NEW RN Interview for NICU on Monday, Help!

[RNinCali15]

Hi everyone!!

I am BEYOND excited right now. I went to school with the hopes of becoming a NICU rn. Five years before I became a nurse, my first child came 13 weeks too soon and developed NEC. She suffered multiple complications and we were advised to withdraw care...which is what we did. Naturally, that was the hardest/worst experience of my life but it sparked a passion within me to pursue my degree and come a NICU nurse. While in school I floated to the NICU for two days and fell in LOVE. Never had I felt so at peace, and like I was in the place I was meant to be. This was the NICU my daughter was at, and where I was a patient for ten weeks in the 80's. After being a year out of school, and a year of applying...I FINALLY HAVE AN INTERVIEW!

I interviewed for another position with this hospital last month, which I did not get. The hospital uses standard questions, so I think they will ask the same ones I was asked before. There were two questions last time I fumbled with and would like some help with.

1) How do you prioritize?

-I prioritize daily in my current position (phlebotomist)

-I gather all of the ordered draws and initially pull out the stat orders as they are high priority.

-Next I look for time study labs like troponins, lactic acids or drug levels. I check when they were last drawn and set them aside as they are usually second to be drawn.

-Lastly, I look at my routine orders. These will be tests like, albumins, cbc's or basic LFT'S.

-This whole process takes about fifteen minutes and I am ready to start my rounds.

2) Miscommunication from coworker or physician, how did you handle it? Example

I don't even remember what I said. Need help here.

If you guys have any advice or anything, please share :)

[llg, PhD, RN]

For the prioritization question, I would focus on how you would prioritize as a nurse. What principles would you use? How would you determine which things need done right away and which things can wait?

For the miscommunication one ... What is the role of the nurse in such a situation? What are some of the important principles that would be relevant in this situation? How process does a nurse use to approach any problem?

[AceOfHearts<3]

They might be looking for you to say you constantly reassess and reprioritize and delegate throughout the day. That's what I said for a similar question in an interview and the recruiter was really happy (I also got the job).

i wasn't asked the 2nd question, but my guess would be that they want you to own-up to any mistakes on your part, identify what the problem is, and what steps you took to prevent it from happening again.