Common Nursing Interview Questions (With Sample Answers)
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Being a nurse takes a unique and special personality.
People are frequently spotted in the midst of what may be their worst day ever. Patience, a sense of humor, meticulous attention to detail, and thick skin are all necessary traits.
Of course, it can also be one of the most fulfilling occupations, full of thrills and drama, as well as the kind of rush that comes from helping others. For certain individuals, the nursing profession is a calling, but landing that first job might seem like the hardest aspect of the entire process, starting with those nerve-wracking nursing interview questions.
Most Common Nursing Interview Questions
Filling out applications, submitting your résumé and cover letter, and passing readiness tests and assessments are all exhausting aspects of finding nursing employment. The procedure might be intimidating by the time you eventually get to the interview process. Even the most seasoned nurse may find nursing job interviews stressful, whether they’re online interviews, phone interviews, or in-person interviews. Yet, interviewing can be conquered without breaking a sweat. Here’s a guide to help you ace your next job interview, complete with sample nurse interview questions and responses.
Common Types Of Nursing Interview Questions
This article will go over the expected types of questions for nurses to be asked during an interview. We’ll provide you with some tips and pointers on how to respond to those inquiries, as well as how to modify your response.
The first thing you should do when getting ready for an interview is to go over the job description meticulously as if working on a 500-piece puzzle. Make a list of all the qualities that the employer is searching for in their ideal candidate. Now, sit down and review all of your previous experiences to see how you’ve met all of those conditions.
It doesn’t matter if your work experience isn’t directly connected to the nursing position or job title you’re applying for or explicitly stated in the job description. Essentially, you want to provide your potential future employer with specific examples of how you’ve handled challenging situations in the past so that they can most likely predict how you’d react in similar nursing scenarios in the future.
Basic Nursing Interview Questions
Prepare to talk about why you selected nursing and what it is about the profession that appeals to you. You’ll also be quizzed on your teamwork skills as well as your ability to self-motivate and work alone.
In addition, you should also prepare for inquiries regarding how you deal with a crisis or stress, if you’ve ever been in leadership roles and your communication skills.
You might be getting a bit nervous with all of these possible common interview questions and answers, but please don’t be concerned! All it takes is a little planning ahead of time. Remember that there are no wrong answers or perfect answers, but there are tactics, key phrases, and ways of answering that will increase your chances. Let’s get this started!
The following questions for nurses are a basic guide of what you might be asked during your interview and how you may answer—through examples— depending on the subject and situation.
Q. Why Did You Choose To Be a Nurse in the First Place?
Sample Answer
My grandma and mother both work as nurses. It’s exciting and motivating to grow up in that environment and witness how much they enjoy what they do every day. I enjoy the difficulties of practicing nursing and coming up with creative solutions, as it keeps me interested and motivated. I’m honored to carry on my family’s nursing tradition and to keep helping others. To be honest, knowing that I’m making a genuine impact in people’s lives makes it all worthwhile.
Q. Why Are You Interested In This Position?
Sample Answer
For the past six years, I’ve worked as a Registered Nurse and have enjoyed every minute of it. Being a nurse is more than a simple profession for me; it’s a passion and a lifestyle, and I’ve used it to propel me ahead. I make it a point to keep up with all of the latest developments in my area of specialty, keep up with my education, and continually attempt to stay on top of developing trends and technologies. I’m a naturally curious soul and I think that makes me a great addition to any place that I’m interested in working on.
Q. Why Do You Believe You Are Suitable For This Role?
Sample Answer
I’m fascinated by new and developing technology used in long-term patient care, particularly in oncology. This hospital is named in the top five hospitals in the country for constantly innovating, especially for the past six years, and I’m enthusiastically looking forward to becoming a part of it and learning from your specialists. There’s nothing more gratifying to me than being where the change is at.
Tell Us About Yourself
When telling the employer about yourself, keep in mind that they aren’t looking for your life narrative. This question is being asked by an interviewer to find out what you think is significant and how it matches up with what they’re searching for. They’ll want to know how you can add significance and hard work to their team, what makes you special, and how you battle with your weaknesses. Avoid oversharing your personal history, don’t explain employment gaps unless asked, and concentrate on your previous work experience mostly. They’ll want to know how you can add significance and hard work to their team, what makes you special, what your career goals are, and how you battle with your weaknesses.
