Questions to ask in your nursing interview
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.Â
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?Â
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?
These are the general ones I usually ask, anyone have any other good recommendations??
