Interview Questions a Nurse Recruiter May Ask You

1. If your shift ends at 3 p.m. and your replacement hasnt arrived by 3:15 p.m., what do
you do?
2. Everybody misses work sometimes. What are some legitimate reasons to miss work?
3. If we were to ask your previous supervisor, what would they say about your attendance
and job performance?
4. Tell us a little about yourself.
5. Tell us something that we might not know about you from reading your cover letter,
resume and/or application.
6. What is your biggest strength?
7. What is your biggest weakness?
8. Describe a time when you went above and beyond to help a patient. What was the
outcome?
9. Why is nursing a rewarding experience for you?
10. What do you think are the most important qualities a nurse should possess?
11. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing nurses today?
12. Describe an occasion in which you demonstrated the ability to handle an emergency.
13. Describe an occasion in which you demonstrated negotiation skills to handle a difficult
patient.
14. Describe a difficult situation during your clinical rotation and how you resolved the issue.
15. How would you handle performing a treatment you have never done before?
16. Describe a situation where you have had to work as a team player.
17. Why should we hire you?
18. Describe a project you worked on in school where you had to take the lead. How did you
lead your team members?
19. Why do you want to work in our facility and /or community?
20. Tell me about a time in which you had to handle an irate physician, co-worker, or patient.
How did you handle it and what were the results?
21. You are getting distracted by extra work and meetings, and its generating a backlog of
work for you. How do you cope with it?

22. Think about the last time your manager critiqued your work. How did you respond?
23. How do you respond to crabby people in pain?
24. Approximately how old were you when you decided to become a nurse? Was there any
defining moment that help you decide to become a nurse?
25. If a patient has just expired and their family has just arrived at the facility, how would
you respond?
26. Can you explain in detail how you would appropriately transfer a patient from a bed to a
wheel chair?
27. What would you do if your employer wanted you to mark a procedure on a patients chart
that wasnt performed in order to make up for it being left off the chart of another patient
so that Medicaid reimbursement to the employer wouldnt be affected?
28. In your own words, what is excellent customer service?
29. What do you think initiative is and how have you applied it to your job in the past?
30. Tell me of a time that you solved a problem without direct supervision.
31. What would you do if you had already begun your assignment and your supervisor asked
you to work in another unit? How would you handle this?
32. In regard to nursing, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
33. What are your most significant accomplishments?
34. What contribution will you make in our organization?
35. How has your educational and work experience prepared you for this position?
36. Describe what you feel to be an ideal working environment.
37. In your current or last position, what features did you like most? Least?
38. What has been your greatest challenge?
39. How do you like to be managed?
40. How can your manager help you be the best you can be?
41. What does being an excellent nurse mean to you?
42. What are the 6 rights of medication administration?
43. How would you deal with someone you observed working outside the scope of his/her
job?
44. Have you ever been fired from a job or ever been asked to resign in lieu of termination?
45. What are some key principles of infection control?

46. Describe your attributes and experiences that would enhance your ability to work with a
diverse population.
47. You observe redness and tenderness at the site of a patients IV. What would you do?
48. What are three items you would find on a surgery pre-op checklist?
49. Name three high risk fall prevention interventions.
50. What would you do if a physicians order is not legible?
51. What are the characteristics that an Alzheimer patient with dementia may exhibit during
admission?
52. What are the components of a physicians order?
53. The patient is shaky, dizzy, confused and is an insulin-dependent diabetic. What would
you do?
54. Tramadol is prescribed for a patient and s/he says Ive never taken this pill before.
What would you tell her/him?
55. What are the standard or universal precautions?
56. What are the signs, symptoms, interventions and anticipated doctors tests for narcotic
overdose?
57. How would you deal with the fact that a vast number of the patients here have HIV,
Hepatitis B, or Hepatitis C?
58. How would you handle a family who is displeased with your patient's care?
59. It is your lunch break and you see a patient fall. What do you do?
60. Tell me how you deal with a verbally abusive physician when you are correctly

questioning an order and he says, "Just do what I tell you to. I'm the doctor!"