Q. What Are Your Strengths And Weaknesses?
Sample Answer
When talking about yourself:
I’m a self-motivated professional that appreciates the hands-on, human side of the labor done in the medical industry. Nothing could make me happier than assisting others when they are in desperate need. My experience in the last years as a nurse has shown me how important it is to actively listen to a patient in order to assist them and make them feel more at ease. During that time, I discovered that listening to their concerns and ensuring that their voices were heard were just as essential to them as obtaining exceptional care. As a result, I assisted in the creation of a patient advocacy program to help other staff nurses and the rest of the healthcare team learn the same skills.
When talking about strengths and weaknesses:
My compassion and capacity to overcome complex challenges are two of my greatest assets. I believe in the calling to help people and put myself in their shoes. Being empathetic and practicing constant communication is definitely one of my strengths. There was this one elderly woman who suffered from nocturnal terrors. Every several hours, she’d wake up screaming. I spent some time talking with her, and I quickly discovered that ten minutes of talking or just being there was enough to calm her down. For the next few evenings, I came in early to spend time with her. Her night terrors subsided, and the other patients in the hospital were able to sleep soundly once more. Now, what is my greatest flaw? When other nurses don’t pull their weight in what they do or during stressful situations, I tend to cover for them or compensate for their bad performance, but that just hurts the team in the end.
Q. What Do You Find To Be The Hardest Part About Being a Nurse?
Sample Answer
I guess the most difficult thing I’ve had to deal with is the sense of helplessness. While it is my responsibility to provide the best medical care and comfort possible, there are instances when you simply cannot do more. The most difficult thing I deal with is seeing someone in pain or unhappy and knowing there’s nothing you can do to help. I became a nurse because I honestly care about people and want to assist them, and it’s difficult for me when I can’t.
Q. Why Are You Leaving Your Current Position?
Sample Answer
While my previous position allowed me to learn essential skills and offered professional growth at my own pace in a smaller clinical setting from experienced nurses there, I’m searching for new challenges and opportunities for growth to broaden my expertise in a larger, hospital-based setting. I’m excited to attempt new things and pick up new key skills from working in a fast-paced setting like this one. I think I’ll get to help more people if I’m part of this team.
Q. What’s Your Strongest Skill As a Nurse?
Sample Answer
I’m particularly proud of my ability to pay attention to what a patient is saying. Nothing irritates people more than not feeling as if they are being heard, and that I can say because it happens to me as well. Working directly with patients for the past six years in the medical industry has shown me how far active listening can go in assisting someone to feel at ease. My most recent nursing job required me to work directly with patients in admissions. During that time, I realized that listening to their problems and addressing them wasjust as important as a nursing skill as obtaining quality care.
Q. Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years?
Sample Answer
I’d like to be the most valuable nurse on your team in five years, as I intend to take complete advantage of the continuing education reimbursement you provide to further my education. Also, I have experience with patient education and electronic health records, which I know you value. I’d like to learn a variety of new abilities, including budgeting and teaching people. (Hospital name) is, in my opinion, an excellent environment to learn how to be a better nurse and even a better human being.
Adaptability
Another round of behavioral questions has to do with the fact that no nurse has all of the answers. Don’t be hesitant to talk about a time when you didn’t know what to do or how to solve a problem. Explain the steps you took to find the answer or deal with the situation. A nursing career is all about adaptability, critical thinking skills, and problem-solving skills.
Q. Describe a Difficult Situation And How You Handled It
Sample Answer
It was my week on call, and I happened to be the nurse in charge of staff development. If I wasn’t being called, I had to go to the facility every day to deal with an issue, so it was quite difficult, and felt as if I were being tugged in several directions at the same time. Not only did I have to make sure my job was done, but I also had to be available in case something went wrong or if someone needed assistance.
My final decision was having each nurse leave me a report to reduce the tension, and back and forth. I also promised them that any non-emergency matters will be addressed the next day when I arrive at work. Every day, I would arrive at work fifteen minutes early to check what I needed to do during the day and the next one.
