How to Answer "How Do You Handle Pressure" in an NHS Interview

**TL;DR.** Pressure questions test whether you have real strategies or just resilience claims. Strong answers name specific techniques (prioritisation frameworks, breathing, handover structure, peer support) and describe a recent example where you applied them.

Structure

• Specific techniques you use (not generic "I stay calm")
• Recent example of applying them
• Outcome

Worked answer (90 seconds)

*"My main technique is prioritisation — I use a mental ABC triage: A anything that will deteriorate without intervention in the next 30 minutes, B anything that will deteriorate within the shift, C everything else. On a recent late shift I had three competing priorities in a 15-minute window: a NEWS2 deterioration in bay 2, a family demanding to speak to the doctor about a DNACPR decision, and a junior colleague who was visibly struggling with her medication round. I triaged: the deterioration was A, the family was B (the doctor was already on his way), and my colleague was also B. I went to bay 2, called the doctor for both the deterioration and the family conversation, got to my colleague ten minutes later. She'd managed; I talked her through the rounds together the next quiet hour. None of the three collapsed. My supervisor's feedback was that the triage had been sound. Beyond the technique I also use a 60-second pause at the end of a shift to debrief myself — it stops the pressure from accumulating across shifts."*

Common mistakes

• "I stay calm under pressure" — unverifiable
• "I work well under pressure" — not a technique
• Not naming specific strategies
• Missing the outcome

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