is it okay to answer this interview questions like this...

[nooneelse]

I've been struggling to come up with the answer for this question...

What do you have found to be the most difficult challenge and how did you handle it? (patient related)

not that I never had challenging patient, it's just I can't think of a particular one that stood out really. I honestly feel it's because I feel I go through different season of "challenge", and with each challenge I really don't rate them but just learn to overcome them.. is it an appropriate answer? with the following examples

for example, my first semester of nursing, my most difficult challenge during clinical is when I have patient that require total care and to get everything done efficiently but I learned to overcome that by developing a routine for myself. and by third semester (ICU), my most difficult challenge was learning to care for patient on ventilator, trauma patient, fresh open heart po-op patient - they were all difficult, but I overcome it by studied extra hard, asked many questions, and I did well in the clinical.

at work - (I worked in a doctor's office, before and during school). Prior to nursing school, my challenge was learning all the medical & insurance term, taking message for the doctor from nurses calling regarding abnormal lab - wondering what H&H means?? I overcame it by doing my homework after work - I write down a list of what I didn't understood at work today and do research online, if I still can't figure out, I turn to my co workers and manager for help.

Fast forward to a later time - As my manager let me handle more phone calls and in charge of the front office. My challenge became how to deal with angry patients! This took a bit longer, but I learned by observing how my co-workers and manager handle situations like this. Depending on situations, sometimes I would ask them what would they do when _______... and actually now I think the ability to successfully diffuse disgruntle clients has become one of my strength now...

[Double-Helix, BSN, RN]

I wouldn't really say exactly that. It comes across as though you're trying to avoid the question and say that you haven't had a difficult situation. Also, all of those examples make the answer quite long winded. What the interviewer is looking for is that you can discuss a time when you were presented with a challenge and explain the process you went through to address that problem and overcome it. I would phrase is a little more like this:

"It's hard to choose what the most difficult situation has been, because I feel that I as grew and matured as a student and a nurse, my perception of "difficult" has changed as I learned more efficient and effective clinical and communication skills. What once seemed difficult as a nursing student no longer seems difficult as a new graduate nurse, because I have learned how to better recognize when a situation is unsatisfactory and intervene in the situation early to correct the problem.

"But, and example of one time that I was faced with a difficult situation would be...." Then choose just one of the examples that you listed. I would choose either the doctor's office example about learning the terminology, or the example about managing angry patients. I feel that those two examples best explain a problem and show how you worked to successfully address it. Learning new terminology and dealing with angry patients are both issues you will encounter at your new job as well, so these are the best examples to use.

[nooneelse]

wow! thank you so much Ashley!! your version sounds wayyyy better :)!! thank you again!