new grad interview!!

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 15, 2014

Write out responses to the questions and review them prior to the interview. I've found this helps. There are many standard interview Q and A in the nursing careers section here on AN that you will find useful.

relaxingbath · Oct 16, 2014

Congrats starlane, I too have interviews coming up, I've researched the departments asked around friends to find out information on the hospital. I would recommend revise your post - surgical nursing interventions, work out priorities for what kind of patient should be seen first if you are busy and follow joanna73's suggestion of the Q&As.

I'm wondering how much depth I should go into for a RPN cardiology position I'm being interviewed for on Monday, I have taken ACLS, learnt ECG interpretation (not yet done an interpretation course to have it on a piece of paper), revised my heart physiology, common medications, S&S of heart failure and studied common health teaching by cardiology nurses. I'm now not sure what else I should cover in the time I have left any suggestions both specific and general?

CanadianGirl79 · Oct 19, 2014

Relaxingbath, I think you're pretty well covered in terms of cardio-specific things. Plan out some answers to more general questions like:

-what would you say is your biggest weakness?

-What is your biggest strength?

-Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult patient/coworker and how it turned out.

-Tell me how you would prioritize care for a full load of patients

-Why do you want to work here?

-Why did you go into nursing?

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 19, 2014

Aside from those questions, many employers present case studies and look for specific responses. Be familiar with how you might handle someone with chest pain, MI, a diabetic, as well as the significance of certain lab values.

Also be able to discuss the mission statement, values, and how they apply to your perception of the job.

relaxingbath · Oct 20, 2014

Thanks for all the advice, interview at internal medicine went well I hope, It was quite possibly the hardest interview I had particularly the scenario based questions I would have preferred to talk through my ideas with the managers instead of writing them down as a lot of my answers turned into if this then do this but if that then do this followed by this if and that.

My interview with cardiology was cancelled for a second time! This now pushes me out of my new grad initiative the HR specialist seems to think she can arrange an extension if I am successful when I finally get interviewed. Hope your interview went well starlane.

CanadianGirl79 · Oct 21, 2014

Glad to hear that the interview went well! Sorry to hear about the other one.

vintage_RN, BSN, RN · Oct 21, 2014

I work on an inpatient surgical unit. My interview had basic questions such as strengths/weaknesses, how you handled a tough situation etc. Also I had questions such as, what would you do if a dr. asked you to do something outside your scope, what are the s&s of hypovolemic shock, what are priority nursing interventions for a post-op pt etc...

good luck!

relaxingbath · Oct 22, 2014

2nd interview now arranged for Friday all the extra time has given me a chance to read up on lots more heart issues. Anyone recommend some reading on post op nursing interventions that I should read.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2014

You could review the post op surgical chapter in Potter and Perry or any of those nursing texts.

vintage_RN, BSN, RN · Oct 23, 2014

Probably the med surg nursing text or RNAO best practice guidelines

starlane · Oct 23, 2014

Thank you everyone for responding! and good luck relaxing bath on your interview TOMORROW! my interview went well and i got the job :-) just basic questions really, weakness, strength, describe scope of practice difference btwn rn and rpn, basic scenarios chest pain, pt falling, SOB and prioritizing your care...in preparation i made que cards! --which helped. This is not under the new grad initiative but anyways hopefully all goes well!! Let us know how your interview went :-) good luck!!! another thing that helps is to pick categories ex. leadership, communication, organization, caring, critical thinking etc and for each category find an example of a time u showed this skill and despite the question you can use the multiple examples you brainstormed in a few questions so if u have an example for critical thinking that can be used for both the direct question "Describe a situation where you had to use critical thinking skills?" or "Describe a difficult/challenging situation? What steps did you take to solve this problem"