Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Nurse Interview

[nurse5ever]

Hello!

I am a New Graduate Nurse interviewing for a RN position on a pediatric hematology/oncology unit. This is my dream position and specialty and I am very nervous and excited about the interview. I was wondering if any nurses experienced in this specialty had any insight about types of questions that might be asked? I do have some work and clinical experience in the area, but this would be my first RN position. Thank you so much!

[sassyBSN]

Hi there! I'm a new grad who actually just got hired in the same specialty. A lot of the questions were the same general kinds of questions you'd probably get in any interview. The others were, of course, why I wanted to do peds hem/onc, and another was how I felt about working with terminally ill children. Overall, mostly situational questions "what would you do if..." "think of a time when...". My unit has an extremely close knit group of nurses with low turnover so they also wanted to see how I dealt with conflict and how I felt about teamwork.

hope this helps and best of luck to you! I hope someone who has experience in actually doing the interviewing can help back me up here! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world getting to start my career with my dream job :)

[nurse5ever]

Thank you so much! That was very helpful. I had the interview a few days ago and I think it went as well as it could have! Definitely a lot of scenario questions and questions about how you handle stressful and sad situations with children. I won't hear back for a while but it feels great to have it done. It is my dream job also so now just crossing my fingers! Best of luck to you too and congratulations :)

[CAgrlRN]

hey @nurse5ever I was just curious on what scenario questions you were asked.. I have a heme/onc unit interview soon as well and want to be as prepared as I can be =] Did they ask about specific chemo you've worked with and such as a nursing student as well? thank you so much in advanced for your help!

[nurse5ever]

Hi! I got a lot of "tell me about a time when" questions about clinical, such as a time when you showed compassion, made a mistake, best day/worst day, had a difficult patient etc but nothing about chemo or specific meds. I also got why do you want to be a nurse, work in heme-onc, and how are you prepared to handle pediatric deaths. I got feedback that the interview went very well and am now just waiting for a position to open up. I think above all else if you show that you are passionate about working with these types of patients it will show. Best of luck! :)