A worked example: senior healthcare assistant
Leah Okafor, from our healthcare assistant CV example, is applying for a Band 3 senior healthcare assistant post on a medical ward. The person specification lists six essential criteria and one desirable one. She answers each under its own heading, in the specification's order, with a real example. Leah, the ward and the hospital are made up.
On a 28-bed acute medical ward I take and record observations for up to eight patients a shift. Last winter an older patient's breathing rate rose and his oxygen level fell at the start of a night shift, taking his early warning score from 2 to 5. I repeated the observations, told the nurse in charge straight away and recorded the time I escalated. A doctor reviewed him within the hour and started treatment for a chest infection.
One real situation: what you noticed, what you did and what happened. The numbers show you understand the score.
I help patients with washing, dressing, toileting and meals, and many of our patients have dementia or delirium. When a patient with dementia became distressed during personal care, I stopped, sat with her and used the 'about me' sheet her daughter had filled in to talk about her garden. She settled, and the nurse and I agreed to offer care later in the morning, when she was usually calmer. I wrote this in her care plan so the next shift could do the same.
Shows dignity through what you did, not by saying “I am caring”.
For the last year I have shown each new healthcare assistant the ward routine in their first two weeks: where equipment is kept, how we hand over and how to record observations on the electronic record. I check their first observations with them and tell the nurse in charge how they are getting on. Four new starters have worked alongside me this way.
A senior post asks for some supervision. Say what you show people and how you check.
I clean and check equipment between patients and follow the ward's isolation procedures. During a norovirus outbreak on the ward, I made sure each isolated patient had their own equipment and showed visitors how to wash their hands before entering the bays.
Short is fine when the criterion is simple; one example still beats a promise.
I put patients and their families first by explaining what I am doing, especially to patients who are frightened, and I speak up when something is not right. When I found a frayed hoist sling, I took it out of use and reported it, and it was replaced the same day.
Values are shown in what you do. Read the values in the job description and pick an example for the ones it stresses.
I completed venepuncture and ECG competencies at Kingsmere Hospital in 2024, and I take routine bloods and ECGs on the ward when the phlebotomy team is not available.
Answer the desirable criteria too where you can.
I would bring three years of acute ward experience, a Level 3 qualification and practice in helping new staff settle in. I am available for long days, nights and weekends, and I would welcome the chance to talk about the post at interview.
A two-line summary and your availability.
How to write yours
Start from the person specification, which comes with the job description in the advert. NHS Jobs says to read both and take time over your application.
- Use each criterion as a heading, essential ones first and in the specification's order, so a shortlister can find your answer to each.
- Under each heading give one real example: the situation, what you did and what happened. Count what you can, such as patients, shifts or people trained.
- NHS Jobs suggests you can include your duties and responsibilities, your relevant skills, knowledge and experience, any gaps in employment, voluntary work, and research, publications or presentations.
- Write it again for every post. NHS Jobs advises never sending the same application twice: adapt it to each person specification.
- Keep to any word limit in the advert, and read it through once more before you submit it.
The rest of the form
Complete every section. NHS Jobs says the information in the application for employment section is used to decide who is shortlisted, while the personal information and monitoring information sections are not used for shortlisting.
The supporting information section is your chance to add anything not covered elsewhere on the form (NHS Jobs). If an agency or employer asks for a CV instead, our healthcare assistant, nurse and paramedic examples hold the same kind of evidence in CV form. When an NHS Jobs advert takes a CV application instead of a form, you paste your CV in rather than upload it: our NHS CV template has one ready to paste, with the details that identify you taken out.