Please! I want this job

[AndTheyCallTheWindRN, BSN]

Hello everyone, 

I have been applying and applying to be a PHN for my county and finally landed an interview. Is there anything I can brush up on? What likely questions could be asked. This is for the epidemiology/immunizations department. Thank you so so much. 

[guest464345]

Public Health departments vary a LOT, so it's hard to say.  If you haven't done government-y interviews before, they're often a bit different from the private sector. The usual scenario is you're in a room with several people, and they take turns blandly reading standard questions off a piece of paper, taking notes, and barely looking your way or talking.  The idea is to be totally neutral and fair, but it feels like you're rambling incoherently into a void ?  You have to learn to start and confidently end the answers, even though you get no feedback.

Government applications/interviews are usually based on some kind of points system.  In the "what is your experience doing..."  or "give examples of when you did x work" questions - it's often to your advantage to systematically and thoroughly list your experience in anything related, even if it means repeating yourself from the last question, to maximize your score.

They sometimes ask "behavioral based" questions - maybe not as often as the private sector, but sometimes.  Tell us a time when you caught an error and what you did, a time when you had a difficult patient, etc - you can Google those and be ready to answer the common ones.

For Epi, it's such a weird corner of nursing that you either have the experience or you don't.  They will expect to have to train you.  They will be looking for people who are very detail-oriented, can follow complicated protocols, write concisely and clearly, and work methodically but who are also good at establishing rapport, completing organized interviews, and educating humans - if you lack Epi experience but have those skills from other jobs, try to mention it.   Some places require you to do presentations and might be interested in your public speaking experience. 

Immunizations - not as sure about that, maybe look over the standard 0-18 vaccination schedules, maybe look up policy in your state related to schools (can they get a "philosophical exemption"?).  Maybe think about possible questions related to dealing with vaccine-hesitant parents.  In my observation in urban environments, RNs are usually organizing clinics rather than actually doing the vaccinations - they are a resource to LPNs and MAs, they track stock and storage requirements, manage data, deal with any unexpected situations, etc. 

Anyway - like I said, PH departments vary wildly, from big urban bureaucracies to tiny 2-person rural clinics.  Good luck!
 

[AndTheyCallTheWindRN, BSN]

Thank you very much for this information! This is the interview it seemed like I was going into the dark the most from my experience. Interesting about the point system!