Question 1

What questions are asked in an NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interview?

Accepted Answer

NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interviews usually mix values-based questions with scenarios specific to the role. Typical themes include motivation for IPC, NHS values, outbreak management and norovirus, C. difficile, MRSA post infection review and CPE screening. Every interview panel writes its own questions, so practise the themes rather than memorising answers. The 8 free questions on this page cover a spread of them.

Question 2

What band is an NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing job?

Accepted Answer

The questions on this page are pitched mainly at Band 6 to Band 7 posts. The band for any job depends on the trust and the responsibilities of the post, so always check the advert and job description. Higher bands bring more questions on leadership, supervising others and improving the service.

Question 3

How should I prepare for an NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interview?

Accepted Answer

Read the job description and person specification closely, then prepare five or six real examples you can tell using the STAR method (situation, task, action, result). Revise the NMC Code, recognising and escalating the deteriorating patient, safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act and safe medicines practice. Research the trust's own values and the service you would join, and practise your answers out loud before the day.

Question 4

Which NHS values and standards should I mention in a Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interview?

Accepted Answer

Link your examples to the NHS values from the NHS Constitution, such as compassion, respect and dignity, and working together for patients. For this role, panels will also expect you to understand the NMC Code, recognising and escalating the deteriorating patient, safeguarding, the Mental Capacity Act and safe medicines practice. Show these through what you actually did rather than reciting lists.

Question 5

Are these real NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interview questions?

Accepted Answer

No. They are original practice questions written to reflect how NHS Infection Prevention & Control Nursing interviews are typically run. Healthcare Interview Prep is independent and not affiliated with the NHS, and nobody can promise which questions you will be asked. Use the model answers to learn structure and content, then build answers from your own experience.

Question 6

What do I get if I unlock the full Infection Prevention & Control Nursing question bank?

Accepted Answer

You get all 40 Infection Prevention & Control Nursing practice questions. Each one has what the panel is assessing, a model answer, why the answer works, key points to include, common mistakes and the NHS values it links to. It is a one-off payment of £4.99 for 12 months' access, with no subscription.

Question 7

Why do you want to specialise in infection prevention and control, and why do you want to join this IPC team?

Accepted Answer

I think it started when I was a Band 5 on a respiratory ward and we had a norovirus outbreak that closed three of our bays over a fortnight. What struck me was how much difference the IPC nurse made. She wasn't there to tell us off. She sat with the nurse in charge, helped us work out which patients could move and which couldn't, and explained the reasoning so clearly that we actually believed in the measures. By the end of that week the ward was running the outbreak almost by itself. I remember thinking that was the kind of influence I wanted to have. After that I became our ward's IPC link nurse. I did the monthly hand hygiene and commode audits, went to the link practitioner study days and started to enjoy the investigative side: why one bay kept getting diarrhoea cases, why our cannula care bundle compliance dropped on nights. I then completed a foundation module in infection prevention, and for the last eighteen months I have been doing the role at Band 6 in a smaller trust, covering surveillance, outbreak support, post infection reviews and teaching. What I enjoy most is that the work is preventive and it reaches every patient, not just the ones in front of me. One conversation with a ward team about catheter care can prevent infections for people I will never meet. As for this team, I read your annual IPC report and saw that reducing Gram-negative bloodstream infections and strengthening your link practitioner network are both priorities for this year, and those are…

Question 8

A ward rings to say three patients in the same bay have developed diarrhoea and vomiting in the last 24 hours. What would you do?

Accepted Answer

My first thought would be that this looks like a possible norovirus outbreak, so I would treat it that way until proven otherwise. On the phone I would check the basics: when symptoms started, whether the patients have other explanations such as laxatives, enteral feeds or a known C. difficile history, whether any staff are unwell and whether the bay is still open to admissions. Immediately I would ask the nurse in charge to close the bay to admissions and transfers, keep the affected patients where they are rather than moving them around the hospital, and use the bay as a cohort with the door closed if possible. Staff should use aprons and gloves, clean hands with soap and water rather than alcohol gel, and dedicate equipment such as commodes and observation machines to the bay. I would ask for stool specimens from each symptomatic patient, labelled for norovirus testing as well as C. difficile, and make sure anyone symptomatic is on a stool chart using the Bristol Stool Chart. Then I would go to the ward. I find a visit settles things and lets me check practice, signage and whether domestic staff have been asked to start enhanced cleaning with a chlorine-based product, following our local policy. I would ask about staff sickness and remind the team that anyone with symptoms should go home and stay off until 48 hours clear, in line with our policy and occupational health advice. I would also ask about visitors, so relatives can be advised and not bring in children who are…

Question 9

The laboratory phones you with a new C. difficile toxin positive result for a patient in a six-bedded bay. What would you do?

