27 Nursing Interview Questions and Tips to Answer Them

Nursing is not just a profession it’s a responsibility of someone’s health.  

Nursing requires a candidate with a healing touch, sense of empathy, responsibility and patience.

Do you have these traits?

Once out of a nursing college, getting a nursing job in a reputed hospital is the priority of most students. And the UAE is among the most sought-after destinations for hospital jobs.

A nursing interview is a final hurdle that you have to cross to get a nursing job. Most nursing interviews are designed to assess your skills, training and experience (if any). Recruiters usually evaluate a nursing candidate on a few set category-based questions. The questions could be grouped in the following categories.

• Action response question
• Interpersonal questions
• Work or domain-based questions
• Behavioural questions

So, to help you with your nursing interview tips, we’ve listed nursing interview questions for each category mentioned above.

Action response nursing questions

This category is also known as an administrative set of questions for nursing. With changing job roles nurses do have to handle administrative departments in the hospital. So, here are some nursing questions that one may be asked for such a nursing job role.

• How do you keep up with your performance goals? Tell us about the time when you decided to take corrective measures.
• What way of communication do you follow to keep pace in communication with the governing board, medical staff and head of departments?
• Please share with me an example of how you helped coach or mentor someone. What improvements did you see in the person's knowledge or skills?
• Explain me about your training experience to your subordinates and what do you think is the best way of training?
• How one should keep in mind while communicating something wrong to the customer or public? 

Interpersonal nursing interview questions

These will be the interview questions that will revolve around the patient level communication, staff communication and customer satisfaction.

• What key points do you consider while making a schedule of a doctor?
• Do you believe in motivating patients? How do you keep patients motivated?
• How will you handle customer relations? Tell us about a specific customer for whom you went extra mile in work.
• As a head nurse what type of leadership you believe in and why?
• What mode of communication do you follow in teams top to bottom or bottom to top? 

Domain-based nursing interview questions

These questions are asked to understand your hard skills. These are the skills that help you to work in the domain. The recruiters ask these questions to understand your knowledge and expertise. One can show his or her capabilities by answering these questions right. 

• How many patients have you taken care of in your shift in general ward?
• What method of record maintenance do you follow for patients?
• Do you have experience in using non-intravenous medications? If yes, then why are they used?
• What checkups you do in advance before the doctor visits to check a patient?
• What are the steps to record patient’s history and why is it mandatory?

Behavioural nursing interview questions

Good behaviour is the key to this profession. Nurses are expected to maintain their calm and, in most situations, they have to be patient and empathetic. The best way to answer behavioural interview questions is to opt for STAR method of interview.

• Situation: First you must tell what was the situation to set grounds for the situation. Setting the ground will help you to build your answer well.
  
  
• Task: In this step it is crucial for the candidate to explain what task was being assigned to him. The task will help the recruiter to understand what was the depth of the work and what behavioural skills were required to work.
  
  
• Action: This third step will guide you to frame the actions that you took as the past of the work. This will state what was your behaviour to cope with the situation.
  
  
• Result: In this step you must quote what was the result of your behaviour. This step will help you in concluding the answer for questions asked in this category. 

The questions that can be asked in this category are: 

• How would you handle a difficult patient?
• How would you handle a crisis, such as a pandemic or outbreak?
• Explain a situation where you worked effectively under pressure?
• What would you do if your replacement does not arrive?
• Have you ever informed family about absurd news? What did you exactly say?
• Do you believe in problem solving attitude? If yes, then tell us about a recent incident where you solved a customer problem.
• What is hardest being a nurse?
• How would you manage workload on a very busy day?
• Tell us about are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What gets you interested in working for us?
• Tell us about a time you had a conflict at work.
• How would you deal with someone who’s not satisfied with your patient care? 

These are some of the most common nursing interview questions you may face in your nursing interview. Like any other interview, preparation is the key to succeed. 

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