Interview advice: What would you ask?

onyx77 · Apr 12, 2008

I have been asked so many different questions in the interviews I've had over the last couple of weeks.

Here are a few of them:

What are 5 words that would describe you?

Why did you go into nursing?

Why are you considering our facility for employment?

Tell me of a time when you've made a mistake.

Tell me of a time when you've dealt with a difficult pt or family and what would you do the same or differently?

What do you feel are your strengths? Weaknesses?

What would your previous supervisors say about you?

Tell me about a memorable experience you had during work or clinicals?

There were more, but these are the ones that I can think of now. Hope this helps! Good luck on your interview!

workingforskies · Apr 12, 2008

Onyx77 hit it on the head with questions you can be asked during a typical peer interview.

Some questions I have learned to ask during an interview for an ER position.

-What is the FTE to patient ratio on that unit? (A Full Time Equivalent or FTE is the number of staff hours allotted per patient visit. In other words, if an ER sees 150 patients on a daily basis, with 2.1 FTE’s, they would be allotted 315 staff hours in a 24 hour period. If they used 1.9 FTE’s, they would be allotted 285 staff hours. I would avoid any place that goes below 2.1 FTE’s as it is likely that you will not have a lot of help.)

-How many rooms are typically assigned to a typical nurse? If they show you around the unit, a good way to check that is to just peek at the assignment board/assignment sheet. For me personally, 4 non fast track beds is the limit of my professional comfort level.

-How long has the current management team been in their current positions? If there has been a wholesale turnover in leadership, I would be leery.

-How many open positions are they currently recruiting for? If there has been a large turnover in staff, again, I would be leery.

-Are their yearly evaluations performance based or are they weighted? Performance based means that if all the nurses were outstanding, they could all be rated as outstanding. If they are weighted, that usually means that they use a quota system which means that for every 5 nurses, only one can be above average, 3 will be average and 1 will be below average, no matter what.

-Is the parking free and convenient?

-If you are going to be working nights, is their cafeteria open at night?

-Computer or paper charting. If they have paper, ask if they have free Motrin available to the staff for the writer’s cramps you will get on a daily basis. (Just kidding about the Motrin part…..sort of.) If they have computer charting, ask if the doctors use that as well. If the doctors do not, guess who gets to play data entry clerk for all the stuff they write down?

Hope this helps. If I can think of anything else, I will post it.