Common Correctional Nursing Interview Questions

Specialties Correctional Nursing Q/A

I'm collecting a compendium of Interview Questions and best answers for folks prepping for a correctional nursing job interviews. Could you chime in with yours even if you might have posted elsewhere on this forum? It would be good to have them all in one place for newbies searching this site.

Thanks for all the time and effort you spend helping new correctional nurses learn the ropes!

My questions were, if i can remember them:

1.) CAD/Chest Pain Scenario (MONA, 12Lead EKG-STEMI)

2.) Inmate threat to harm/suicide protocol Scenario

3.) TB info: s/s, screenings, interventions, isolation precautions

4.) Respond to man down (safety safety safety)

5.) Describe how your experience compliments corrections (I had ICU/Clinic experience so i emphasized my abilities to respond to emergencies and think quickly (ICU) as well as my passion for teaching and triage abilities (clinic). I think they just wanted to see what qualities are expected in a correctional RN

There were 2 more, but i forgot them. it was fairly simple. This was a CA facility. They seem to source the questions from a bank.

Hey everyone!

So the interview went well. I won't know until the end of next week if I am selected to go through the second interview, but my fingers are crossed. The interview was set up as a scoring system with ten questions. Here's what I remember:

Why do you want to work in a prison?

What do you, as an individual, believe you can bring to our team of nurses?

How can you support the mission of the prison towards the inmates? (this one was kind of weird. I focused on the purpose of prison being reformation and rehabilitation)

There was one prioritization question with four different activities.

One HIPPA question

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Question on diabetes, insulin administration, and hypoglycemia.

Coworker constantly not doing their job properly, what would you do.... (obviously go to supervisor)

I don't remember the last two. All the questions were pretty standard stuff. Each question is scored on a scale of 1-5. People with the highest scores will move on to the second interviews.

I hope these help anyone else who is considering this career path!

This thread made me feel so prepared for my interview that I had this morning so I am extremely grateful. My interview turned out to be nothing like what this thread offered, though! Ha ha. They mostly asked me about my experiences and how I thought I could bring my skills into the correctional setting. I thought I did a horrible job since I was prepared for all situational questions and somehow blanked when it came to talking about myself HAHA. The nurse manager told me that I was the first interview, and that they had several other nurses to interview later in the week. A few hours later, they called to offer me the job!! I wonder what happened to the other interviewees. :unsure: I'm a new grad, too.

Thank you for this thread, though!!

Hi Everyone,

This thread made me feel so prepared for my second interview ? So here's what I had:

First interview: totally unprepared, only asked me questions about why I wanted to be a correctional nurse, what my strengths were, ect. no scenarios.

Second interview (different facility), got a phone call with a pop quiz interview, six questions:

1. You have 60 seconds, tell me about yourself

2. Name a specific time you knew you were in over your head with a patient, what you did about it, and what you learned from the experience.

3. Name a specific time you had difficulty with a patients behavior, how you handled it and what you learned from the situation.

4. Name a specific example of a time you were reprimanded at work, how you handled it and what you learned.

5. Give a specific example of a time you had multiple things to do, all at the same time, how you prioritized your tasks and what you learned.

6. If you were up against someone with the same level of education and experience for this position, tell me why I should hire you over someone else.

This was all on the phone, minutes before I was going to walk into walmart lol. Then he brought me in for a tour of the facility (I did well on the phone part ? thanks to this thread) and although he didn't really ask me any more "interview" type questions, what he told me later he was doing was introducing me to people on the unit to observe how I interacted with them. At one point he left me with the triage nurse and came back a couple minutes later, he was trying to see how well I'd fit in I think.

At the end, he told me how happy he was with the interview, complemented me several times for following the exact directions I was given (bring your CPR Card, RN license, references, put keys in a locker and bring nothing else, dress code, ect. He actually said I was the only interviewee that followed all of his directions, which he loved because he said it spoke to my ability to take directions and be trained on the job) Then he asked me which of the two available shifts I preferred!! Great Sign!!! Now I'm waiting for the offer...I am 7mo pregnant and did tell him I'd need some time off, so hopefully that's not a deal breaker and I'll get an offer soon ?

The pay scale her in MA is 27-44$/Hr for reg. scheduled positions and 32$/Hr for per diem ?

