Practice 35 Behavioral Nursing interview questions covering de-escalation, crisis response, and therapeutic communication.
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Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
Oftentimes, when a nursing supervisor is out on vacation, sick, or personal leave, they will appoint someone from their staff to serve as acting supervisor in their absence. While serving as acting supervisor, it is important for a nurse to treat their colleagues fairly and put any personal relationships they have with their coworkers aside. The interviewer is asking this question to determine how the candidate would respond in this situation and if the candidate would treat all their colleagues equally. To effectively answer this question, you should indicate that you would put all personal relationships with your coworkers aside while you are acting as supervisor and treat everyone fairly. A more successful answer to this question would include an example of how you effectively served as acting supervisor of a nursing unit during your career.

Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
"If I was serving as acting supervisor, I would set any and all relationships I had with my peers aside and treat everyone the same. I have been in this situation before, where I have stood in for my manager while she was on vacation, and I found that the only way to be successful and fair, was to compartmentalize everything while in charge. It can be a difficult situation to be in, as sometimes your work friends want you to make special concessions for them, but in order to be fair, you can't do that. So, in this situation, I would make it clear that I am not their friend, I am their supervisor, and I am going to follow the rules as stated in the handbook, for everyone."

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Written by Kelly Burlison
35 Questions & Answers • Behavioral Nursing

By Kelly

By Kelly