Every nursing interview includes nursing behavioral interview questions. They’re designed to provide insight into your patient care, how you communicate, and what motivates you to do better.
While these might seem like simple questions on the outside, answering them correctly is paramount to your success as a nursing candidate. A great answer is two-fold. Not only should you showcase your core skills, but you’ll also need to provide relevant situational examples of when you put those skills to use.
To prepare, here are some of the most common nursing behavioral interview questions you might come across.
Have you ever faced a conflict with your healthcare team? How did you handle it?
Here are the key situational factors you need to consider when answering this question:
- What was the conflict?
- Who was involved in it?
- Describe was your role, and how did you react?
- What was the outcome?
- Did you learn anything?
Nurses face conflict every day, but it’s how you deal with it that matters. This question shows how you react in the face of uncertainty and how you deal with conflict at the same time. Describe the circumstances and the steps you took to resolve the issue. Always make sure to include what, if anything, you learned from the situation.
Have you ever been in a leadership role? What was that like?
Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean you had to be promoted to a leadership role. This an opportunity to showcase a situation where you took charge and how it turned out. Here are some key points to consider:
- What was the situation?
- Did you volunteer, or did the leadership role happen naturally?
- How did you lead?
- What feedback did you get?
For prospective employers, this tells them what you might look like in a leadership role. It’s important to give them a sense of how you interact with others, your leadership style, and the outcome when you step up to the plate.
What have you done in situations where a patient wasn’t satisfied with your care?
This situation happens to every nurse throughout their career. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. That’s the first thing you have to remember when it comes time to answer.
The second is that you should never talk poorly about previous patients or employees in an interview situation. Calmly explain what happened, how you reacted, and the outcome of that situation.
While these can be difficult to talk about, they are keys to understanding how you react in high pressured situations. And as we know, nurses face those situations a lot.
How have you educated patients in the past?
A huge aspect of life as a nurse is education. From healthy living to medication, nurses provide essential information to patients before they go off independently.
What lessons have you taught? Did you get any feedback from your patient’s thanks to those lessons? Don’t be afraid to share those accomplishments and showcase your capabilities.
Nursing is a hard job. So, it makes sense that the interview process is intense. Being prepared is your first step towards success.