#nursing interview

I just had my first big girl interview for a nursing externship. It was over Facetime and I was given literally 10 minutes to sell myself.

1. What is the acuity of the unit?

2. What is the patient/nurse ratio?

3. Does the charge nurse take patients, usually?

4. How many nurses are typically on in a shift?

5. How many techs, secretaries, support staff are on each shift?

6. What is an RN responsible for on the unit? Ex: vitals, assessments, med pass, discharge, etc, etc. 

7. What are the procedures for lunch? How long do you get? Do you have to take your phone/voicera with you to lunch? Who watched your patients? Are you allowed to leave hospital property (if this matters to you)?

8. What is the process for requesting time off, PDO, vacations? How many people are allowed to be gone at one time?

9. What is the provider coverage at your hospital? Is there always an MD in house? What about anesthesia? Residents? NPs? 

10. What is the culture like on the unit? (Of course, they can always lie... but sometimes you can tell by how they answer the question what the truth is)

11. Is floating common or required, if so where would you float?

12. Is call required? If so how much?

13. How does the schedule work? Is it self scheduling or set schedule? How many weekends are required?

14. When do benefits start?

How to find and prepare for a nursing job interview Video

If you are looking to learn how to search and prepare for a job in nursing make sure you watch my latest vlog. Below you will find more interview questions that may help you prepare of your interview: Example Questions: – Tell me a little bit about yourself? – What are your strengths and weaknesses? – Why did you choose this unit to…

I’ve been pretty MIA despite my sparse schedule, but I have been back and forth about whether or not to apply for this wave of GN residency cohorts. After looking at all the dates offered for different programs, I decided to apply and send in my first big-girl application to a hospital! They called me the day I uploaded my transcript (which caught me completely off-guard), but I really hope my heart came through to my interviewer. The questions were more about reflections of past experiences than situational, requiring me to think of examples (which I was afraid of taking too long to think of). 

This morning, I had a mock in-person interview. Originally, I scheduled it for the end of this month, but due to my recent phone interview, I decided to change the date to something much sooner! Two school of nursing staff members grilled me with questions, and I had so much fun. After it was over, they gave me awesome pointers that I can take with me to my future interviews! I just wanted to share some parts of my interview so I don’t forget any feedback they gave me.

Note: Honestly, I love interviews, so I may be the wrong person to ask about interview stress. I get the good kind of nervous, and I get excited to explain myself to people. It helps me practice being honest with myself and staying humble while reflecting on the my strengths and weaknesses. Interviews help me articulate things about myself I wasn’t able to express before.

One of the things they critiqued me on was not limiting my list of strengths. Because I couldn’t think of any strong adjectives when they first asked me the question, I gave a couple weak words to describe my strengths. They suggested I stick to three strong words with examples. Here are the ones I’m going to go with for the future: being able to balance my workload (and prevent overworking/stress), my hardworking nature, and my positive, optimistic attitude. As for examples, I’m going to explain balance with my resume: picking up two officer positions for two different organizations, on top of school. My positive attitude, and a great support system, throughout nursing school and my pre-reqs definitely helped me get through all the stress! My positivity also helps me work harder. I mentioned in my mock interview that my attitude helps me get through a tough shift--seeing the satisfaction of patients during or at the end of my shift is the most rewarding part of what I do, and it serves as a constant reminder of why I’m here.

Another question asked about my weaknesses. I like keeping this answer as honest as possible. Not only in nursing, but in other areas of my life, fear can sometimes prevent me from taking new and exciting opportunities. I’m not sure if I’ll be good enough, or if I’ll make people proud enough. An example? My first patient ever. I froze and stared at his door, knowing walking in would mean waking him up. The whole idea of “taking a patient” was new and scary! Despite this, I was able to overcome my fear. Nursing school has definitely put me in situations where I am tested, and all those obstacles helped me apply for my first real job. A second example could be not wanting to pick up an officer position despite the new ideas I had for an organization, or knowing that I can do my job well. However, I was able to overcome this really well, being elected to two different officer positions for two different organizations in the same year. A mistake I made during this question was saying the phrase, “low self-esteem”. I need to prove that I can be independent; my supervisor shouldn’t worry about me. I understood this, and it’s a personal quality I’m trying to work on!

“Nurses eat their young” was a situational phrase they used to ask me how I would handle a situation between more experienced nurses and myself. In all honesty, if hostility was directed towards me, I would let it happen. I’d stay as respectful as possible, and report to a supervisor if it got worse. However, if older nurses just had a negative attitude toward the staff on the floor, I would stay civil, let it happen, and take that person in doses. 

What do I look for in a supervisor? This was a question where I expressed a want/need to have someone reassuring me. A critique they gave me was to say “support”. I want a supervisor that will provide support when I need it. I also mentioned I did not want to fear my supervisor (after explaining how fear is something I can overcome). I’ll keep my answer of wanting a supervisor to have a good balance between friend and boss, but I’ll keep it to that. Maybe I’ll mention the ideal situation of wanting a supervisor that creates a work environment I want to return to the next day.

Finally, the last note I have is providing my example of a mistake. My interviewers said I had a good example and that I explained myself clearly! I told them about my first semester in nursing school, where I was administering a blood pressure medication to a patient. I forgot to take my patient’s blood pressure before administering this medication, but I stated all the side effects that I looked up prior to this clinical day. (This is a potentially dangerous situation if their blood pressure is already low!) Luckily, my instructor was in the room and reminded me what I needed to check before administering this med. This experience, though small, showed me what becomes second nature had to be learned. Though I was just starting, I had a long way to go. It taught me the importance of the little things, and how they can have a huge impact on the future, whether it be mine or my patients’.