Interview Questions for Aged Care Professionals: Solutions

This assignment presents a student's responses to a series of interview questions relevant to aged care positions. The student, with experience as a cleaner and aged care worker, addresses questions about their strengths and weaknesses, teamwork experiences, conflict resolution skills, and contributions to workplace safety. The answers demonstrate understanding of documentation, work health and safety, and the importance of quality care. The student also provides insights into their career goals, handling stressful situations, and managing challenging scenarios, such as aggressive dementia clients or unsafe practices by colleagues. The assignment covers topics like mandatory reporting, ensuring quality of care, and handling various situations that may arise in an aged care setting. It offers a comprehensive look at the knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected of an aged care professional, providing examples of how to handle common workplace challenges and patient care situations.

Running head: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: AGED CARE
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

1INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is your strength?
I am well versed and experienced in providing assistance to patient in their daily living
activities such as bathing, eating and dressing. Moreover, I am skilled in assisting patient who
have motilities issues, especially aged people. I also have good communication skill, hence able
to make understand people about the age care need. I also have caring and supportive attitude
that make competent to provide effective care to the aged people.
2. What do you think your weakness are?
I think my weakness is that I easily become impatient when I ran out of time or does not
assist patient with as per my competency. I am also too critical in my attitude that make me to go
in depth with my job and responsibilities that sometime affect my health.
3. Give us example of a team work experience?
Yes sure, I remember when I was working as aged care worker at Aegis Bassendean,
Bassendean, WA, I was given duty to assist aged patient who was suffering from dementia. The
patient was also reported with some mental health issue. He was very hard to handle and was not
allowing me to shave his beards. I tried to make him understand and calm, however he was
continuously shouting and was not giving his consent for shaving. I seek help of other aged care
workers and worked as the team. With such collaborative effort with the team member, I was
able to assist the patient and shaved with beards with his consent. Other team member made him
understand and assisted in calming him. I was not able to calm him, but with team work I
assisted the patient with his daily living activities. My duty would not have been possible if I did
not worked in a team.

2INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
4. Occasional conflict can occur in the workplace. Have you ever had a conflict in the
workplace or elsewhere? Explain how you had handled it or if not, how would you
handle conflict?
Yes, I agree with you that conflict occur in the workplace and it is our responsibilities to
handled wisely. I also have bitter experience where I encounter conflict with my co-worker
when I was working as a cleaner at Airlite groups. During my working hour, I noticed that
one of the staff was not wearing gloves and mask while cleaning and when he was called for
assisting the patient with wheelchair, he did not washed his dirty hand and touched the
vulnerable patient. Being an aged worker, I also have responsibilities to maintain hygiene in
my practice. Therefore, I interrupted and questioned the worker for his unhealthy practice, he
was offended and started to defend himself. We had a conflict regarding hygiene
maintenance, but I handled it wisely. I took him to the conversation room and gave adequate
education and learning about the hygiene in workplace. I made him understand the way it can
affect his and patient health. He was able to acknowledge the learning and promised to
include healthy practice in his duty.
5. What sets you apart from other candidates? Why should we hire you?
I have 2 years work experience and my attitude of being self-resilient and flexibility in
work make me unique and different from other candidate. As I have completed certificate 3 in
aged care, I can better adapt with your working environment and able to take care of the aged
people with efficiency and competency.
6. Why do we document? What is the importance?

3INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Documentation is the vital part for maintaining record of the daily work of the staffs and
the assist given to the patient1. We document with objective to keep track of the work and
analyse the area which needs improvement and amendments. It is essential to document because
it gives insight to the quality of care and work being done. It also help in communicating loop
holes in the working environment with the management so that improvising step can be taken.
7. Describe how you have handled a stressful situation in the workplace? If you haven’t
experienced this in a workplace give an example of how you would handle a stressful
situation?
In my past experience, I have undergone stressful situation when I was working in night
shifts in emergency department. All of the sudden black code was activated in the hospital and it
was announced that short circuit has been reported in the MRI chamber. It have the potential to
cause fire to the emergency department of the hospital. I tried to calm the patient and other
people and provided support and courage that everything will be fine. I called the management
and escalated that issue. I pulled off the lights and on arrival of electrician everything was in
control.
8. Why do you want a career in aged care?
It has been reported in the research that in Australia there is only 28% of the total staffs
working in age care sector due to hectic schedule2. As the consequence of it, aged people are not
able to effective care and support for their quality health. They are seeking help to aged facilities
1 Baumann, Lisa Ann, Jannah Baker, and Adam G. Elshaug. "The impact of electronic health record systems on
clinical documentation times: A systematic review." Health Policy 122, no. 8 (2018): 827-836.
2 Hegney, Desley Gail, Clare Samantha Rees, Rebecca Osseiran‐Moisson, Lauren Breen, Robert Eley, Carol
Windsor, and Clare Harvey. "Perceptions of nursing workloads and contributing factors, and their impact on implicit
care rationing: A Queensland, Australia study." Journal of nursing management 27, no. 2 (2019): 371-380.

4INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
centre for better treatment and care which is also reported to be to of poor quality. Hence, I want
to help the aged people in their need for their better health outcome.
9. How do see your career in aged care progressing over the next few years?
I see myself as the senior care worker in aged care facilities who will be execute its role
full competency.
10. Describe any contributions you have made in improving safety in the workplace?
I have made a poster and pamphlet on the safety protocol highlighting the hand hygiene
and safety guidelines related to flooring and infrastructure which can lower the incidence of falls
in aged care facilities. The poster and pamphlet was distributed to the every department and hung
in the walls to make people aware.
11. How would you go about ensuring quality of care?
To ensure quality care, I will make a clear documentation about the daily activities and check
other workers are applying the same. Every day analysis will be made to check whether the work
is been done as per the standard protocol of the aged care facilities.
12. What is your understanding of work health and safety? And why is this important in
the workplace?
I think work health and safety is the important aspect for health care sector as it tends to
focus on the health and safety of the workers and stakeholders in the workplace who are at the
risk of getting exposed to hazards from the work activities. It is important because work health
and safety causes low incidence of injuries and safe working environment which improves the
morale of employees and increase the productivity and care facilities.

5INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
13. What would you do if an experienced care worker asked you to transfer a resident in
an unsafe way, without using the correct equipment outlined on their care place?
This is the case of unhealthy practice and it is my responsibility to provide quality care to
the patient. Hence, in such situation I will deny to transfer a resident in unsafe way as this can
cause injury to the patient. Further, I will make use of correct equipment for save transfer and
make the experience care worker understand the associated risk, because I believe learning has
no age.
14. If a dementia client became aggressive what would you do?
It is important to stay calm in when dealing with dementia patient showing aggressive
attitude. Hence, I will try to show cooperative behaviour with the dementia client so that trust
can be build and client can become calm.
15. If you find a client hurt when arriving to your shift what would you do?
I will immediately assist the client by bring the wheelchair or stretcher and take him to
the emergency department for dressing.
16. If a resident/client was to have a fall whilst in your care what would you do?
I will stay with the patient and called other health worker for my help and asked them to
bring wheelchair so that the client can be taken to his room. I will also call the health care
professional to assess the vital sign of the patients so that appropriate intervention can be made.
17. If a staff member asked you to do a task that wasn’t within your scope of role, what
would you do?

6INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
I will deny to take the task which is beyond my scope of role because undertaking such work
have the potential for hazardous effect to both client and other staffs.
18. Explain mandatory reporting in your own words?
Mandatory reporting can be define as the term which is used to designate the law and
legislative requirement in health care sector3. Everyone has the right to raise of concern and
Health care worker which includes registered nurse, employers and health education provider
make voluntary notification of any unhealthy practice noticed by making mandatory reporting.
The person can make mandatory notification when intoxicated registered practitioner has been
noticed, in case of sexual misconduct, safety issue of the client and in situation of violation of
any professional standards. To make mandatory reporting, the registered practitioners can submit
their concern to AHPRA and common people can submit to the health compliant organization.
Hence, mandatory reporting help to improve the working quality of the organization.
3 Heinrich-Morrison, Kristina, Sue McLellan, Ursula McGinnes, Brendan Carroll, Kerrie Watson, Pauline Bass,
Leon J. Worth, and Allen C. Cheng. "An effective strategy for influenza vaccination of healthcare workers in
Australia: experience at a large health service without a mandatory policy." BMC infectious diseases 15, no. 1
(2015): 42.

7INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Bibliography
Baumann, Lisa Ann, Jannah Baker, and Adam G. Elshaug. "The impact of electronic health
record systems on clinical documentation times: A systematic review." Health Policy 122, no. 8
(2018): 827-836.
Hegney, Desley Gail, Clare Samantha Rees, Rebecca Osseiran‐Moisson, Lauren Breen, Robert
Eley, Carol Windsor, and Clare Harvey. "Perceptions of nursing workloads and contributing
factors, and their impact on implicit care rationing: A Queensland, Australia study." Journal of
nursing management 27, no. 2 (2019): 371-380.
Heinrich-Morrison, Kristina, Sue McLellan, Ursula McGinnes, Brendan Carroll, Kerrie Watson,
Pauline Bass, Leon J. Worth, and Allen C. Cheng. "An effective strategy for influenza
vaccination of healthcare workers in Australia: experience at a large health service without a
mandatory policy." BMC infectious diseases 15, no. 1 (2015): 42.