The job interview for nurses is one of the most important parts of your hiring process.
Therefore, as a registered nurse or a nurse manager, you need to do your best to prepare.
This article provides behavioral job interview questions for nurses and suggests answers for two positions: registered nurses and for nurse management positions.
This article is the second part– nursing job interview questions & answers.
Depending on the institution, a registered nurse, R.N., may also be entitled: graduate nurse or graduate school nurse, clinical nurse or intensive care nurse.
Nurse job interview questions can be divided into three categories:
- General questions
- Technical/ medical questions
- Behavioral questions.
Read on..
Behavioral Interview Questions For Nurses
Nursing can be quite a stressful job at times as you must get personal and handle delicate situations with patients and their families, while maintaining a professional attitude.
Additionally, you must deal effectively with people from different ethnic backgrounds and various cultures. And of course, have good working relationships with co-workers.
Following is a list is of behavioral interview questions for nursing. These questions, often called situational interview questions, are meant to determine if you will work well in stressful situations as seen in the medical staff environment.
- Give an example of a situation when you had to resolve a conflict with an uncooperative/abusive/angry patient while providing care. What did you do?
- Tell us about a time where you had to handle a problem arising while no other medical staff was available and/or your replacement hadn’t shown up for her shift.
- Have you had a situation where you had to demonstrate a strong ethical attitude at work, despite pressure to do the opposite – weaken your integrity and ethical stance?
- Describe a stressful situation wherein you had to keep calm while managing to calm patients and their families.
- Give an example of a case where you had to explain a medical issue to someone who didn’t speak your language or didn’t understand medical terms.
- Give an example of a situation where you didn’t get along with another co-worker. How did you handle it and what was the result?
- Have you had situations wherein you were at the end of your shift with some unfinished tasks and a new patient arrived in need of care? How did you handle it?
- What will you do in a situation where a patient is in severe medical need, in intense pain or under stress and you had to provide care; how would you go about relaxing him?
Answering the above questions –
When you answer a behavioral question, you may use the technique called STAR (situation, task, action, result) or “PAR” (problem, action, result).
Using this technique, you actually break your answer into fragments –
Begin your answer with a situation or a problem you had faced, and then describe the tasks you decided to take, the actions that were taken and the result.
In case you are unable to provide a real past situation, you may give an example of a theoretical case and the way you would handle it.
You may also refer to the articles for further information –
Interview Questions for Nurse Managers Positions
Below is a list of frequently asked nursing management interview questions; review it and prepare your own answers:
- How do you motivate your nursing staff?
- How do you mentor nurses and how much autonomy do you give nurses vis-a-vis making decisions regarding patient care?
- Give an example of a change you made in your nursing practice that improved the quality of care you were able to provide or to ensure safer working conditions.
- What are nurses’ biggest challenges?
- What are your plans for future growth?
Answering these questions –
The interviewer wants to learn about your management style, approach and attitude.
You will increase your chances of getting hired if you can demonstrate your abilities to assess and monitor patients’ needs, while caring for them professionally. If you are aiming for a supervisory position, be prepared to give examples of your leadership abilities as demonstrated in past work situations.
The best way to answer these questions is by providing examples of your day to day work as well as telling about your significant achievements as a nurse manger.
Refer to the articles –
Nursing/Healthcare Job Interviews