CVICU interview questions

[appleandoranges2]

Hello all, can anybody give me a taste of what kind of interview questions they asked you when you applied for a position in the CVICU?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Will the moderators please merge this thread with the other two threads asking the same question?

[RunNP]

Most of the interviews just want to know a little more about you. Strengths/weaknesses, what would your last supervisor say about you and behavioral type questions. An example:

Tell me about a time when you had conflict at work, what happened and what was the outcome?

They look for people who can face difficulty and present rationale responses. Never be the one who claims, "I have never had conflict" that throws up a big red flag. Most interviews are about seeing if you will fit in and to weed out the crazies.

Good luck!

[KarenMS]

Most of the interviews just want to know a little more about you. Strengths/weaknesses, what would your last supervisor say about you and behavioral type questions. An example:

Tell me about a time when you had conflict at work, what happened and what was the outcome?

They look for people who can face difficulty and present rationale responses. Never be the one who claims, "I have never had conflict" that throws up a big red flag. Most interviews are about seeing if you will fit in and to weed out the crazies.

Good luck!

I'm not currently interviewing anywhere, but this one scared me! I literally have never had a conflict at work. Am I supposed to make something up? Why would this be a red flag? Because they assume you're lying?

[remotefuse]

Hello, Congrats on your interview!

I had a interview in CVICU a few weeks ago, and was looking for similar ways to practice. Even though I'm not a new nurse, these were my questions

Tell me about yourself

Why did you become a nurse?

How do you provide compassionate care?

What is the first medication you would look for on your mar if your pt has a hx of alcohol abuse?

What is something your current manager would say you need improvement on?

Why are you moving from your current situation?

What are things that annoy you at work?

[remotefuse]

I'm not currently interviewing anywhere, but this one scared me! I literally have never had a conflict at work. Am I supposed to make something up? Why would this be a red flag? Because they assume you're lying?

It's hard to believe that no one has EVER had any type of conflict at work. A simple one I can think of that didn't really seem like a big deal include nurse who was consistently 30+ min late to receive report from night shift. I just took her aside one day and told her how hard it was on us to have to wait for her every morning. She took the hint and it hasn't been an issue since.

[RunNP]

I'm not currently interviewing anywhere, but this one scared me! I literally have never had a conflict at work. Am I supposed to make something up? Why would this be a red flag? Because they assume you're lying?

You work in nursing you have conflict, maybe not to the level you would qualify as conflict. I will give an example that I had as a bedside nurse using the STAR approach:

(Situation) I had a Kosher patient who was upset that his dinner tray was not a kosher meal.

(Task) I had to fix it and provide quality customer service

(Action) I called dietary and spoke to the supervisor and with her help we were able to correct the diet order that had on file. She provided her direct number to give to the patient in case he had any additional questions/concerns. I went to the dietary dept and picked him up a new kosher tray.

(Result) the patient expressed appreciation that his needs were met and his dietary choices respected.

All behavioral questioning does is allow an interviewer to see how you get things done and if you can demonstrate how to resolve problems and as a nurse you put out a million fires a day.

[KarenMS]

You work in nursing you have conflict, maybe not to the level you would qualify as conflict. I will give an example that I had as a bedside nurse using the STAR approach:

(Situation) I had a Kosher patient who was upset that his dinner tray was not a kosher meal.

(Task) I had to fix it and provide quality customer service

(Action) I called dietary and spoke to the supervisor and with her help we were able to correct the diet order that had on file. She provided her direct number to give to the patient in case he had any additional questions/concerns. I went to the dietary dept and picked him up a new kosher tray.

(Result) the patient expressed appreciation that his needs were met and his dietary choices respected.

All behavioral questioning does is allow an interviewer to see how you get things done and if you can demonstrate how to resolve problems and as a nurse you put out a million fires a day.

I guess I wasn't thinking of conflict in that way? I can think of little situations like the above (not in a nursing role since I haven't graduated yet) but I didn't see them as conflict.

[Nurse_bre]

I recently had an interview at a CVICU and I agree with the above answers. They really do want to know more about you, your personality, how you handle conflict with patients, family members, co-workers and other members of the team. They wanted to know how I participated on the unit I was coming from.

The nurse educator also sat in the interview and had asked me a clinical question as well in regards to cardiac care, for example: "you have a patient c/o of chest pain and abnormal ECG changes, what would you do and what are you expecting?". She also went deeper in the questions by asking "if you see ECG changes in leads ..... , what area of the heart is being affected?"

I thought I bombed my interview but I got the job and I'm on orientation currently. Good Luck : )