Master 30 NHS Band 5 Nurse interview questions covering clinical scenarios, values-based recruitment, and patient safety.
Question 6 of 30
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Krista Wenz has been on thousands of interview panels hiring EMS professionals and firefighters for public and private agencies.
It is not unusual for nurses and other healthcare professionals to make mistakes when treating patients. The most common reasons nurses make mistakes are inexperience and fatigue, causing momentary impairment. Making mistakes when treating patients is not a good practice, but mistakes happen occasionally. The most common mistakes nurses make are medication errors, incomplete information when charting, incomplete reports, forgetting to set a bed alarm for patients at high risk of falling, and calling the patient the wrong name.
The interviewers understand everyone is human and things will happen. They want to hear that you are honest, can own up to your mistakes, and take action to correct your error. Describe a time you made a mistake and explain how you handled it. Additionally, describe what you learned from that lesson.

Krista Wenz has been on thousands of interview panels hiring EMS professionals and firefighters for public and private agencies.
"Yes, unfortunately, I made a mistake in nursing school. I saw in a patient's chart that they were at high risk for falls, and I forgot to turn on the bed alarm when I left their room. About five minutes later, when I checked on another patient whose bed alarm had gone off, I realized I had forgotten to turn on my other patient's alarm. I asked a colleague if they could assist me with my patient so I could return to my previous patient's room to check the alarm. Sure enough, I forgot to turn it on. Luckily, the patient had not tried to get out of bed, and everything turned out well. That lesson taught me to be more diligent and pay more attention to detail. Since then, I have never forgotten to turn on a bed alarm."

Krista Wenz has been on thousands of interview panels hiring EMS professionals and firefighters for public and private agencies.
"Yes, I made a mistake in nursing school when treating a patient. I had a patient with an IV that was supposed to be infused at 100 mL per hour. I thought I had figured out the drip rate accurately, but I calculated it at 200 mL per hour. When I checked on my patient an hour later, the IV had almost run dry. I quickly changed the IV bag and recalculated the drip rate. I spoke with my proctor and explained what had happened. We figured out how I miscalculated the drip rate, and it is something that has never happened again. Now, I double and triple-check my calculations to ensure I am always correct."
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Written by Krista Wenz
30 Questions & Answers • NHS Band 5 Nurse

By Krista

By Krista