Too many aspirants want to have a career in the healthcare sector, the nursing profession being among the most honorable and coveted of professions today. A pediatric office nurse specializes in medical care of babies, children, and teenagers. After a series of rigorous examinations and hours of burning the midnight oil, you’ve finally managed to be selected for a face-to-face interaction with the hiring manager. You cannot afford to screw it up.
Interviews can be pretty stressful, we get it, but things become a lot easier when you’ve prepared for the probable questions beforehand. However, it takes a lot more than simply giving generic answers to impress the interview panel. Your employers would critically analyze everything you do the minute you step into the interview room. From your body language to the tone of your voice, everything will be under close scrutiny. Don’t worry; we present to you some effective pediatric residency interview tips!
Preparing for a PICU nurse (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) job is not an easy task. If you’re counting down the days till your neonatal nurse interview then these sample questions can come in handy in getting you hired. Check it out:
Some Pediatric Nurse job interview questions:
What drew you to the nursing profession and more specifically to the pediatric department?
Once you are done with the general introduction and stating your academic and professional qualifications move on to discuss your inclination with the medical field. Now, most candidates aspiring to become a pediatrician would use the generic “I love kids” speech to express their passion. A word of advice; don’t do it. Instead, focus on highlighting the core values of the job. Talk about how challenging the job is and how much you learn from the experience.
Do you have any prior experience in dealing with kids?
Taking care of kids is a lot different than having to deal with adults. For starters, newborn infants are very delicate and have to be handled with extreme care. Secondly, children (pre-teens and teenagers especially) can be extremely difficult to deal with. Having some experience (professional or otherwise) gives you an added advantage over the other applicants. You can talk about your previous workplace and the kind of duties assigned to you there. Other than that, it would be great if you also include some anecdotes about the times when you were babysitting someone you know for a more personal touch.
Have you ever assisted a doctor in the ICU?
The job of a registered nurse is not just limited to ensuring the kid’s health. She also has to assist the doctors, manage the patient records, deal with the relatives, etc. Pediatricians often have to assist professional surgeons during delivery cases and take care of the mother and the baby. Talk about a few instances where you had to help a doctor and how well you handled it.
What according to you are the qualities of an ideal pediatric nurse?
An ideal pediatric nurse should be great with kids, that’s kind of a given. Other than that she must be gentle, sensitive, compassionate, friendly and likable. However, you also must know when to be firm and restrict the patient from doing things that would prolong his recovery. A pediatrician must be a good administrator, a good communicator, have good organizational skills, and a pleasing personality.
Describe how clinical rotations helped in shaping your nursing career?
The institution you’ve studied or interned at plays a major role in shaping up your nursing career. Here, you have a first-hand experience of what actually goes on inside the hospital. Clinical rotations and shift duties, for instance, teach amateur nurses insightful lessons on bedside manners and proper patient care.
How good are you at handling stress and work pressure?
Working with kids is not an easy job. It’s not always fun and games and candies and laughter. More often than not there are tantrums, tears, and aggression among other things. You cannot afford to lose your cool and retaliate no matter how serious the situation gets. Not all nursing candidates are prepared to deal with this stress. Mention some incidents where you were in a pretty stressful situation and how well you dealt with it.
How do you propose to educate parents about disease prevention and precautions to be taken?
One of the most important jobs of a pediatrician is to educate the guardians in how to take care of their child. Talk about certain preventive measures, precautions, dietary restrictions, exercises and other simple tips that parents would benefit from.
Share some strategies for young inexperienced parents and guardians to prevent accidents or injuries?
Here you can mention some real-life incidents, anecdotes where you advised parents on how to take good care of their kids. For example, following a proper diet, avoiding junk food, proper exercise, proper posture, medications etc. work wonders in helping children recover. Also, mention the measures that inexperienced parents can adapt to prevent a reoccurrence of the accident or illness.
Have you ever organized or been a part of a big-scale medical camp?
As a pediatrician, you might also have to work outside the hospital. Setting up camps, working for NGOs, and setting clinics in schools, and refugee camps are all part of your job. Mention any and every such program and project you were a part of no matter how insignificant it was. It is a brilliant opportunity to showcase your administrative and leadership skills. Read here – 14 Toughest Nursing Leadership Interview Questions
Describe a time when you made a suggestion in your previous work and how it affected the work culture there?
Here the interviewer wants to check your communication skills and passion towards the organization. Mention an incident where your suggestion might have contributed to the progress of the organization. The suggestion doesn’t necessarily have to be concerning medicine, it can be about anything related to the institution.
Are you good at administering medication management programs for children? State an example.
Medication camps are a part and parcel of your job description. Your organization might send you and your colleagues to a nearby school, NGO or locality to diagnose the diseases prevalent among kids there. Talk about such an incident in your career and your role in the entire scenario.
What advice would you give to a new parent about ADHD?
This is another of the behavioral questions that the interviewer might throw at you. Kids with ADHD or other ailments are pretty closed up, anxious and isolated from the “normal children”. It is obvious that the parents would be baffled and completely incompetent about how to deal with such a case. First and foremost, educate the parents about the signs, symptoms, and precautions of the disease. Then give them a list of activities, both mental and physical that would help re-establish the trust between the two parties and hasten the recovery process.
Share your views on improving the mental and emotional well-being of kids
Kids also have to deal with a lot of psychological issues that take a toll on their mental well-being. As a pediatrician, it is your duty to ensure the child’s emotional stability. There are children who suffer from depression, anxiety, have a lot of fears and trauma that they have buried deep inside. Your job is to help them get past their suffering and conquer it. Mention an incident where you had one such patient. Describe how challenging it was to get him to open up to you about his troubles. Don’t hesitate to call in a professional in case the situation is not under your control.
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a distraught family member? How well did you handle it?
Nursing is an emotionally draining experience where you have to deal with the suffering of not just the patient but also his family on a regular basis. Mention some instances when you had to deal with a distraught family. The nurse is always calm, collected, and unfazed in the face of adversity, she is gentle, emphatic yet firm in delivering the news however bad it is.
Do you have any questions for us?
The interviewer would finally wrap up the interview with a parting shot and give you an opportunity to ask away some doubts that you might have regarding the job or the workplace. Now, most people refrain from asking any questions, that’s a terrible idea. Always have a couple of questions prepared and have one based on something you find for instance, while researching about the organization. Here, you can also discuss your salary expectations, work hours, shifts, commute and other perks of the job.
The Bottom Line
There are a lot of simple and significant interview techniques using which the panel extracts your virtues and vices almost immediately. For instance, closing the deal at the end of the interview is pretty important in establishing a confident and solid personality. A parting handshake (one that you initiate) and a promise to contact later create a good impression in the mind of the interviewer that you’re optimistic about the job.
Know about – What to Wear to a Nursing Job Interview
