Interview Questions for NM

debbyed · Jul 24, 2006

Ask them how they would discribe their style of management.

Ask what is the one strenght you would like to instill in your staff

What is the one weakness you would search out and destroy.

Ask them to define teamwork; leadership; management

Use their answers to determine if they would be a good fit with your folks.

mydesygn · Jul 25, 2006

Interview with other Nurse Managers and unit staff is coming up this Friday and I would like to get some examples of questions we can ask.It is a critical care unit and we cannot seem to keep NM's for long.It is a small community hospital with 250 beds. I am in the panel of staff.We will be separated from the NM's.
Thank you.

Lots of good questions for management and staff nurses

http://www.hospitalsoup.com/interviewmanagement.asp

debbyed · Jul 26, 2006

Mydesygn,

Thanks for the site. We have interviews for Clinical Leaders comming up shortly, and hopefully will have interviews for a new Nurse Manager in the near future. Ours resigned abruptly last week. Could be because our Press Ganey Scores tanked. (Gee, I wonder if the 8 - 12 hour waits for non-emergent patients had anything to do with that.)

mydesygn · Jul 26, 2006

Mydesygn,
Thanks for the site. We have interviews for Clinical Leaders comming up shortly, and hopefully will have interviews for a new Nurse Manager in the near future. Ours resigned abruptly last week. Could be because our Press Ganey Scores tanked. (Gee, I wonder if the 8 - 12 hour waits for non-emergent patients had anything to do with that.)

I would also in any interview make sure you clearly and realistically describe the conditions and hours. You want the indiviual to understand and accept the issues. They will be less likely to leave once they find out what they are faced with. I know there is sometimes the feeling that you will "scare off" an applicant but if the job entails expectations that they were not aware of then they will leave anyway. Also, how do you support the managers who accept that position. Leadership classes are often not enough (there is a wonderful set of podcasts on manager-tools.com that contain great down-to-earth management strategies although they are aimed at a corporate audience, the principles apply to any management area), their director should also discuss with them how they will handle subordinate complaints lodged against them (and there will be some, great managers have disgruntled and insubordianate staff), what items they must complete and what are there deadlines, their should have regularly scheduled (no miss or cancel) one-on-one sessions with them, initially once a week for the first two months and every month (or more often there after). When I began in management, my director did this and it made a world of difference in my ability to be successful.

You said your current manager resigned abruptly, my guess is that patient satisfaction scores are not the real reason and most likely have little to do with her resignation. I would highly recommend a talk with her to discuss the reasons for her resignation. Whatever her reasons they will probably exist for the next hire and I would hate for this person to leave "abruptly" as well. Managers and staff rarely leave because of where they work, it is who they work with and who they work for. Many hospitals have crowded ER's (it was a 24 hour wait to be admitted into our hospital, patients waited routinely 6 to 8 hours to be seen, however outside of wait times, patient satisfaction was relatively good). Many facilites have troubles but they also retain dedicated, hard-working managers and staff because they are "supported" in their roles. My guess is that your managers are not "supported" in their role.