tele to ER, tips??

amzyRN · Sep 10, 2017

I've been asked clinical scenario questions. Example, 35-year-old male comes in with chest pain radiating down the left arm, he also c/o SOB what would you do first? What tests do you anticipate ordering? His vitals are BP 160/100, HR 176, SpO2 99% on room air. He becomes pale cool and diaphoretic, what are your priority interventions at this point?

28 year old female presents with severe RLQ abdominal pain that started a few hours ago, she denies N/V/D, her vitals are stable but she is mildly tachy and hypertensive, states that her pain is 10/10 and tells you she is about to pass out because she can't tolerate the pain. She is diaphoretic. What are your first interventions? what tests do you anticipate? What questions would you ask this patient to determine what tests she should get first?

A 10 day old infant comes in for lethargy and fever. The mom reports that the baby has been unable to tolerate feedings for 2 days and today has been incresingly lethargic. What tests do you anticipate?

These are just made up, but expect some similar to those. Those are the kinds of things they will probably ask. They may also ask about priority between patient. In room 1 you have a patient that is 20 weeks pregnant with lady partsl bleeding, in room 2 you have a 6 year old with severe abdominal pain, in room 3 you have 65 year old male with chest pain who has a history of MI and in room 4 you have a 3 year old who is having significant breathing problems, respiratory rate of 45, substernal retractions and nasal flaring. What patient do you see first? What are your priority interventions?

I was asked something similar to that last one. Expect the interview to be tough, but they will likely help you along with the questions so you have enough info to give a good answer.

trauma_lama, BSN · Sep 12, 2017

WHEW! thanks for your response! Holy cow, I better do some ncclex practice questions to review for this interview!

nightbrightener · Oct 6, 2017

This is based on my personal job and ER coworkers, as well as their memories of first ER job interviews. There are generally not clinical questions as part of the interview process in all our experience since the expectation is... you don't yet know how to ER nurse so why would we give you clinical scenarios? I get the idea that it tests your clinical judgement, but that would like asking me to trouble shoot a swan ganz cath or how to take care of fresh post op open heart. That is what orientation is for. However there are a bunch of standard interview questions, what are strengths/weaknesses, tell us about a thing you struggled with, how did you solve etc... That is not to say the amzyRN is not correct, just not something myself or other nurses have seen in our facility or the few others my nurses have worked in. Conversely, asking intelligent questions about orientation, progression from floor assignment, to triage to trauma, etc seem to be well received. Basically attitude counts for most of the decision once your CV passes HR. We can teach you how to nurse if you can think critically, we can't make you a hard working, decent human being who can handle stress and isn't an ***hole. Seem smart, squared away, high energy and motivated basically lol. Good luck!