ED Interview Advice?

TazziRN, RN · Jun 20, 2006

Dress sensibly, doesn't have to be a dress, but don't wear sneakers. The questions will probably be along the lines of your education and why you want to work the ER. You may be given some simple scenarios and asked how you would handle them. Don't freak, think about the question before you answer.

And good luck!!!

pancake · Jun 20, 2006

Thanks TazziRN!

vampireslayer · Jun 23, 2006

I was 40, soon to be 41, when I graduated, and went directly into the ER. I stressed that I may not have ER experience, or even tech or nursing experience, but I have LIFE experience...yeah, kind of corny, but they got what I was trying to say. Build on your LIFE experience, have you dealt with difficult people, have you done any teaching in any of your previous jobs, have you supervised/delegated in any of your previous jobs, have you learned to multi-task, high stress situations, etc.

Also be ready to answer the questions WHY do you want the ER, what do you think you'll like most, and what do you think you'll like LEAST about ER.

I was also asked what ONE THING did I want them to remember about me.

And finally, be prepared for that "standard" interview question of "where do you see yourself in 5 years"...I think they all ask that! Try to figure out some OTHER answer besides the traditional "be a great ER nurse, then team leader, then charge nurse".

Good luck!

VS

Dixielee, BSN, RN · Jun 24, 2006

And finally, be prepared for that "standard" interview question of "where do you see yourself in 5 years"...I think they all ask that! Try to figure out some OTHER answer besides the traditional "be a great ER nurse, then team leader, then charge nurse".

Not to go off topic, but I had to laugh, because NOW, after 32 years of nursing....my answer would be..." my goal every shift is to go home alive and send my patients along their way in the same condition. I want to go to as few mandatory meetings and inservices as possible, and I never want to do triage or take charge again".

Seriously though, you have received some great advice. Think before you answer, focus on why you want to be an ER nurse, draw on your experiences and be honest.

It is an interesting, never ending challange. Our mottos include

You gotta be tough if you are gonna be stupid!

We're here to save you a$$ not kiss it.

If not for stupid people we would be unemployed.

Watch out for those two dudes....they are really dangerous.

Best of luck, your very best nursing stories come out of the ER!!

pancake · Jun 25, 2006

VS, I just got back from a mini vacation and was so happy to get your advice. I really appreciate it. I'll definitely think through those questions before the interview. And thanks Dixie for the encouragement.

When I went to this particular hospital to meet with the recruiter, I was initially looking for a med-surg position. However, the recruiter encouraged me to apply for the new grad ed program. He said my maturity would be a benefit and the work interesting. To be honest, I had never thought about working in the ED before, but I talked to a friend who did and she said it was a great place to develop assessment and critical thinking skills that would serve me throughout my career.

In the meantime, I was offered a position in telemetry at another hospital. It's so hard knowing what the smartest thing to do is since this is my first job. Anyway, my ed interview is this week.

-Can you tell me why you decided on the ED?

-Was it what you expected?

-What qualities in a nurse are most important for the ED?

Thanks again, and if you're too busy to respond that's okay. I really appreciate the info you've already given me.

vampireslayer · Jun 26, 2006

Why did I decide on ER? Well, here's where I raise my hands above my head and say "I MEAN NO OFFENCE TO ANYONE!", but the truth is doing med-surg in nursing school was what made me realize I DIDN'T want med-surg...or any of the other floor nursing jobs. To my inexperienced eyes (maybe I'm wrong here), flood nursing was all about getting report, gathering meds for all your patients, giving your 9am meds, which you didn't finish until 10:30, then charting until it was time for lunch, giving out lunch trays and noon meds, can't remember what the afternoon was like but mostly it was just getting ready to give evening meds! I found that boring, it was all about handing out meds...and even the meds were boring! Mostly PO meds, just open a bunch of packets and hand them out. Of course there were assessments, but from what I experienced from the other nurses, the assessments were simply a thing that had to be done, a task, not a "detective" or "discovery" assignment like we do in the ER. In the ER, we do assessments to figure out what is wrong with the patient and try to order the proper set of tests. They were just doing assessments so they could chart them. It just seemed boring and kind of like babysitting to me. Now maybe that's all because the patients I saw in nursing school weren't terribly sick...maybe a higher acuity would have been more like nursing to me and less like babysitting.

So that's when I decided I wanted to deal with the really ill patients, the ones where my care could make a difference in their life, literally make a difference like if they lived or died! So I decided ICU or ER. I spent several days in ICU and hated it! What I really looked forward to in ICU was having the same patient for several days, so I could get to know the patient, their illness or injuries, the families, etc. But that ended up being what I disliked! I hated having the SAME patient all day long, and again the second day! And I found that ICU was a whole bunch of bathing and changing dirty sheets...NOT that we don't do that a whole lot in the ER of course, but in ICU, these patients are mostly bedridden, so I just spent time every single day getting someone to help me roll the patients to get the dirty linen out and put clean linen down, wipe all the various butts, etc. Now honestly I do that in ER too but it just seemed like a daily thing in ICU, several times a day every day. These people are very sick, but their digestive system was still working! And then there's trach care (gag, sputter, yuck!) with all the suctioning and mucus. Gross. Lots of trachs in the ICU. And the g-tubes, having to crush the pills and put them down the g-tubes. Now I never experienced a code or anything serious while I was in ICU, so maybe that would have been the "excitement" I was looking for, but in the end, all it seemed to me to be was MORE babysitting patients that couldn't help themselves. A chore that NEEDED to be done, of course, and was vital to their health, I just didn't want to do it. Oh yeah, mouth care. Wiping out someone's mouth so it wouldn't dry out. Gross. ICU nurses have all my admiration, I just couldn't do it.

So then there was ER. What I liked about ER was the OPPOSITE of ICU, no getting to know the patients or families on a long term basis...but you get to see new & different people all day every day. I liked that idea, the variety. You do still get to know them though, you've got them for several hours, but you don't get "stuck" with them for days! And the variety, strokes, heart attacks, kidney stones, traumas, MVCs, minor lacerations, broken bones, and it's really amazing to me now the # of people that can accidentally cut their finger off! Gun shot wounds, stabbings, etc. Now the thing with all the variety, for me, was that I was nervous at the beginning every time I got a patient with some new set of symptoms that I hadn't seen before...I didn't knwo what to do, what labs to order, etc, but I got over that as I saw more and more of the same types of patients. And I also got more comfortable with the doctors in the ER, I finally realized all I had to do was ask them.

That's one last thing I will mention about ER...the doctors. They are right there with us in the ER, no having to call the doctor when you need them. That's really really stressful on the floors, I've found. Nurses hate to call the doctors, and have to be really well prepared to say what they need when they get the doc on the phone. Of course, I have to be just as prepared when I talk to a doc about a patient, but it's just a matter of walking down the hall to talk to the doc about a particular patient. No worries about waking up doctors who are on call, etc. They're always there and available.

Ok, sorry to write such a long post, but I hope some of this helped!

VS