Accepted Answer

I would start by checking the patient's details and history on the system: when the sample was taken in relation to admission, so I can work out whether it counts as hospital onset or community onset, any previous positive results, recent antibiotics and whether the patient is still having loose stools. Then I would ring the ward and speak to the nurse in charge. If the patient isn't already in a side room, they need to move into one with en suite facilities or a dedicated commode as soon as possible, with enteric precautions: gloves and aprons, soap and water hand hygiene and dedicated equipment. I would make sure the treating team knows the result straight away, because the patient needs a clinical review, assessment of severity and treatment in line with our trust guideline. I would also suggest they review any current antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors and laxatives, ideally with the antimicrobial pharmacist. For the bay, I would ask for a thorough clean of the bed space with a chlorine-based or sporicidal product as per our policy, and I would ask staff to keep a close eye on the other five patients and send a specimen promptly if anyone develops diarrhoea. If we had two or more linked cases on the same ward, I would consider whether it was a period of increased incidence and discuss typing with the microbiologist. I would visit the patient too, because a C. difficile diagnosis can be frightening. I would explain what it means, why they are in a side room, the…

Question 10

In IPC you will sometimes need to challenge senior colleagues about their practice. How do the NHS values guide you when you do that?

Accepted Answer

For me, the starting point is that the value of everyone counts applies to patients first. If a patient picks up an infection because a senior clinician skipped a step, the patient doesn't care how senior that person was. So I don't think seniority changes whether I speak up. It does change how I think about speaking up, because I want the conversation to work. Respect and dignity is the value I lean on most. I try to raise things privately where I can, at the right moment, and to assume good intent. Most lapses happen because people are busy or haven't understood the reason behind a policy, not because they don't care. So I would usually start with a question, something like 'I noticed the line was accessed without a hub clean, can I ask how you normally do it on this unit?' That opens a conversation rather than putting someone on the defensive. Commitment to quality of care means I need to follow through, though. On one surgical ward I noticed a registrar repeatedly removing dressings on post-operative wounds without hand hygiene between patients. I spoke to him after the round, explained what I'd seen and why it mattered for surgical site infections, and he was fine about it. A week later I saw the same thing, so I spoke to the consultant, framing it as support for the team rather than a complaint. The consultant raised it at the surgical audit meeting, and we added a hand hygiene prompt to their wound review process. Working together for patients reminds me that IPC is…

Question 11

Can you tell us about a time you persuaded a clinical team to change an established practice to reduce infection risk?

Accepted Answer

In my current role, our urinary catheter surveillance showed that one medical ward had much higher catheter use than similar wards, and two patients there had developed catheter-associated urinary tract infections in a quarter. When I looked at the notes, many catheters had been inserted in the emergency department for monitoring and then simply stayed in, with no documented reason and no review date. My task was to help the ward change a habit. The nurses' view was that catheters made fluid balance easier and reduced falls risk from patients getting up to the toilet, so I knew telling them to remove catheters wouldn't work. I started by sharing the data at their ward huddle, presented as a puzzle rather than a criticism. I asked the team why they thought their numbers were higher. That conversation was really useful, because they told me nobody felt they had authority to remove a catheter without a doctor's say so. So together with the ward manager and a consultant, we agreed a nurse-led catheter removal prompt as part of the daily safety huddle: is there still a clinical reason, and if not, can we remove it? We used the existing catheter passport and added a review date sticker. I did two short teaching sessions on the bedside, including on nights, and the ward's link nurse became the champion. I also addressed the falls worry directly by involving the falls lead, who reassured staff about toileting plans after removal. Over the following three months, the catheter use on…

Question 12

On a ward round, you see a consultant moving between patients without cleaning their hands, and the junior doctors are copying them. What would you do?

