How do you prioritize your work when multiple patients and procedures demand your attention at once?

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
How to Answer
Entry Level Example
Answer Example

Working in any patient unit or clinic can be overwhelming for registered nurses due to high patient volumes. During these times, nurses are often the glue that holds everything together in the department to ensure that medical support runs smoothly. Your interviewer is asking this question to ultimately determine how you will manage situations like this as a NICU nurse.

To successfully answer this question, be able to talk about a particular situation where you had to prioritize multiple patients at once and describe how you handled the situation with a great outcome. Some things you ideally want to highlight that lead to success as a busy NICU nurse are your abilities to prioritize, stay organized, and communicate with the entire care team.

"I know that working on the NICU can be hectic and there are often shifting and changing priorities depending on the patient statuses and conditions. I would rely on my beginning shift report to understand the current condition of all patients, to better understand who may be more critical that day and who is at the greatest risk of complications at that moment. I would then work closely with the rest of the nursing staff and team to ensure we understood the responsibilities and tasks of that shift, and that we worked together to ensure we were keeping up with patient care needs, med passes, charting, etc. If there were competing urgent situations, I would notify my supervisor to ensure we had proper coverage for the patients to be treated promptly."

"As a current nurse in the emergency setting, there are times when the action is crazy with patients coming in. During these times, I always remember that the needs of the patients come first, so my triage skills come into use to prioritize which patients are the highest priority and which ones can wait. During these particular times, communication is extremely important for patients. If they are going to have a time period to wait, I communicate that to them and check in with them when I can. Also during these busy times, it is equally important for our team of nurses and physicians to stay in communication. With good communication established, I stay calm and handle patients with quality care one at a time."