New Grad Interview - Short Stay/Observation Unit - HELP!

Published May 31, 2015

35 Posts

Specializes in Critical Care.

Hi everyone!

I am a very new grad and just passed my nclex a few weeks ago! WooHoo!!!

I just got called for an interview in a week in my dream hospital! It is a Level I Trauma, teaching hospital. The interview will be for a short stay/observation unit, although that is not the unit I applied for. The manager had told me they are not going to be hiring new grads for the unit I applied but called me to see if I was interested in this unit instead. And of course, I said yes! She didn't tell me much else and told me to just come to a quick interview. This major hospital tends to really like graduates from the school I graduated from and usually hires from our school.

What kind of questions can I prepare for? I have already prepared for behavioral types of questions (tell me about yourself, how do you handle conflict, etc), but I want to know what is typical to be asked for a new grad interviewing in this unit. I know short stay/observation units (from what Ive read on all nurses, and google, have a lot of r/o MI, patients after cardiac procedures, and patients straight from ED that need to be observed for less than 24 hours to decide if they should be admitted or not). I have heard it is a hectic unit, with a lot of critical patients because of the fact that it is a huge hospital and its a county hospital.

Can you please help me figure out how I should prepare and what questions I should prepare for?

Thank you in advance!