor #InternationalNurse #PhysiotherapistUK #AHPsUK #NHSJobs2026 #NHSRecruitment #ClinicalGovernance #DutyOfCandour #PSIRF #SBAR #DATIX #GoodMedicalPractice #NHSBand6 #TrustGradeSHO #ClinicalFellow #SovereignHealthcareAdvisoryGroup #NHSApplication2026 #InternationalMedicalGraduate #NHSValues

You Asked For Feedback After Your NHS Interview. You Received Three Lines. Here Is What Those Three...

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