This post had helped me tremendously. I have an interviewed with the local county jail..that is literally 5 min. down the street from my house. I am a recent LPN grad and currently in school for RN. hope I get the position. I have a living to maintain as well.

Specializes in Forensic Psych RN.

I understand how you feel. I hope you do get the job. Working for the state of CA pays very, very well. The benefit package is unsurpassed and the employee pays very little towards it. If you start with them when you are young, get your education so you can move up to other positions, you can do well and retire early.

You will probably be asked 5 questions. There will be a panel of interviewers and the interview is very structured. They will have a series of laminated pages that have the questions they are going to ask you. You will be asked to flip over the first page when you are ready and they will read the question out loud to you with you reading along on your own card.

The question objective will always be about your critical thinking skills while working in a forensic environment. It will be about your awareness for being safe first, considering your patient population, and a nurse second.

Here are some sample subjects you may get asked:

1. While doing your medpass, patient tells you he already got his insulin shot. What are you going to do?

First you'll hold the insulin until you check the MAR, the diabetic log book for a blood sugar check that was documented, maybe the needle sign out roster to see if his name is in there for that date, you will check with other staff. You may check his blood sugar again before giving any injections.

2. You have a patient down and bleeding and another complaining of chest pains. Who are you going to help first?

You call for help (calling for help is big in this environment) quickly assess each one. If the bleeder is life threatening blood loss, that's your priority. Bleeding could mean cut on the arm. If you know your patient population, and you know the chest pain person's history, then that would determine your actions as well. Does he often complain of chest pain because he has a diagnosis of GERD and refuses his omeprazole? Chest pain is a high priority but not if someone is bleeding out. Hopefully there will be help to take over one of them.

3. Man down by himself. Do you go to him? No you call for help, assess the area and make sure you have staff with you in case it's a set up.

4. My friend interviewed last month at Stockton and was asked this: You overhear two staff gossiping about other staff...what do you do with the information? Depending on the nature of it, you may have to report it to your supervisor.

Don't be afraid to keep talking and adding information. They will have a checklist to complete while you answer to score how many of their targets you hit, but there is no right or wrong for which sequence you answered in. Just that you hit them.

Also...dress professionally. Impressions are so huge and can do alot for a candidate. I cannot believe how some of the interviewees dress. If you can, wear your RN pin....you'd be surprised how much goodwill it will generate....especially if one of the interviewees went to the same school. It shows you are proud of your chosen profession.

PS - I went through allnurses.com before my interview and cut and pasted all the forensic facility question and answers I found into one document I could study, read into a recorder and listen to, and get as familiar with as possible.

Specializes in Med/surg tele, home health, travel.

I interviewed for a position as an RN at a low security in Youngstown. One part of the facility is a US Marshal Service and the other part is Federal Bureau of Prisons. It is a CCA facility and the pay is phenomenal. I interviewed for a FT and PRN position. Not only was I the first candidate to interview for the positions, but this was also my very first interview as a new graduate!

The questions asked during the interview were mainly based on inmate behaviors, and how I would react. I was asked about 12 questions by a panel of 3: HR, Nurse manager, and Clinical Manager. Here's some questions I remember:

Why did you choose corrections as a career?

Do you have experience in corrections or are you familiar with corrections?

How do you handle push-back?

During the nursing shortage, what changes would you like to see take place?

Are you familiar with electronic medical records?

What would you do if you noticed the narcotic count was short?

Name a skill you taught yourself that you didn't learn by trade or in school.

At your job has anyone asked you to bend the rules, if so what did you do?

If you noticed an inmate calling your co-worker a name or being disrespectful what would you do?

If you had a lot to do and minimal time to do it what do you do?

At the end I had the opportunity to discuss anything I wanted to about myself that wasn't already mentioned.

I am still waiting for results. One more person has to interview on 4/4/14. HR said that if chosen then I would have to go through 2 more interviews, one with an investigator, and then one more after that. I believe she said you basically go through homeland security. They really dug into my business. I received copies of everything in the mail. They know how much you paid for you house, any public files, and an extensive credit check, and background check, etc.

A 2 week academy for safety training for the job is in June. And 3 weeks of training after that (1 week one each shift). The FT position I applied for is for afternoon shift charge nurse.

I felt very confident during the interview, and I felt it went well. It took about an hour including the tour of the medical area. I took nothing in but my license and car keys. Not only did I have to go through the metal detector, but I had to also remove my shoes upon entering. I was surprised of this because I toured a supermax facility and never had to take off my shoes!

