Hospital CNA Screening Interview

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Today I went to my first interview for a hospital CNA position in a medical unit. My previous experiences are in a memory care unit and an assisted living facility. I may have answered one of the scenario questions wrong and I just wanted to know what everyone's opinion is! One of the questions was what would you do if a patient doesn't want you to help them to the rest room but they are a high fall risk?

I initially said I would just stand by and ensure they do not fall, and if they start to show signs of becoming dizzy or losing balance; I would then bring a chair for them to sit in or make sure they make it to the floor safely. Also make sure they are using their assistive devices when ambulating to the restroom

But now I look back at it, was this a question of patient's rights? They have the right to refuse care and us, CNAs are supposed to let the nurse know they refused help?

Also, this was one of the first of two interviews. The interviews are only supposed to be brief lasting from 10-15 minutes. But my past experiences with interviews outside of the hospital always was one on one and this screening interview was with two nurses and a recruiter.

Also, the interviewer usually would always ask if you had any questions before it ended but in this interview they just said I guess that is all the time we have. Thank you for interviewing with us..this sent a bad vibe in my mind since I had so many questions left unanswered!! I don't know when they call back, or even if they'll let me know when they decided to move on. But before I left, the recruiter just said "we'll keep in touch"....I DON"T KNOW WHAT TO THINK!!! I need to stop dwelling but I feel like I did horribly even though in reality it really was not bad at all.

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Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.

You tell the nurse the patient won't allow you to assist them.

They do have the right to refuse if they're alert and oriented (and even if they aren't but that's a whole different book) but their safety is still first priority. I would have answered that first i would let them know it was for their safety and once they were on the commode, I could stand outside the door. Or I would offer them a bedside commode/bedpan if that wasn't an option and then I would tell the nurse if none of those worked.

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I think you have to stop dwelling on it. You did the best you could with the interview and unfortunitly it is out of your hands right now. You will just drive yourself nuts thinking of what could have been, or what I should have said. We always can think of a better answer to the questions an hour afterwards because we have more time to think about it. But when you are answering questions right there and then you just give the best answer you have at that time. also I don't believe the interviewers gave you a bad send off. They did say they would be in touch which to me would be a positive thing. It might have been nice to have been able to ask some questions, but perhaps they really just did not have the time for that. Not that it had any bearing on how well you did on the interview. I am sure you gave it the best you have, and now just try to relax and we all will hope you get the job in the end. Good Luck

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Yeah when I left that room, I knew I could have answered that question much more thoroughly, but at the moment I was just more worried that the scenario patient is a high fall risk and like you said, "safety is still first priority." I really hope my answer won't put me out of the running for the CNA position. This is at a hospital I have always wanted to be a part of, and by the way Glycerine82...I love your picture! haha, "Trying to understand the behaviour of some people is like trying to smell the color 9."

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Aww thank you mvm2, for now I will use thought stopping to prevent my OCD tendency of obsessing over things that really will not matter in 5 minutes from now, 5 hours from now and so on.

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Congrats on getting an interview. Did you apply online and I've heard that getting a hospital job is pretty difficult if you don't know anyone. T/F?

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@tasha ,I did apply online but I have a pretty solid resume(I think). I actually do know someone who works there. But I never mentioned it in my interview. I only stated I did a rotation there and loved the nurses and environment. I think my cover letter made a huge difference since it gave them the insight to who I am and what I do.

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I agree that you will drive yourself crazy worrying about what you *could* have said. If it's meant to be it will be! I had a hospital interview today too! Mine was at a 489 bed hospital in the med unit. I only interviewed with a recruiter though.

Regarding getting an interview, I applied online several times but never heard back until I decided to write a cover letter and made sure to use the key words employers like to see, ie: energetic, motivated, hard-working, etc...

Good luck! Hope you get the job!!

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Thanks for letting me know. And I've been reading post about having an unique cover letter is the key!

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Just wanted to let everybody know what's going on!! So after my first initial interview, I got another callback for a second interview. This time, it began with a tour around the unit and then we went into the interview room with the nursing manager and the nursing educator. After an hour of interviewing, I realized this position I was interviewing for is a full-time CNA position. I only had applied for part-time so I was a bit surprised. What I think happened was the PT position was filled, so they offered me FT instead. After a day of considering whether I would be willing to work full-time while preceptoring for my BSN degree, I decided to join the workforce a little earlier.

Thank you guys for responding to my question!

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Congrats I am very glad that everything worked out for you.

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