Panel Interview on Monday!!!!

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 1, 2015

Smile, shake hands with everyone and introduce yourself. Learn everyone's name. If you bring in any materials make sure there is enough for everyone. Try not to look at one person or straight ahead when answering questions. Try to look around and make eye contact with everyone.

scaredsilly, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

Bring enough resumes to hand one to everyone. As the previous poster said, try to learn everyone's name and make eye contact. Smile a lot.

Have answers ready for questions like:

Why do you want to work here?

How do you handle conflict?

What was the worst thing you ever had to deal with on a shift (if new grad, you have to come up with something on clinicals)

Think about how to answer HIPAA and legal related questions. Do your homework, know some specifics about the facility and if possible the particular unit so the "why here" questions can be specific and you look like you did indeed do your homework.

You may get questions like "a 60 year old man was diagnosed with terminal cancer and his wife and son asked you not to tell him the diagnosis, what would you do?" Or, "You noted that one of the nurses you work with on night shift falls asleep every shift, what do you do?" (these were questions I actually got on my first interview).

Think about things like this so you have answers ready. Good behavioral interviews for more examples. Interviewing before a panel is more nerve wracking than with a single person, but it's about the same as far as questions go. I don't know if you will get anything specific to the unit, I didn't. I interviewed on L&D so the 60 year old man didn't apply at all! They want to judge your critical thinking skills and your ethics and knowledge of legal issues more than they want to see if you are well versed on specifics of the floor (at least that's my take). If you do think that infection prevention questions may come up, go over whatever your NCLEX review material was for that section to refresh your memory. That should be more than enough info for anything they may throw at a new hire.

No perfume, but I baked cookies right before my interview because I knew some of the nurses on the floor. I don't recommend taking cookies to the interview if you don't know them, but I found out later that smelling like fresh baked cookies made me stand out! LOL, I don't know if it works everywhere, but couldn't hurt!

Nienna Celebrindal · Jan 2, 2015

I actually looked up RN panel interviews and RN interview advice on youtube and I think they interviewing panel may have done the same because what I saw on the videos was very similar to what I experienced. I was quite thankful I spent a few hours watching those videos and researching to answer questions.

I definitely agree about having enough resumes. I made sure I had enough and they told me I was the only person they had interviewed so far who had done that. Anything to help you stand out right?

EarlineCox · Jan 2, 2015

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