Entry-Level Nursing Mock Interview
Practice 40 Entry-Level Nursing interview questions covering clinical scenarios, patient care priorities, and ethical challenges.
Question 2 of 40
What was the most challenging part of your nursing education?
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Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
Nursing school at any level is a very challenging endeavor. Students often struggle with various parts of their nursing education, such as learning to create care plans, but they may also struggle with the workload itself. The interviewer asks this question to determine if you can identify your greatest challenge while pursuing your nursing education. When answering this question, you should be honest about your struggles while pursuing your education and specify what challenged you the most. A successful answer to this question would include a summary of what challenged you and specific details regarding how you overcame the challenge.
Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
"The greatest challenge I faced in nursing school was learning how to create an effective care plan. Some of my classmates mastered this with ease, but I struggled. It seemed no matter how much work I put into the care plans I created, they were always wrong. At one point, I thought I had to change my major because of my difficulty with care plans. But, instead of giving up, I put in extra work, met with my professor, got extra help from a teaching assistant, and soon, I was able to master care plans as well."
Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
"Being an older student and a career changer, the most difficult part of nursing school for me was balancing the full-time job, my full-time courseload, and my family obligations at home. It was a challenging few years, and I sometimes wondered if I could do it for the long haul. However, when I felt like giving up, I would recenter myself and refocus on my goals, and that would give me the motivation I needed to carry on."
"The greatest challenge in my nursing education was retaining cellular function concepts like the sodium-potassium pump and cellular respiration. I'm not sure why it took me extra work to grasp these concepts; maybe it was because it was hard to relate them directly to patient care. I attended extra study sessions offered by my professor and studied in small groups with my fellow students to understand the material. In the end, I passed those portions of my class and moved on to my next courses."
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Anonymous Answer
The most challenging part of my nursing education was learning how to study and do well on nursing exams. It was really an eye-opening experience because the nursing tests are not what I was used to at all. It took me a couple of semesters to really figure out my studying techniques and how to properly study and be able to achieve the best grade possible.
Marcie's Feedback
Great answer! It's good that you discuss how over time you adapted and learned how to study more effectively so you could do well on the exams. This will show the interviewer that you are adaptable, persistent, and resilient. Nice! You might consider offering a brief explanation too of how the nursing exams differed from other exams you'd taken in your life (I'm curious myself!)
Anonymous Answer
The most challenging part of my nursing education was time management. In addition to nursing school, I also have a family, and I was always working a minimum of two jobs. It was always a challenge to find time to study and make sure everyone is happy. I used to be the kind of last-minute-study student. Soon after I started nursing school, I found out my old way of studying was no longer working. So, I began to plan out my study for the whole semester as soon as I found out all the due dates and everything I need to do for that semester. In addition to the scheduled dates from school, I also put my due dates on my calendar. I reviewed my calendar several times a day to ensure I stayed on my schedule, which worked well for me. It is very satisfying to look at all of the tasks that I have accomplished over the years.
Chad's Feedback
Good answer! It is a tremendous achievement to complete your nursing education while simultaneously handling the responsibilities of a family and multiple jobs. It sounds like you are highly organized, and you should be very proud of yourself for overcoming those challenges to successfully complete nursing school.
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