Questions to ask in an interview...

1. what are some of the attributes of working for your hospital?
   
2. if i were to get a job offer from another hospital, why would i want to work for this one?
   
3. what is the criterion you will use to select the person you are looking for?
   
4. what kind of support can i expect from the nursing educators and preceptors?
   
5. how does the hospital handle employees that might be slow in becoming oriented to their new jobs?
   
6. how long have you been the manager of this unit and what is your nursing background?
   
7. how many nurses have quit and how many hired for this unit in the past 6 months? how long have some of the nurses been working on this unit?
   
8. who will be precepting me? can you tell me something about them? will i always have the same preceptor or will there be more than one?
   
9. have you ever had a new student nurse who didn't seem to work out? how was it handled?
   
10. if for any reason it seems that orientation is just not going well for me what will happen and who should i talk to about it?
    
11. during your interview you might be taken on a tour of the facility or the unit. if you are given the opportunity to talk briefly with someone on the staff, ask some of these questions:
    • is the manager an overly critical, defensive, nit-picky micro manager?
      
    • are you happy working here?
      
    • does the manager have a good sense of humor? is she/he fair? is the manager a well-balanced person or more of a workaholic? what else can you tell me?
      
    • can you give me a lead to anyone else i can talk to about this person?

two sites where there are other suggestions for questions are:

• http://www.hospitalsoup.com/employerquestions.asp - questions for nurses to ask employers during interviews
  
• http://www.hospitalsoup.com/inappropriate-interview-questions.asp - inappropriate or unacceptable interview questions and what you should do if you are asked one of these

good luck on your interview!