Nurse Manager in a Retirement Residence in Ontario, interview help/advice please!

[RPN_2012]

Hi everyone, sorry this is a bit long.

I'm a Registered Practical Nurse, in Ontario. I work in a small privately owned retirement residence (not a LTC facilty, and not run by the gov). I have just over 5 years experience most of which has been in Geriatrics/Retirement/LTC. We answer to the CNO as nurses and RHRA as a facility.

There are 3 RNs, 8 RPNs and 16 PSWs employed at our facility. (RNs and RPNs do the exact same job at our facility). We currently have 88 residents (capacity is about 100). The team consists of:

General Manager

Office manager (+5 front desk staff)

Kitchen Manager (+ around 20 kitchen staff including cooks and dietary)

Activation manager (she is a 1 person department and runs all the activities/programs herself with the help of volunteers and occasionally hires live entertainers)

Maintenance manager (he is a one man department)

Sales consultant (her job is to bring new people into the residence)

Health and Wellness Manager (aka Nurse Manager, who manages all the nurses and PSWs and is responsible for admission assessments and careplans, scheduling, managing the healthcare staff, amongst many other things).

The nurses, psws, and dietary staff are all unionized with the SEIU. The management is not.

So my nurse manager found another job closer to home and left.. she was the best, we all loved her. The General Manager has been looking for her replacement for over month now... meanwhile a lot the nurse manager responsibilities have been informaly taken on by the GM and she gives the things that need to be done by registered staff to us nurses.. with a big chunk of it falling on me because I have the most flexible schedule and am the most willing to pick up extra work like doing assessments and care plans, when the other nurses like doing their shift and not have to deal with all this extra paper work and careplans, assessments and scheduling. So this got me thinking about actually doing this job.

After long deliberations (for a month) I have decided to apply for the manager position since the GM still havent found anyone and interviewed a bunch of people, made 1 offer that the prospective manager regected so she is back to square 1. All my colleagues kept pestering me saying I would be great at this job... I have tried to convince some of my fave colleagues to apply, but they refuse.. so I applied. And got an interview next tuesday! OMG!

I have about 4 years of supervisatory experience supervising and delegating to PSWs, but I have never been a manager.

I feel really excited and anxious. I have been at this place for 3 years now and love the employees and the residents and I get along well with everyone and all the residents love me, and our management teamc is awesome. So this could be my big break. I have been looking for a full time permanent job that is not directly bedside all the time. I would have to leave this facility to get a gull time job, but Inlive ut here and dont want to leave, unfortunately out of the 11 nurses, 9 have more seniority than me and in the last 3 years no one left, only 2 came.. so the chance if getting a full time position in this facility as a RPN would take decades probably. So either I leave or I get this job and stay for a long time.

There will be 2 interviews, one with the GM (who I get along with really well) and then after that there will be an interview with the reagional Health & Wellness Manager whom I've seen once, very breefly.

Any advice the interview? I really want this job. The GM knows how much this facility loves me and how much I love it... and knows I will need some guidance the first few months. We have a very good relationship, so I know she will help me settle imto the new role. I really need to nail these 2 interviews. This is do or die for me. Another chance like this may not come for many many years. I would appreciate any advice or help, suggestions, sample questions etc. Please help! THANKS in advance!!

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[RPN_2012]

Anyone?

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

That was a lot to read, and it took me some time to digest it all.

The best advice I can give you for the interview is to pause for a moment after each question to compose your answer in your head. Answer the question completely and concisely. Resist the temptation to talk further after you answer. The interviewers will be recording your answer, so there will be some space between questions.

Emphasize your organizational skills. If you have particular achievements in your current job, make sure to mention those. Also emphasize your people skills. People who are good communicators generally have an easier time as managers.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself. That might cause you to not perform at your best during the interview.

Good luck to you.