Common Correctional Nursing Interview Questions

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!

Specializes in Emergency Department.

Here's a few I remember.

Q. You find an IM in his cell hanging by his neck. What's the first thing you do?

A. Ask the CO to make sure it's safe for you to be in the area, or ask the CO to call for help. Bottom line, your SAFETY is #1.

Q. You find an IM in lying in a pool of blood. What's the first thing you do?

A. Pretty much the same answer as above.

Q. Name some psychotropic drugs and their side-effects. (I was told as a NG, I was not expected to know the answer).

A. I answered that the primary SEs of the class of drugs are extra-pyramidal symptoms like dry mouth, weight gain, and Tardive Dyskinesia (TD).

Q. How would you deal with the fact that a vast number of IMs have HIV, Hep B, Hep C?

A. I just assume EVERYONE is infected and use PPE. IOW, glove up and wash your hands.

And of course the usual job interview questions like, "what are your greatest strengths, and weaknesses?"

Are you a new grad also?

I went on an interview in a southern california prison and I totally screwed it up. I have not been able to get in anywhere in my county but I managed to get into the prison system.

I had a few questions...

What is a heat stroke and what is heat exhaustion? What are the signs and symptoms? How would you treat each one?

How would you recognize an inmate who has hyperglycemia? How would you treat it?

Another question was "What would you do if an inmate in the clinic is becoming loud and obnoxious and is not complying with you?

I said, I would tell him to come back later!

Hello? What was I thinking?

I should have said that I would ask the inmate to calm down if he wanted to be seen otherwise I would need to call a guard in to control and remove the inmate.

I cant remember the other questions but I think they asked me 5 seperate questions and some of them were scenarios. I hope this post helps!

I just remembered another one ...

What are communicable diseases and how would you treat them here in the prison?

You need to take into consideration that if one inmate has athletes foot, then he can easily spread to others. If one has a cold, he can infect alot since they are in a closed environment and of very close proximity to others. They take communicable diseases seriously.

Specializes in Correctional Nursing.

This thread has been so helpful...and I just stumbled upon it today... My interview tomorrow is for a new grad LPN position... any tips specific to LPNs? Thanks so much!

I am a new grad and it has been really hard trying to find a job and I just had an interview for a county jail today and she was saying if I get selected for the second round of interviews I will have more situational questions such as what would I do if a person was brought in from a bar fight, what kind of assessments? and also what kind of patient teaching for diabetes and so forth. She also said I would have to take a polygraph test including some of the questions she had already asked. Can a job really make you take one? I'm just worried false lies will show because I am always nervous, any suggestions?

Specializes in Forensic Psych RN.

Lorry....I am very grateful to you for this thread. I went on my DMH interview at a local facility in CA, and I believe I did very well for a new grad. Before the interview, I sifted out all the questions that have been posted in this thread and added some info from your blog. I researched the answers and put them in a concise format for study purposes. I wasn't surprised by ANY of the questions I was asked. Some of them were very basic like explain the nursing process, but I did a better job than I would have because I used examples from your thread to give my explanation some form of reality (used abdominal pain ... and how the assessment could mean different things for different quads). Being able to answer the questions with confidence made me more relaxed for the next question. Corrections situations are different than the therapeutic environment of acute or sub-acute care. Thanks for the help!

Hi everyone! i have been reading this thread and I am going to practice some questions and review answers. I am a new nurse and my first interview is at the state prison. I have applied at every hospital. I am soooo nervous! I am nervous about not knowing an answer to a question but I am also nervous because I am pregnant and due in 3 weeks...I hope they don't look down on me for it! Any other tips for my interview? I applied two weeks ago and got the call yesterday, interview is tomorrow!

Thanks so much!

Derme2000: Thank you so much for your kind words. I am so excited for you! You did a wonderful job of preparing and it made all the difference. Although this thread and correctionalnurse.net helped, you did the heavy lifting and prepared well for the interview. I hope you get the job and keep us all posted on your orientation and the new things you are learning.

Also, if you have ideas for posts on my blog, be sure to comment or send me a message (email is in the 'about' section.

Specializes in substance abuse, psych, LTC, corrections.

They asked me if I could work every other weekend!! (ha ha) :jester:

Specializes in Correctional Nursing.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions and tips--I landed the job! :yeah:

Congrats on getting the new job! Keep us posted on how you are doing.....:yeah:

I am having trouble answering these " what would you do" questions since I have no experience working in a prison. One question I had was, you have a diaphoretic inmate, B/P 90/50, R 8, blood sugar 80. They want to know what I think it is and what would I do. I just need to know protocols of dealing with inmates. This is for LVN in Ca prison. Any help would be appreciated.

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