Standard Nursing

Interview Questions

1. What made you choose nursing as a career?

Ex 1) I wanted to do something in my career that is challenging, interesting, and

makes a difference in people's lives on a daily basis.

Ex 2) My mother is a nurse, and seeing the satisfaction she feels every day by
helping people in her job inspired my own interest in the field.

Ex 3) I believe that nursing is one of the most interesting and growing careers
available today, and I enjoy the difference I can make in my patient's hospital
experience.

2. What do you feel you contribute to your patients?"

Ex 1) I offer my patients the very best care and advocacy I can.

Ex 2) I believe that I offer my patients comfort and confidence that they are being
well cared for.

Ex 3) I feel that my patients know that I am there to provide comfort and

understanding, that I will listen to their concerns, and that I will act as their advocate
if necessary.

3. How would you deal with a doctor who was rude and demeaning to you?

Ex 1) I would bring the question to my supervisor. If the doctor was displeased with
me in some way, I would want to find out so I could take action to rectify the
situation.

Ex 2) I would ask the doctor if there was something in my care of the patient that
she felt needed discussion.

Ex 3) If it were a onetime occurrence, I would figure that she was just having a bad
 day. If it happened repeatedly, I would notify my supervisor.

4. How would you handle a patient who complains constantly of pain?

Ex 1) I would confer with the attending doctor to make sure that the patient's pain
was being managed in the most effective way.

Ex 2) I would reassure the patient that everything possible was being done to
alleviate their discomfort.

Ex 3) I would listen sympathetically to their complaint, reassure them that their

concerns were being heard, and that we were doing everything possible to help
them.

5. How would you handle a patient who complains about everything?

Ex 1) I would first be sure that the patient had no valid complaints, and then just be
patient and reassure them that we were doing our very best for them.

Ex 2) I understand that some patients will complain about everything, just because
they are unhappy about what brought them to our care. I just reassure them that
everything possible is being done to make them comfortable.

6. How would you handle the family of a patient in your care who is displeased
with your care of the patient?

Ex 1) I would listen to their concerns, and reassure them that I was doing my very
best for their loved one.

Ex 2) Sometimes family members are looking for someone or something to blame for
what their loved one is going through. I would try to reassure them that the patient
was getting the best quality of care available.

Ex 3) I would listen to their concerns, and make sure that if any were well founded
they were addressed immediately.

7. What do you feel you contribute to your patients?

Ex 1) I offer my patients the very best care and advocacy I can.

 Ex 2) I believe that I offer my patients comfort and confidence that they are being
well cared for.

Ex 3) I feel that my patients know that I am there to provide comfort and

understanding, that I will listen to their concerns, and that I will act as their advocate
if necessary.

8. What do you find most rewarding about being a nurse?

Ex 1) The most rewarding thing for me as a nurse is seeing the joy when a family
first holds their baby. Interacting with the patients and their families is what I find
most rewarding.

Ex 2) I find helping patients through recovery after surgery, which is often one of
their greatest challenges, to be most rewarding.

9. What would you do if your replacement didn't arrive on time?

Ex 1) I would wait until she arrived, or until someone else was called in.

Ex 2) I would notify the supervisor, and offer to stay until my replacement arrived.

Ex 3) Try calling her to see if she were on the way, or if she needed help making
arrangements for someone to take her shift.

10.Would you describe yourself as an organized person?

Ex 1) Absolutely. I like to have a check list, and make sure that each item gets the
attention it needs.

Ex 2) Yes, sometimes a little too much so. I make sure that everything is neat and in
order.

Ex 3) I am a very organized and thorough person, which I think contributes to my

success as a nurse.

Ex 4) Yes, I use several online and desktop tools to stay organized.

Ex 5) I like to carefully plan my daily, weekly and long term work project. That helps
me stay organized.
11.When you are experiencing a stressful work situation, how do you relax?
Ex 1) By focusing on the most important thing, the care of the patient. I feel I owe it
to my patients to stay calm and focused on them.
Ex 2) In the ER setting, there are often stressful situations that arise. I just make
sure that the stresses of the job don't interfere with the care of the patient.
Ex 3) I am generally an easy going person, and I don't allow on the job stress to
interfere with my work.

12.Why do you want to work in our hospital and/or community?

Your facility has one of the top rated Cardiac units in the country, and I am
interested in utilizing my experience with Cardiac patients in a hospital engaging in
the latest research and techniques.
I really enjoy working in Geriatrics, and your facility has a vibrant and innovative
reputation for its programs and population.

I have worked in very large hospitals, where I gained valuable experience, but I
enjoy working in a small hospital, where you can get to know your patients, the
doctors, and your colleagues on a more personal level.