I should know something more about the position by next week. HR told me I would receive notice even if I wasn't chosen. Thank goodness for that. I am glad they at least don't leave a person waiting!

Specializes in Forensic Psych RN.

Thank you all so much for these sample nursing interview questions. I'm a new grad RN and I have an interview in two weeks and I'm a little nervous about interviewing in front of a panel.

My experience is the panel is retired employees and they are very nice. If this is a state facility in CA, you generally have to do two interviews: the first to see if they want to employ you, the second to actually hire you. The first one is called a "QAP". If you pass that, you go on to the next interview.

I took a tour of the facility with my mental health instructor and I loved it; the autonomy, the challenges you have to face on a daily basis and having to think "on your toes" is why I'm truly excited. I'm fully prepared with all my paperwork, I was thinking about making photocopies of all my required documents and then taking the originals just in case, does that sound like a good idea?

I also have a letter of recommendation from my Mental Health instructor that has health fairs at the same prison every couple of months; should I take that in with me?

Again, if this is a state or government facility in CA, they have a very structured process. I turned those kinds of documents in with my application to the nurse recruiter at my facility even though it was not required. I figured it couldn't hurt. It's always worth a try.

I'm great with Med-Surg but it's hard for me to get out of that thinking "patient safety is first", so basically from what I see on here, if they ask an emergency scenario question, just always get a correctional officer first? I just want to be completely prepared for any question they may throw my way so I can make a good first impression. ANY advice would be helpful!!

Since this is a special kind of nursing, I would prepare for questions about why you want to work there and do that kind of nursing. Questions about how you would critically think through scenarios like a prisoner telling you they already got their insulin or didn't get their vicodin order...how would you treat that...what process would you use to clarify it? Also patient safety is important but your safety is number 1. As a nurse, it is different to think of not immediately responding to an injured or sick patient. Your thinking should always be about not going it alone, how the whole scenario looks/appears and what is your process based on that? Pull your alarm? Wait for the officers/support people to be there? What if someone fell down grabbing their chest? Are you going to immediately respond? If not, then what will you do?

Good luck. I love my job!!!

I had my panel interview today. There were 3 individuals asking the questions and it was over the phone.

Some of the questions were:

what would your current supervisor say if we asked what your strengths were? weakness?

Explain a situation when you were forced to make a decision that no one else agreed with?

Explain a situation when you made a promise to fulfill a duty that may or may not have been met?

Explain a time that you have struggled with finishing paper work, what is your solution to this?

Explain a situation where you worked with an employee who was always unhappy or frustrated, what did you do to solve this issue?

Just finished my interview today. Wanted to thank everyone for their input. I was ready for them thanks to a little review based on info from this site. I had the Diabetes question, the rights of meds question and the components of a doctor's order. Also asked me about my willingness to work over and in bad weather and how my nursing experience made me the best candidate. I had to review some med orders for errors and know that CPR is not administered on DNR patients. I also had to answer whether my skills are good, adequate or I have no experience in various skills. I think I haven't forgotten anything. Oh, and the interview had three interviewers who sat at a conference table and fired these questions at me. Hope this helps someone else. :)

Hi Everyone! I think I'm a bit late answering on here but when I first got my LVN license I worked at CA State Prison-DVI and I don't remember much of the interview questions except:

1) If an inmate is found hanging from their bed, what do you do?

2) An inmate c/o left arm numbness & pressure on chest, what do u think is happening?

But today, after being out of work for 3 years cuz of going back to school, I had another LVN interview for SMC and the questions were:

1) describe skills & qualifications for position

2) largest population given meds to and how long it took to pass the meds

3) inmate question the meds given what to do

4) what does team player mean

5) TB Q: have u administered tb skin test before- how long till u read it- how many mm is indication of positive reading

6) what to do in case of med error

7) how to maintain positive relationship with coworkers, management, physicians?

Hopefully I get this job! its a lot closer to home!

Do not forget about blood sugars!

I was so focused on safety that I forgot to mention, check blood sugars. Even though I talked about patient possibly being a diabetic.

I will never forget that again in an interview! Frustrating, because I check blood sugars all the time at my current position.

All questions were a variation of what is on here, and what are 5 side effects of antidepressants.

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