How to Prepare for a Nursing Interview: 6 Tips
In nursing interviews, you are often asked a variety of questions to see how well you can care for patients and work with others on a medical team. When getting ready for a nurse interview, there are a few tips you can use to help you think about everything, like what kinds of questions the hiring manager might ask and how you can best present yourself. This article has six tips that will help you get ready for your nurse interview. Prepare for a Nursing Interview: 6 Tips
How to get a job as a nurse: 6 tips
Consider these tips for an interview to become a nurse:
Practice answers to common questions
Hiring managers usually have a list of questions to help them decide if you have the skills and abilities to work in a healthcare facility. Even though you can’t prepare for every question, you can practice answering the basic questions that most hiring managers for nursing jobs ask. Some common nursing interview questions include:
- Why do you want to be a nurse?
- How does being a nurse make you feel good?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What did you do when you made a mistake?
- What are some things you’re good at? Weaknesses?
- What is your greatest accomplishment and why?
- How do you take care of it?
- What do you think is the hardest part of being a nurse?
- Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult person.
- Do you have any questions for us?
When the time comes, you’ll be better able to answer common questions if you’ve already thought about them. This gives the interviewer a better impression because it shows that you care about the job and took the time to prepare.
Learn about the group.
Another important part of getting ready is learning about the company and the job you are applying for. You should know who you will be working for and what you will be expected to do. You might be asked, “Why do you want to work here?” during the interview. If you can talk about specific things about the job or company, you can show why you want that job in particular.
Spend some time online to find out more about the group. Visit the website and read pages like “About Us,” which should have important bios of staff members and the company’s mission and values. Also, look online for articles about this group to find out what they do for the community.
You can also take some time to reread the job description and write down the most important points, which you can then talk about at the interview. Look in the job description for skills or traits that you have a lot in common with. For instance, if the job posting asks for people with leadership skills, explain how you have been a leader in the past.
Get dressed for the part
Dress professionally for the interview to make the best impression. You can dress for business unless the hiring manager tells you to wear scrubs or bring a certain piece of equipment. Men should wear a suit and tie whenever they can. You could also wear a matching jacket and pants. Women should probably wear dress pants or a long skirt with a button-down shirt or blouse. Try on your outfit the night before the interview to make sure it fits well and doesn’t have any stains or wrinkles.
When you think about how you look, don’t just think about your clothes. Make sure your hair and beard are clean and neat, and wear simple jewelry. If you need to, polish your shoes and think about getting a belt that matches your shoes so that everything looks the same.
Arrive early.
By getting to the interview early, you can show that you want the job. It can also help you do things like check how you look and turn off your phone at the last minute. Try to get there about 10 minutes early so you can check in at the front desk and get more information. In your free time, you can listen to how your coworkers talk to each other to learn about the atmosphere and culture.
If you don’t know where the job interview is, you should go there before the interview. This can help people figure out where to park and where traffic problems might happen. Try to worry as little as possible about your trip.
Bring the right frame of mind.
Smile and say hello to everyone you see as soon as you walk in. Everyone who works there could be your coworkers one day, so be nice to them all. Hiring managers could also ask other team members what they think of you, so it helps to be polite and friendly. If you get there early and wait in the lobby, you can ask the person at the front desk questions if they’re not too busy. Asking different questions can show that you’re interested in the place and give you an idea of how much the employees like working there. Think about things to ask, such as:
- How long have you been working here?
- Do you like working with the people you do?
- What’s your favorite thing about the place where you work?
- How many nurses work on this wing?
Get ready in plenty of time.
If you want to be a certain kind of nurse, like a pediatric nurse, review all of the treatments and procedures that the hiring manager might ask you about. An employer will think a lot of you if you can show that you know everything there is to know about your field.
You might want to make a list of questions you want to ask the employer at the end of the interview as you prepare for it. Asking questions shows that you have researched the hospital or facility and want to learn more about it. Consider questions like:
- Why do they need someone to fill this nursing job?
- How long would my shifts be?
- How many other doctors and nurses would I usually work with?
- Is it possible to become a unit nurse or a nurse manager?
Since there may be a lot of information to cover, try to start getting ready a week ahead of time if you can. You should start getting ready for interviews as soon as you start applying for jobs. This will give you a lot of time to make sure your interview is perfect.