13. How would you describe your skills as a team player?

14. How will you deal with difficult doctors?

15. Have you ever had a conflict with a coworker? How did you resolve it?

16. Describe a challenging problem you faced on one of your clinical rotations.
How did you solve the problem?

17. Tell me about your most difficult patient.

18. Tell me about a time you saw something unethical or not done correctly by
another coworker/boss/doctor.

19. Tell me about a project you did for a class or hospital unit, and what were
the results?

20. Tell me about a time or situation when you were under pressure.

21. Tell me about a time you had to care for a patient with another
cultural/religious belief.

22. Have you ever witnessed a breach of confidentiality & what did you do? If
not, what would you do?

23. Tell me about a time where you had to delegate care or take a leadership
role.

24. Define critical thinking. How did you use critical thinking during your
preceptorship?

25. Was there ever a time when something in your patient care needed to be
changed? What did you do? What was the result?

26. Did you ever have a situation "go bad"? What did you do/how did your
preceptor intervene?

27. Have you ever called a rapid response.... or a code?

28. If you make an error charting, how do you fix it?

29. Give a specific example of a time when you knew you did a good job as a
nurse.

30. Have you ever been burned out? When? What did you do about it?

31. How would you respond if asked by the head nurse to do some of the
menial tasks for patients that are normally not your responsibility?

32. Why did you decide to become a nurse rather than a doctor?

33. Describe a situation in which you found yourself working with someone
who was very sensitive and thin-skinned?

34. Can you describe a situation connected with nursing that made you angry?

35. We have all tried different ways of showing consideration for others. What
are some things that you have done in this respect?

36. What are some ways that you feel that nursing can become more
professional?

37. What type of nursing tasks do you find most objectionable?

38. How many years do you see yourself staying with this hospital?

39. How do you go about making a decision?

40. How will you deal with difficult patients and/or their families?

41. How will you handle unexpected circumstances, such as being short staffed
and having to perform a treatment you have not done before?

42. What type of nursing experience do you have?

43. Where did you get your training and what certifications do you have?

44. How long has it been since you worked in (ER, OR, ICU, or particular
specialty area)

45. Why did you choose (ER, OR, ICU, LTC, FNP, or other specialty area of
nursing)?

46. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

47. Tell me about a time in which you had to handle an irate physician, co-
worker, or patient. How did you handle it and what were the results?

48. Describe a difficult decision you've made and the process you went through
to reach that decision.

49. Why makes you right for this job?

50. What nursing organizations do you belong to?
Nursing Behavioral/Scenario
Questions

Q1. You're sure the instructions you've received from management are a
mistake, not in the company's best interests. What do you do to warn
management of the your concerns, and how do you deal with your instructions,
until you can get them modified?

You contact your immediate manager, and inform that person of your concerns,
with whatever information you have to best support your case. Otherwise, you're
obliged to carry out your instructions, and should do so.

Q2. Your supervisor has told you to drop everything, and concentrate on
something you dont think is important, or even necessary. Do you put up with
it, or try to get your more important work done, and deal with this matter
afterwards?

This is an instruction, like it or not. It's best to deal with the matter immediately,
get it finished, and try to minimize disruption to the more important things. Even
in theory, and even if you're right, you're making a mistake by re-prioritizing
management's instructions.

Q3. You're getting distracted by extra work and meetings, and it's generating a
backlog of work for you. How do you cope with it?

You may not be able to avoid these things, so it's safest to establish a separate
chain of processes for dealing with your normal work, where you can make time
and space to ensure that work is done. You can either delegate, or ask to have
delegated, some of the work, but it has to be kept moving. Backlogs are
destructive, and should be prevented at all costs.
Q4. You get two difficult clients at the same time, both demanding your
attention. What do you do?

You get briefings from both clients. You set times for dealing with their matters,
then you prioritize one or the other. You make sure that each client is attended to
as quickly as possible, and reschedule other work as required.

Q5. Your database crashes, and you have to work on some sort of improvised
system for receipts, while also collecting the data. What do you do?

You set up a paper receipt system and get your data into a paper form which can
be easily used for data entry when the system comes back online. You take
copies of all paper issued and received. You create a reference system for each
document, preferably numerical, associating each receipt with its related
document.

Q6. If you were the nurse for a patient going into surgery what are the pre-op
and post-op teachings you would discuss?

Q7. If you were working on a floor and a doctor came up to you and yelled at
you referring to patient that wasn't yours and you had not been taking care of,
how would you respond?

Q8. If you were a nurse on a floor and you walked into a room and the patient
was short of breath and said they were having trouble breathing, what would
you access and why? You hear wheezing and you note that the patient has a
history of asthma then what would you do? How would you chart this scenario?

Q9. If you are a nurse on a unit and you have a patient who is asking for pain
meds, a patient who is leaving for the OR and the OR doc calls and says they
are coming up in 5 minutes and you need to have the patient ready, a patient
who needs to use the restroom, a patient who feels sick and a patient who
wants someone to sit with them, who do you see first and why?

Q10. If you have a diabetic patient who is not communicative, what do you do?

Q11. If you are a nurse on a floor and one patient is experiencing transfusion
reaction, another patient that is in shock and a third patient with low blood
pressure, who do you see first and why?

Q12. If you have an older patient that has been in bed 2 weeks, is short of
breath, and has a respiratory rate of 40, what do you do?

Q13. If you are a nurse on a floor and the ventilator alarm is sounding and the
high pressure alarm is sounding, what do you do?