NurseNextDoor

please excuse my spelling errors LOL

feel free to share your responses to these interview questions. I know there are some nurses like me struggling to gain employment in ontario who may find this useful. Previous Nursing Interview Questions 1.What are your greatest strengths? 2. What are your greatest weaknesses? 3. If you are at the front desk of the unit and a doctor approaches you regarding a patient, the phone is ringing regarding a new admission from emerg, and there is a patient's family in front of you, which person do you help first? 4. What are the symptoms of Hypoglycemia? 5. What does good customer service mean to you? How would you define good customer service? Tell us about a time that you provided good customer service and was the outcome? 6. You have a conflict with your co-worker, how do you resolve it? Tell us about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker, what did you do and what was the outcome? 7. Why is important to check a patient's weight daily? What reason would you do this? What are the diagnoses associated with daily weight checks? 8. Who is at risk for skin breakdown and what nursing interventions would you do to prevent skin breakdown. 9. How would you describe your leadership skills? what is leadership to you? How would you show leadership in the workplace? 10. You have a patient that is being aggressive with you while providing care, what would you do first? 11. You go into a patient's room and you find a patient on the floor, what do you do first? 12. A patient is has had a fall while climbing out of bed, the patient is confused and the patient's family does not want to use any restraints, what do you do? 13.Tell us about yourself? 14. You have a patient that was stable and you walk into the room 10 minutes later to find the patient unresponsive to their name, what do you do first? 15. A) You have a pt. post bowel resection admitted to the floor, what do you do first? B) your pt that is post bowel resection is now diaphoretic, has tachycardia, abdo pain level 9/10, Fever of 44 degrees Celsius and 15ml of urine in 3 hrs. JP drain has been drained 3 times in 1 hr with bright red blood, what do you do?

county of simcoe, hearst ontario (those places had called me for jobs)

I see, I was on a medical Surgical Unit so I guess its different from Emergency most definitely. I also had crappy orientation but managed to ask others discreetly and they were more than willing to help. At least you resigned and were not fired but, I would just take the loss and move on, I would also keep the experience on my resume. You don't have to tell your future employers the truth about why you left you just tell them a reason that sounds better. Goodluck!

Why didn't you ask another nurse on the unit? I always ask another nurse who is just as qualified and experienced to answer my questions, some of them may have way more experience than your preceptor. My preceptor only had two years working experience at that facility and 4 years in total but there were other nurses working that had 10 years plus at that facility. your not restricted to your preceptor for questions, I find that the nurses on the unit are always willing to help you if you have questions wether your preceptor is there or not. Be confident in your abilities as a nurse!Figure out why you lack in confidence (if this is the case), are there areas that you are unsure of?, if so educate yourself, go back to your textbooks they are your best friend and a lot of hospitals offer online courses, does this facility offer online courses for specific areas of practice? They usually do and this is something they would have told you in orientation. I had no experience with telemetry and I took it upon myself to register for the hospital rhythm strip interpretation course and several others.

Please note: I a unable to respond to Private messages anymore because the website keeps saying I have to have 15 posts first. I guess they changed the policy because I was able to send PM's and reply before.

UPDATE: so its been a while since I posted but I got a job offer in northern ontario. I took the job thinking I could go and stay for a year or so and get my experience I need. The town is not somewhere you can raise your kids and a lot of people that do have kids didn't have their children attend the school in town!! My children are in french immersion and there was no program in the school there. The apartment i was renting did not allow children but it was the only place i could afford in such short notice. The apartment had no running clean water so I slept on the floor in an empty apartment with dirty water for a month! i bought bottled water and had limited funds for food, I was starving! I planned to go out of town and come back after a month to give up my apartment if things worked out but they didn't. I worked for one month and I gave it my best but one of the staff did not like me at all. she was so rude training me and I felt like i was being bullied the whole time, I tried to suck it up but she told management that I WAS BEING RUDE TO HER ( I found this out from another staff member who i spoke to after i left the facility). when they gave me the letter of termination only after 10 days on the medical surgical unit I was shocked, there excuse being that "I was not working fast enough for med-surg".

I am considering relocating seriously. I can't afford to move though. I'm going to try and save what little money I can. The only concerns I have about relocating is money, finding a place to live, childcare for my children since I would be moving away from my mother who would have been the primary person who helps pick the kids up from school if I had to work late hours. I think if I do have to relocate I will probably have to leave my children behind for a week or two until after I get settled but I will only relocate after I get a job offer.

