This article provides sample nursing management interview questions with answers.
Job Description:
Nurse Managers coordinate and monitor patient services provided by a group of nurses.
They work on all fronts: they cooperate with physicians to design patient care plans, they supervise employees and evaluate performance and they work with the patients and their families. They process documents such as patient and employee records.
For this reason nurse managers must be able to multi-task and communicate effectively with people from all walks of life.
As you answer questions, use phrases such as, “in my experience…” or “in the hospital I worked in…” This will show that you have varied experiences and have learned much from them.
Let’s look at the job interview –
Nursing Management
Interview Questions and Answers for Nurse Managers
The following are frequently asked questions with their corresponding suggested answers:
► In what departments of health care do you have experience working as a nurse manager?
Answer: Introduce yourself to the interviewer. Tell about yourself and your background as a registered nurse and as a manager of nurses. Give specific department names and provide brief elaborations as to what you did there: Intensive care room, emergency rooms and operation rooms where you received and distributed patients.
► Tell me about how relevant professional development and medical research is to your care as a nurse manager.
Answer: Staying up to date with current nursing practices helps understand other departments before assigning personnel there. It is especially relevant when you provide training.
► Tell me about your experience in training newly graduated registered nurses?
Answer: The nurse manager assesses performance. Normally, a newly graduated RN will be very familiar with all of the new nursing technologies and newly developed medical techniques. They will however usually require information as to how to improve performance, anticipate and prevent misunderstanding/conflicts, define goals, work as a team, etc.
► How do you handle staffing issues?
Answer: Nurse Managers assign nursing staff to each department in the health care unit: radiology, emergency, etc. They do this in coordination with the departments and their own knowledge of current nursing practices, taking into account the needs of the nurses and their schedule as well.
► Enforcing discipline is part of the job. Give me an example of that from your experience.
Answer: The job of a nurse requires stress tolerance, positive attitude and behavior and great care for detail. Nurse Managers have the ability to encourage all of these via praise, active listening, and occasional surprises ranging from time off to free tickets or chocolate bars. When necessary, the NM will have to identify employees that show lack of professionalism. To prevent this from happening, nurse managers can instruct staff in specially designed coaching and training. Give an example or two from your own experience.
These are just some of the questions asked in an interview for a nurse manager. See our other articles for more.
Healthcare Job Interviews