Accepted Answer

The immediate priority is the patients on that round, so I wouldn't wait until afterwards to do anything. I would try to intervene in a way that doesn't embarrass anyone in front of patients. Often the simplest approach works: stepping in with a bottle of gel or pointing out the nearest dispenser and saying something like 'Can I offer everyone gel before the next patient?' That prompts the whole group without singling out the consultant, and it models the behaviour for the junior doctors. After the round, I would ask the consultant for a quick private word. I'd explain what I had noticed, link it to the 5 moments for hand hygiene, and mention why it matters on that particular ward, for example if there were patients with lines or a recent MRSA case. I would also mention that the juniors were copying, because senior staff often don't realise how much their behaviour sets the tone. Most consultants respond well to that. I would also check the environment. Sometimes poor compliance is partly a systems issue, such as empty gel dispensers or no gel on the notes trolley. If so, I would sort that with the ward manager and facilities that day. If I saw the same thing again, I would escalate, first to the clinical lead for that specialty and the IPC lead, and I'd record my observations factually. Depending on our trust's processes, it might be appropriate to log it on the incident reporting system as a near miss, and if I felt my concerns were being ignored, I would use Freedom to…

Question 13

How would you lead the post infection review of a hospital-onset MRSA bloodstream infection?

Accepted Answer

I'd start as soon as the result was confirmed. First I would make sure the patient was being managed properly: the treating team aware, the patient isolated, decolonisation started according to policy and the source investigated, because that comes before any review. Then I'd gather the facts. I would look at the timeline from admission: was the patient screened for MRSA on admission and was the result acted on? Did they have any invasive devices, and what does the documentation say about insertion and ongoing care, for example our peripheral cannula and central line care bundles? I would check blood culture technique and whether a contaminant is likely, and look at whether there were other MRSA cases on the ward that might suggest transmission, which might need typing. I would then arrange a review meeting within the timescale our trust sets, inviting the ward manager, the consultant responsible, the microbiologist, a pharmacist if relevant and someone from the team that inserted any device. I'd set the tone at the start: this is about learning, not blame. Using a structured template, we'd work through what happened, what should have happened, and why there was a gap. Often the contributory factors are system ones, such as a screening swab taken but not chased, or cannulas inserted in ED without documentation. From that I'd agree a small number of specific actions with named owners and dates. In a previous review, for instance, we found that the cannula had been in for…

Question 14

During a norovirus outbreak, the ward manager tells you the site team need the closed bay reopened today because of bed pressures. How would you handle this?

Accepted Answer

I'd start by recognising the pressure is real. If the emergency department is full, patients there are also at risk, so I wouldn't just say no. I'd want to understand the situation properly. First I would review the bay. When was the last new case? Are the current patients still symptomatic, and when did their symptoms stop? Have any staff been unwell recently? If the bay had gone the period our policy requires without new cases and had a terminal clean, then it could reopen, and I'd make that happen quickly. If not, I would look at options. Sometimes patients in the bay who have recovered could be discharged home, which frees capacity without moving infection elsewhere. Sometimes the right answer is to admit patients into the bay who have already had norovirus or who are themselves symptomatic, but only with microbiology agreement and in line with policy. What I wouldn't do is agree to admit susceptible patients into an active outbreak bay, because that risks new cases, more closures and a much bigger bed problem a few days later. I'd explain that to the ward manager and the site team using that practical framing, because it's an argument about capacity as well as safety. I'd then speak directly to the site manager rather than relying on messages being passed on, and I'd document my risk assessment and the advice given. If they still wanted to override it, I would escalate to the IPC lead or the director of infection prevention and control, who can make that decision at…

Infection Prevention & Control Nursing Interview Questions & Answers

Quick answer

Free NHS interview questions and model answers

Question 1: Why do you want to specialise in infection prevention and control, and why do you want to join this IPC team?

Question 2: A ward rings to say three patients in the same bay have developed diarrhoea and vomiting in the last 24 hours. What would you do?

Question 3: The laboratory phones you with a new C. difficile toxin positive result for a patient in a six-bedded bay. What would you do?

Question 4: In IPC you will sometimes need to challenge senior colleagues about their practice. How do the NHS values guide you when you do that?

Question 5: Can you tell us about a time you persuaded a clinical team to change an established practice to reduce infection risk?

Question 6: On a ward round, you see a consultant moving between patients without cleaning their hands, and the junior doctors are copying them. What would you do?

Question 7: How would you lead the post infection review of a hospital-onset MRSA bloodstream infection?

Question 8: During a norovirus outbreak, the ward manager tells you the site team need the closed bay reopened today because of bed pressures. How would you handle this?

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About this NHS interview question bank

Infection Prevention & Control Nursing NHS interview: frequently asked questions