New Grad ICU Interview

[kICU4, BSN]

Hi All,

I am a BSN student graduating in May, and I am wondering how to best make myself stick out in an ICU interview. I was scheduled to do ICU as my capstone starting this week but due to the COVID-19 situation those rotations have now been cancelled. Unfortunately other than this capstone there was very little focus on ICU in my program, so I am having trouble thinking of ways to answer those situational questions in a way that shows that I am capable of working on that unit. I was fortunate enough to do a few rotations in the ICU in my Adult II course where I was able to ask a ton of questions, but it as almost more like a shadowing experience, as we were told that we were not allowed to be hands on with these patients. I know I am capable, I am just having a bit of a writers block figuring out ways to convey that. Any suggestions or recommendations?

[kimandthekinks]

As long as you are still taking the class, I don’t see why it should hinder you. They will ask you scenario questions just like class. You should never respond based off what your hospital did in clinical. Only by the book and evidence based practice. Wherever you do your residency will tweak those answers as you work as a nurse. No need to focus and worry on what you missed in clinical at all if you understand that much. ?

[kimandthekinks]

But it actually would be harder to land it though since you have no physical clinical hours for them to ask you about and I am assuming you didn’t do a nurse Externship either?
Still go for it though, you have nothing to lose. If you did well in that course, the questions shouldn’t be too bad considering.

Example of questions I have collected so far:

what do you do for sepsis?

why ICU?

describe a machine you would see in the ICU.

What do you give for chest pain?