UPDATE: I didn't get any of the jobs and I am back to where i started!! I am running broke and I spent so much money traveling to interviews that were far from me. The interview i had in Guelph ontario was a long term care facility I am familiar with. It was a group interview for various positions in the facility. It was 2 hours long filling out paper work, doing a quiz etc. All of the community job postings require that you have a car. I feel like i'm at a huge disadvantage because I don't have a car! How can i afford one if nobody will hire me? it is just a deadly cycle i'm hoping to get out of somehow. I did my resume over for the 1000th time with more advice from a employment specialist. She is going to coach me for my interviews and speaking directly to managers when handing in my resume. I finished my IV and Phlebotomy course successfully and added that to my resume as well..this is the last year for me to land a nursing job before renewal again or i have to enter the non practising class!!! the pressure is on! I'm hoping 2017 will be good to me

UPDATE: Yes thank you BUYER BEWARE :) Lorian I did get your PM and replied. I just got a call from St. Elizabeth for working in clinics in richmond hill and newmarket but they said I do not have enough experience and they are looking for someone with at least 6 months of working experience (not including clinical) and because I do not know how to start the IV. (I just learned this skill in my IV and phlebotomy class but i haven't completed the class) I'll be done this course in december.. I'm so sad. i do have an interview with Carepartners, and two Long term care facilities coming up!. I am going to try really hard and prepare for these interviews like I always do and hope for the best. I also upgraded my portfolio recently. I'm glad i got this sudden rush of interviews in the last 3 days...hopefull things will turn around but after todays rejection its hard to stay positive.

I found one nursing agency that was willing to hire me. They said that I could work for them as a PSW for 3 months and then they would send me out as an RPN to hospitals. After doing all the paper work and making a plan to send me out for training, 3 weeks later after calling the numerous times regarding my application they said they were no longer interested in me. I was DEVASTATED after they already had basically promised me the job. They said i was too inexperienced to work as a PSW. I'm a nurse and I can't even work as a PSW because i'm not even experienced enough for that in an AGENCY. I signed up with another agency which agreed to let me work as an RPN but I haven't been assigned one shift!. I keep calling to see if there are any open positions and still nothing....I'm still waiting...times running out for me!. I have literally 1 year left to work as a nurse or else i'll have to enter the non practicing class. the CNO told me this.

I live in Ontario, I'm afraid i'll have to go back on social assistance. I've made a new resume outside of healthcare so maybe I can get something in customer service for now. Ive applied to LTC and also retirement homes. I have also. I also paid for that RPNAO membership which was really expensive but since I saw this as an asset on job applications I spent money I don't have just to get it. I have applied to everywhere in ontario even the small towns like county of simcoe. I'm online everyday...and in couple weeks i'm going to go to all the hospitals around here as well again. Me and my children are in some pretty horrible living conditions and i hoped that I could at least get a job to afford to move me and my kids out of here you know. its just so sad and discouraging....Thanks for all the advice i'll try to keep my head up.

I feel like quitting. I'm broke and I have two children and I am a single parent. I struggled through nursing school with little to no support from anyone and when i graduated I was so happy because nursing is something I love. I have gone to several workshops concerning resume writing and cover letter writing. Ive had my resume and cover letter looked over many times and improved it over and over. Ive been in and out of career centres advising me on interview tips. I'm at my breaking point! I'm online everyday applying to every single nursing job posting within my province ( I would have to pay and apply to work outside my province). Ive volunteered for public health for over 3 years now and counting and Ive spent a crap load of money on additional courses to make my skills stand out!. I spent my last bit of money on an additional IV and Phlebotomy course in hopes that after completing this course it would give me a better chance! I cry everyday....to think I spent so much money and put myself in debt for a career that I love and hoped for....and i'm still here with no job. Its been 2 years since I've graduated I have even tried being more aggressive and getting nursing managers phone numbers and E-mails and personally handing in my resumes with no success. I even went out and bought better clothing to look more professional. At this rate I feel like a failure...I failed myself and I failed my kids and I can't afford to take care of them. I tried my best not to go back on social assistance but it seems thats where I'm heading. I even tried to go back to working at TIM HORTONS seriously..... I don't know what to do...