Nursing interviews

While it’s not possible to ‘revise’ for MMIs, preparation for interview should include keeping informed of Nursing and wider healthcare issues appearing in the news and media and discussing and debating them with friends and family. You may also wish to read about the Nursing and Midwifery Council (the regulatory body) and its associated Code of Conduct, as well as the NHS Constitution, to help to guide your preparation. Relevant work experience can also offer great insight into the demands placed on staff, the strategies staff employ to handle difficult situations and the benefits they obtain from caring for people and working in teams. Reflection on your own qualities and values can also help to add depth to your answers and help to justify your reasons for applying for the course.

For 2025 entry - Home applicants

We plan to run our interviews for Home applicants in person, and we will use the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for delivery. Instead of sitting opposite a panel of interviewers, MMIs allow you to demonstrate a range of skills relevant to studying Nursing, such as: commitment and insight into Nursing as a career, communication, ability to evaluate information, empathy, self-insight and reflection, and ethical reasoning, as well as an understanding of academic expectations.

Our MMI circuit will comprise of six 8-minute stations (each including 3 minutes of reading time) and will be a mix of interview questions, role-play and a written task. The stations all run simultaneously, and you could be asked to begin at any of the stations for that day. Stations are amended each year based on candidate and interviewer feedback.

Before each MMI station, you will be presented with a scenario or other information to read through so that you have time to begin thinking about your answer or how you will approach the issue or task. The way you approach each station and the challenges they pose are often just as important as the answers you give or the solutions you propose.

Our MMI stations are likely to comprise a mixture taken from the following list, but the precise combination and scenarios being used will change on a day-by-day basis. The interviewers will be a mix of academic staff, clinical staff, and appropriately trained Nursing students. For some of your stations, an observer may be present, but this person will not participate in any aspect of the process.

Examples of stations that you may be presented with are as detailed below:

• Critical thinking
  You may be presented with a topic relevant to healthcare or academia, but you are not expected to have prior clinical knowledge. You must identify the issues that are of particular relevance to this topic. You should also present rational arguments for possible appropriate courses of action in attempting to resolve any inherent challenges.

• Commitment and insight into Nursing
  You may be asked to discuss specific aspects of your work experience. We are interested in experiences where you had some role in providing care or support to vulnerable individuals or witnessed others providing care or support to vulnerable individuals. We will be interested in your reflections and what insights you gained either from your own work experience or from observation of healthcare professionals (please note that this does not have to be directly related to Nursing).
  
  
• Dealing with personal and ethical challenges
  You will be provided with a scenario relating to potential challenges faced by staff working in healthcare. You have the opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of the personal qualities important for coping in a demanding career and also provide an assessment of your own capabilities in dealing with challenge.

• Interaction in a healthcare setting station (role-play)
  Your skills in communication are important throughout the interview process, but in this station you will be engaging with one of the professional role-players used for training and assessing healthcare students. You are expected to interact with the role player as if the situation is real. The role player will be assuming a specified role. Your skills in establishing an effective rapport when meeting someone new, whilst dealing effectively with the challenges that will be presented to you, will be assessed.

• Written station
  You will be asked to produce a short piece of written work and will be provided with instructions for this. The written skills being tested are at or below GCSE level, and those taking A level English subjects are not necessarily at an advantage. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you to complete this station, please ensure that we are made aware of this well in advance of your interview date. Please see the tab ‘Applicants with Disabilities and Reasonable Adjustments’.

For 2025 entry - International applicants

International applicants who are not based in the UK will have the option to undertake their interviews online via Zoom. Online interviews will comprise MMI stations, including stations taken from the list above..

Each interview station will last for 5 minutes, plus 3 minutes preparation time during which you will have time to read and consider your answers for a values based scenario. At each station you will interact with one interviewer, but a second interviewer will also be present. You will be scored independently by each. For some of your stations, an observer may be present, but this person will not participate in any aspect of the process.

Invitations to interview are usually sent after the UCAS deadline date, between January and February, with our face to face interviews taking place at the end of February and throughout March. If successful, you will receive your offer once interviews have been completed. Unsuccessful applicants will hear from us too; however, most of these decisions are unlikely to be made until after we have filled all of our interview places. 

Candidates who are interviewed face to face will receive a briefing before the interviews commence and will have the opportunity to participate in a short questions and answers session following your interview. This will also be an opportunity to ask any questions that you may have. You may wish to spend some time visiting the University campus on this day too. However, if you can, it may also be a good idea to visit the University prior to application on one of the University Open Days held each June, October and November. Details are given on the University's website. Please note that we cannot arrange to meet with prospective applicants on an individual basis.

If you are a Pathways to Birmingham applicant who applied before the deadline and have not received an update on your application by 1st January, please contact outreach@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

Should you have a disability which may require reasonable adjustments to be made, please do let us know in good time and we will be happy to accommodate your request if we able to do so. Please note that evidence of your specific needs may be required.

For 2025 entry face to face interviews

The decision on whether an offer is made is based on interview performance data. The maximum score for each MMI station will be the same (i.e. all stations are equally weighted). Therefore, if you feel that you haven’t performed well in one station, this does not necessarily mean that you won’t receive an offer, if you have performed well in other stations during the MMI.

Offers are based on interview performance only, not academic merit.  Once a decision is made, we will not review our final decision upon request, as this will not be fair to other candidates (i.e. you will be unable to ‘appeal’ against our decision).

We will inform candidates of our decision as soon as possible.

Please be aware that the formal offer has to be processed by the university's central admissions office and it can take up to 3 weeks from the initial notification of the outcome before your offer is received.