Q. What Do You Do When You Don’t Know The Answer To A Patient’s Question Or Situation?
Sample Answer
Naturally, patients come from various educational backgrounds and have varying levels of comprehension of healthcare and health jargon. Many patients didn’t comprehend medical words while I worked as a home healthcare nurse. From that experience, I decided to employ terms that the patients were familiar with. For example, I would use the word swelling instead of edema, as well as elevated blood pressure to describe hypertension. To make sure they got it, I would double-check that they understood what I was saying by repeating it until it made sense to them.
Q. How Do You Deal With The Stress of Being a Nurse?
Sample Answer
I’ve discovered that rigorous organization and attention to detail are the most effective ways to manage job stress. Making lists and prioritizing what needs to be done throughout the day helps me handle chores that could otherwise feel overwhelming all at once. This also allows me to maintain my composure and keep focused on the task at hand when unexpected scenarios happen. Also, I practice mindfulness every chance I get to keep myself at ease.
Patient Care
Without breaking the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), explain the situation. Don’t make disparaging remarks about the patient you had, or who their carer was. Instead, you should use this opportunity to demonstrate your empathy. Did you make a mistake with a patient? Be sure to admit that you did and explain how you fixed the problem. It’s all about giving them an idea of your excellent patient care philosophy.
Q. How Do You Deal With a Patient Who Is Not Satisfied With Your Quality of Care?
Sample Answer
I once dealt with a patient with a new wound care order. Her tutor was dissatisfied with the way I treated her injuries, so I told him that I was only following the doctor’s instructions. I sensed that this person was still uneasy about it and then I proceeded to explain the treatment in order to calm them down, and asked if he had any questions. After I took my time to explain, he expressed surprise and thanked me for taking the time to explain everything to him in easy terms. I apologized directly to the patient and reassured that the new orders were good for her and that I was available to answer any queries she had.
Teamwork
The teamwork section of questions is a good opportunity to show off your abilities to work well with other people, a critical skill in nursing. Think about a time when you jumped in to help a coworker out of the blue. What happened at the end?
Q. How Would You Deal With a Difficult Coworker?
Sample Answer
I had a coworker on the opposite shift who would rush me when giving me a report at the handoff. He would frequently simply provide me some information about a patient, and on rare occasions, he would offer me no information at all. it strained our relationship. One day I informed him nicely that his behavior frequently resulted in a misrepresentation concerning our patients. I decided to recommend to him that we make walking rounds so that there would be no misunderstandings regarding patients and that we wouldn’t miss anything. He agreed that that was a reasonable compromise. Thanks to that experience I got the chance to advocate for myself and face a problem head-on.
Q. Do You Work Better Independently Or As Part of a Team?
Sample Answer
I work well in a wide range of environments and situations, and I take satisfaction in my adaptability. I appreciate working in groups because I often find that other perspectives can help me come up with solutions to problems that I might not have considered on my own. I like self-motivation as well and am equally at ease working alone, but I will never stop being a team player when I need to.
Q. How Would You Handle A Disagreement With A Doctor?
Sample Answer
One night, I was looking through a patient’s paperwork and noticed that the prescription was incorrect. This caused my superiors to get into a defensive attitude. To address the disagreement, I first called the doctor, who will still validate the original prescription, but it did not appear to be correct to me. At that moment, I decided to speak with my boss, the nurse manager, about it. The doctor soon realized there was an issue after the three of us studied the prescription together and we were able to fix the prescription and deliver the appropriate medication to the patient.
Communication Style
This is where you have to demonstrate your ability to communicate, lead, and advocate for patients. But remember, no matter how tough the situation is, don’t trash talk. It’s time for you to concentrate on what you do well rather than criticizing others. Describe the conflict, including who was involved and what you discovered. Strong communication skills are the base for a respectable nursing career.
Q. Describe A Time You Had To Deal A Difficult Patient
Sample Answer
Working with elderly patients will definitely bring a unique set of issues because you’re working with people who were once self-sufficient but are now completely reliant on strangers. There was once this person who had a reputation for being difficult. She was irritable and abrasive, and she would frequently bother the other nurses over trivial matters. I’ll admit that I wasn’t thrilled to learn that I’d be working with her, so I studied her charts to get ready. I learned that she was in fact, a very lonely person, that her husband had died a long time ago and that she had no acquaintances or family. Instead of treating her like a patient, I tried to interact with her on a human level. It took some time, but she soon warmed up and became one of my favorite people to see every day.
