All right so you've watched the video on interview tips and how to stand out, in
this video we're going to talk specifically about behavioral questions
that you may be required to answer. I'm going to teach you a strategy called the
START positive strategy and we're going to dive into that right after this. All
right so the first thing we need to know is what is a behavioral question?
Essentially behavioral questions are analyzing your response to various
situations; it can be if you're adaptable, how do you manage conflict,
what is your prioritization thought process? They're looking for your action
and responses so they can test your aptitude and experience to see if you're
a good fit for this job. So before we get started with how to solve a behavioral
type question I want to give you some tips, and the first tip is to bring pen
and paper. When you go to an interview writing down little details about that
question helps you to plan and think about it before you answer. When it comes
to organizing your approach there are a few things to consider.
First is your nursing process. Remember the assessment, diagnosis, planning,
implementation, and evaluation. You don't want to tell them you'd evaluate if you
haven't already assessed. So you want to put those into perspective. The next is
the ABCs of life: airway, breathing, circulation. If you get a question that's
asking you about prioritizing that's your second go-to strategy. The third one
is resources. Remember you are not an island and if you're not if you are an
island I'd be a little concerned. You have resources available to you so for
example you get a question about a blood sugar that's 2.9 what do you do? Now
maybe you've never worked with a low blood sugar,
maybe you've not worked in this facility and you don't know their policy, that's
okay, but you do have some knowledge you can draw on you can talk about how you
recognize it's low and if you don't know these this facilities policies or
procedures, that's a resource you would tap into. You would search the resources,
you would look up the policy, you might talk to the nurse educator, but
from what you recall it needs to be treated with some glucose fairly quickly
if they're symptomatic. And the last tip is to tell a story in your answers and
this is where the START positive model comes in. S stands for a situation: what
was going on, who is involved, and why did it matter?
T is for tasks: what was your role in this situation? A is action: what did you
do? R is response: what happened after you acted, weather is good or bad, and then T
is your takeaway and positive is to remind you your takeaway needs to be in
a positive direction. So if the outcome of this event was not positive by your
standards, maybe you failed to communicate clearly,
the patient fell on the floor, whatever happened as a result you still give your
takeaway. Well I learned that ... with that particular person I needed to
communicate directly and not be suggestive ... what was your takeaway? So
with that let's get started into some of those common types of questions you can
prepare for. Because communication is the number one skill you can guarantee you
will have a variety of questions that will touch on communication. They often
come in the form of conflict, but you may also get a positive question so some
samples might be: Tell me a time when you had conflict with a co-worker and how
you managed that? Or how would you deal with the boss who's asking you to do
something that is not in your scope of practice? Or maybe even how would you
handle a rude co-worker? Or potentially a patient's family that was unhappy with
your care? A lot of ways that communication and conflict will show up.
Using the start methodology I'm going to give you an example. In this scenario
we've identified a practice issue in another colleague.
So my situation "S" is I was working with a co-worker who wasn't properly
documenting ins and outs on their sheet. This was important because the patient
was on strict in and out for their kidney failure. What was my task? My task
was I was covering for her and I went to document the fluids that I had hung and
I realized there were no other documented intakes. What was my action? I
talked to the nurse and I asked her to explain to me where she was capturing
her ins and outs so that I could make sure my input was available to her? The
result was she didn't document her ins and outs in fact, she thought by simply
signing it off on the MAR that it was captured as intake and output. So some
education took place and it took a little while for her to realize her
error in missing that documentation, but by the end of the shift she did come to
me and she recognized that by not putting those fluids on the intake sheet,
they actually were not being captured in the daily total. So the takeaway for me
was that even though my process was following the process at the hospital, I
wanted to implement or I wanted to understand what she was doing because
maybe she had a different strategy before I pass judgment, before I provided
education, before I asked her if she could follow policy. I didn't need to
report her to the charge nurse I just needed to understand her methodology. I
found a gap and an opportunity to educate for best patient outcomes. You
see how that works. Now you can do that for any questions. So let's look at some
other questions you might find. All right so some other questions you may find
that you can prepare ahead of time are: tell me about a time you had stressful
work or stressful work environment and how did you handle that? Again don't
forget to tell a story and use the START positive system. How do you handle
failure? Or time up at a time when you tried something and you were not
successful? Collaboration questions tell me about a time when you did not
get along with your coworker? How did you resolve the issue? Teamwork: How would you
respond to the charge nurse if she asked you to take care of some work that was
already assigned to another nurse; not on your workload? Achievement: Tell me about
a time when you achieve something you're really proud of, what did that look like?
Patient care: tell me about a time when the patient's family was satisfied with
the care you gave; and on the opposite side, of at a time when the patient's
family was not happy, they were dissatisfied with your care and how did
you manage that? Crisis management & adaptability: Talk about a time when your
past employment or in your past clinical a change was introduced on the floor
such as a new policy. How did you adapt to that new change? Another question
could be tell me about a time when you did not know something at work, what did
you do? Time management! That is so critical in nursing. We have multiple
things to do and no time to do it. So you may see that there's a question that
says when you work in a fast-paced setting, how did you prioritize your
tasks while maintaining patient care? That's a double whammy. They're looking
for a prioritization, time management, and patient safety. So there you have it,
let's do a quick summary. First thing you want to do is bring pen and paper so you
can write down details of those questions. Then you want to consider the
nursing process, your ABCs of life, and the resources that you would use and
collaborate with to get to that patient outcome. And then the last thing is, is to
implement the START positive strategy so that you can tell a story ,give them a
little bit more insight into your thought process, you are knowledge, your
experience, and how it positively impacted you and will continue to impact
you going forward. So there you go. Take some time now and plan some of your
answers. You do not have to always draw on nursing experiences, if you've done
customer service jobs in any field you have certainly probably dealt with
conflict, communication, prioritization, delegation, stressful work
environments. Look for those key situations that you can mold and show
how that growth will apply to your job as a nurse. I hope this has been helpful.
If you have liked it, give me a thumbs up, comment below in the section and tell us
what you have found in interviews and some strategies you use to be successful.