Interview Help!

[wanderlust99]

I'm an ICU nurse with almost 6 years of great experience (teaching hospitals, traveler) and bombed an interview last week for an ICU position. Never felt worse, but now a PACU position has opened up and I am thrilled! I have floated to a PACU before (at a different hospital), maybe 10 times and I really enjoyed it. Any advice for not messing up this interview? I'm a great nurse and I know I'd be a great employee if someone would give me a shot. I'm a traveler right now and looking to find some permanent stability in my life. How would you recommend preparing? I by no means am an expert in PACU.... Recovering children and a lot of the surgeries we just don't see in the ICU. That makes me nervous. But anyhoo...any tips for interviewing? What do you look for in a PACU nurse when hiring? I left my last interview pretty frustrated because I just felt like they were HR questions and I wasn't able to articulate myself very well, unfortunately.

[GHGoonette, BSN, RN]

Oops, I see this post is already two days old! If the interview's already happened, I sincerely hope it went well for you.

With ICU and PACU experience, you already meet most of the criteria that would recommend you for the post, so get your confidence up! With a good record, your references will do a lot of the work for you. The most important assets that I like to see in new PACU staff are enthusiasm and the ability to work with the team. There may, of course, be areas in which you will need orientation, but you shouldn't have any problem picking those up.

The best of good luck to you :)

[Glageman]

Hiya,

Sorry, you posted this 4 days ago. I so agree with GHGoonette that an important asset for working in a PACU is the ability to work in a team. All of us come from a variety of backgrounds, we all have our strengths. I worked in ICU for 25 years. I thought that I saw it all. Then, there is leeching. Luckily, there was some ortho nurses who work in our unit.

Good luck - this is the best job. - I see everything. I am learning every day.