Q. Describe a Time When You Turned Negative Feedback Into Something Positive
Sample Answer
I was constantly told that I needed to be more social at work and make an effort to bond with my coworkers, but I would disagree with my boss because I believed we should be there to work and care for our patients, not to make friends—it’s a plus if you can become close friends with your coworkers. While I didn’t become fast friends with anyone on the unit, I was able to use my free time to read and study for further certifications that helped me get better nursing jobs and possibilities. I think this negative feedback was helpful to remind myself where I stand and what my priorities are.
Motivation And Core Values
Interviewers use motivation and core values questions to try to get to the heart of your motivation and personal values. When responding to such inquiries, give motivational anecdotes from your life that demonstrate your underlying principles. Always be prepared to reflect on yourself and how to strengthen your character and virtues.
Avoid giving your entire life story because you should keep parts of your personal life private, and it’s the professional thing to do because your interview time is limited.
Questions To Ask The Employer
“Do you have any questions for us?” the interviewer will usually ask. Prepare one or two questions for the interviewer ahead of time. This allows you to assess whether the position is a good fit for you and demonstrates your genuine and humble interest in the role and organization.
Here are a few common questions you might want to ask an interviewer:
- What is the new staff training schedule?
- What does a typical day in this position entail?
- Which characteristics and skills are most beneficial for this position?
- What kind of leader are you?
- What kind of post-secondary education is available?
- What is the company’s culture like?
Also, read the job description and, if you can, interview or talk to some of the staff and nurses who already work at the hospital, clinic, or healthcare provider you’re applying to and who might share the same or similar position.
Interview Questions Specific For Specialization
You may have to answer questions specific to your specialization. This will always support your professionalism and nurse image. Also, if you want to give the best answers, use the STAR method (explained below) and become an expert in nurse interview questions.
Nursing Interview Tips To Ace It!
Here are some basic tips that will come in handy on the day of your nursing interview:
1. Know What You’re Going For
Healthcare facilities are frequently large and perplexing. Before the interview, spend some time learning your route.
2. Give a Good Handshake
No matter your gender or the job title you’re applying for, always give a firm handshake and walk in with confidence.
3. Dress Professionally
Interviewers can know you care about them and the job if you dress professionally. A basic for any type of interview, especially if you’re looking to apply for a management role.
4. Rehearse Your Nursing Interview Questions
Don’t just memorize the answers. Rehearse them until you can recite them off the top of your head.
5. Listen Carefully and Take Notes
It is easier to listen if you take notes on paper. It will also assist you in remembering essential information. Finally, it demonstrates that you are concerned.
What to Bring to a Nursing Interview
Besides bringing your interview skills with you, you should not neglect the basics of the process. The day of your nursing interview you should bring the following:
- A copy of your CV.
- A copy of your nursing license as well as any additional certificates you may have.
- Any letters of recommendation.
- A business card that has a picture of yourself.
Note: A strong cover letter that complements your resume will put you ahead of the competition.
Use the STAR Method To Answer Nursing Interview Questions
Answering behavioral-based interview questions with the STAR method is a well-known methodology that leads to a successful interview. The acronym outlines how to format your response and explain your story.
With the STAR method, you’ll be able to thoroughly express how you’ve handled a real-life scenario in the past and how you’ll successfully administer future ones if you use this strategy. Even if you’re just starting out in your profession and don’t have much experience, this is a good strategy for dealing with new grad nurse interview questions and delivering excellent answers.
The STAR method stands for:
Situation
Consider a similar event or situation that resulted in a positive conclusion.
Task
In this instance, what task were you in charge of? Make a clear and succinct statement about your contribution.
Action
What steps did you take to solve the problem? This is the opportunity to extol your best characteristics and brag a little about yourself.
Result
What was the outcome? What role did you play in the final outcome? What did you take away or learn from this experience?
We hope this guide has been helpful in your journey of finding a registered nurse job, and that next time you have the opportunity of showing off your professional skills in the best way possible. Ace any nursing interview questions and provide the best answers! Stability Healthcare is constantly demanding nurse positions to be filled in the healthcare industry and now you have a starting point!
