HELP! How to answer interview question

[KidsRN9]

I have noticed a common interview question for the OR is 'How would you respond to a surgeon who was yelling at you?" or some variation of this. Is it appropriate to say that you would give it right back to him? Somehow this seems like an inappropriate interview response although that's probably what ends up happening in real life often. I suppose I would probably let it roll off my back and ignore it at least until the case was done so as not to disrupt the case for the safety of the patient. I probably would just let it go unless it was repeated and then is the appropriate answer to discuss with your manager? Very confused by this question....

[RNOTODAY, BSN, RN]

You should say something like this; "I would try to determine if the surgeon was simmply venting, or requesting something needed for the case. In either case, I would not be unprofessional during a case.If I had a problem with a surgeon, I would wait for an appropriate time to discuss it directly with him."

They want to know that A) you can take the heat, because it WILL be there, and B) that you wont be standing there arguing with the surgeon. and c) they want to know how you handle interpersonal CONFLICT.... because it is very common in the OR, and how you deal with it will make or break your career there.

[KidsRN9]

Thanks, luckily I did not get asked this question yesterday. From what I can tell there is not much interpersonal conflict in this OR. It seems very well managed and when the new director came in a few years ago she did some MAJOR housekeeping of both nurses and surgeons and the staff I talked to all said there may be one or two bad apples around, but major conflicts are few and far between. Maybe it has to do with being a children's hospital and magnet (I currently work there in the ICU there and all of our docs are great and never really have conflicts with the nurses). Or maybe they were putting on a show, guess it's hard to tell. I did observe a liver transplant went wrong due to a fellow nicking the hepatic artery while benching the donor liver (recipient was already open) and the surgeon in that case didn't even get out of hand or anything which I found hard to believe myself....