What aspect of your work brings you the most stress?
Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest not-for-profit health plans in the country and services heavily populated metro areas like Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno, Denver, Baltimore, and Portland. The sheer number of members can make for a large workload, depending on the job you are interviewing for, and ensuring that you can manage work stress in a healthy and productive manner will be important to your interviewer. The best way to answer a question like this is to discuss the types of work stress you have faced in the past and the tactics that you used to communicate clearly and ensure that no tasks were left undone. Then, to seal your answer, make sure to highlight how your methods will help you in this role with Kaiser.
"I like to consider myself a very stress-free person, both in my professional and personal life, but I'd have to say that the times that cause me the most anxiety are the days when the clinic is full and I worry about keeping clinical schedules on time. The last thing I want is for a patient's reading to start more than 10 minutes past their scheduled time because I know a lot of patients are taking time away from work or their families to make an appointment. In these situations, I find it most important to remain focused on each patient I am with and be as efficient as I can with each. Ensuring that my team stays in communication when the clinic is full is very important to ensure that we remain on schedule and I never hesitate to lead these conversations. I certainly wouldn't in the future as part of the amazing Kaiser Permanente team!"
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
Patient adherence, the idea of patients, not taking their medications like they are supposed to, and affecting their health, can be stressful. By talking to them, explaining how important it is for them to take their prescriptions daily, and offer them auto-fill on their prescriptions, and enroll them on ready reminder will help them take better care of their health.
Rachelle's Feedback
I can see how it would be stressful when you care for your patients' success so much! It sounds as though you do everything possible to ensure your patients are set up for success.
Anonymous Answer
It can be stressful at times being shorthanded, but I always no matter what, make the best of it and work hard.
Rachelle's Feedback
It's great that you make the best of things and work hard, regardless of the stress levels or being short-handed.
Anonymous Answer
The biggest stressor in my current job is the exorbitant Monday morning consults. I understand the urgency of every patient and the need to expedite their procedure. How I typically handle this stressor, is to briefly review the consult list on Sunday night. I can prepare myself for the emergent procedures and I have a plan for Monday morning. I expedite the workups of every patient, then present them to my attending for guidance. I feel in control and can manage my stress, knowing every detail is addressed.
Amanda's Feedback
You've answered well by sharing that you face stressful situations head-on. You've provided a specific example of how you handle stress well by using pressure to help you work more productively. This illustrates your ability to transform stress into action, successfully turning a negative into a positive, to accomplish your goal.
Anonymous Answer
Being that I am currently with a start-up company, it is stressful not already having structure and procedures in place. When I started, the sales reps had 3 days of training and were put on the sales floor to sink or swim. Being 100% commission-based led to a high turnover that did not support revenue goals. I coached the owner into hiring a trainer and creating a manual in order to provide more in-depth training. To support integrating training we implemented a mentor/mentee program. In addition, I interviewed the reps and facilitated weekly sales training based on the most common struggles. As a result, we have reduced turnover, and increased retention and sales.
Jaymie's Feedback
Good job describing strategies you use to overcome those stressors and challenges in the workplace.
Anonymous Answer
What brings the most stress is my weakness of being too self-critical. I overthink about whether an intervention is sufficient enough or if I should have gone a different route in a conversation that was brought up. I feel that I have gotten better at utilizing my supervision time to bring up these anxious thoughts and remind myself that I am still in the learning process and that my supervisor is there to help guide me in the process.
Jaymie's Feedback
It's always good when you can identify stressors, especially those that can be self-induced. What's important here is that you're self-aware and have come up with a plan to overcome this area of development. Well done!
Anonymous Answer
The one thing in my work that brings me the most stress is when a customer doesn’t have a good experience under my watch. I hold myself to a huge standard in the restaurant business because you’re dealing with people. And people’s opinions in the restaurant business are everything. The last thing I want is for that bad experience to be reflected in a Yelp review. Whether it’s in my control or not, if situations start to happen that affect the customer’s overall experience, that stresses me out because all I want to do is deliver good service and make the customer’s experience great. I worry a lot about failing the customer but I definitely turn that into motivation to go above and beyond for people.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a good stressor to share with the interviewer that emphasizes your commitment to customer care, which will translate well into healthcare. You could round out your answer by sharing a technique or strategy that you use to communicate and check in with customers during their dining experience. That will show the interviewer how you try to mitigate that stress and will also highlight your interpersonal, communication, and customer service skills. Good job!
Anonymous Answer
The part of my work that brings me the most stress is when the workload seems heavier than normal. This stresses me out because I am very precise with my time management. I don't like being late if I am on a time crunch. If I feel the amount of work that I have to do is more than the time I have, I make sure to spend a specific amount of time on each task. I break down my work into smaller tasks that way my workload doesn't seem as heavy. I also set a timer on my phone to know exactly the amount of time I am spending on different things.
Jaymie's Feedback
You shared a stressor for you, but more importantly, you shared ways that you help combat this stress, and you gave specific techniques and tools you use. Good job.
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