Post by Deborah Udy Okusaga Akanne (@deborah_udy_okusaga)

THE CLINICAL ERROR QUESTION

"Tell us about a time you made a mistake."

Your mind goes blank, and you say: "I always double-check my work, so I haven't really made a significant error."

That answer tends to score poorly — not because the panel thinks you're incompetent, but because it suggests either you're not being fully honest, or you're not yet aware of your own fallibility. Both are patient safety concerns.

The NHS takes one principle here more seriously than almost anything else: Duty of Candour, a legal obligation under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. When something goes wrong, you acknowledge it, you're honest about it, and you act to stop it happening again.

The candidate who says "I've never made a mistake" struggles on this question immediately. The one who says "here's what happened, here's what I did straight away, here's what I learned, here's what changed" tends to score strongly.

The framework I coach for this question is PDSA — Plan, Do, Study, Act:
→ Plan: what happened, and what went wrong
→ Do: what you did immediately — disclosure, escalation, patient safety action
→ Study: what you reflected on and learned
→ Act: what specific change you made or contributed to

That's not a confession. It's a clinical governance narrative — and it's some of the strongest material you can bring into an NHS interview.

Your past error, framed properly, becomes evidence of genuine professional maturity.

📩 Want help framing your own clinical error story using this structure? Comment "CANDOUR" and I'll send you the framework directly.

Share this — someone in your network is one answer away from this exact mistake.

Post 5 at 5PM — the final post of Day 2, tying every STAR answer together.

Sources: Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulation 20 (Duty of Candour); NHS England, Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PDSA methodology).

#DutyOfCandour #PatientSafety #ReflectivePractice #PDSA #NHSInterview2026 #STARMethod #ClinicalGovernance #Band5NHS #Band6NHS #Band7NHS #IMGDoctor #InternationalNurseUK #SovereignHealthcareAdvisoryGroup

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