What patient education skills would you bring to our team as a registered nurse?

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

Nurses in any setting have to become confident and skilled in their ability to provide patient education regarding their diagnosis and treatment. The NICU setting provides many unique challenges that the best nurses master and embrace. Your interviewer is asking this question to assess your overall ability and skill level in providing education to the families of the patients that you will be caring for in their NICU setting.

Providing education and/or discharge instructions in the NICU cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach, as patients' families have varying capacities for comprehending information. To effectively answer this question, you should specifically explain how you have delivered instructions to patients. A stronger answer to this question would include a specific example of how you adjusted the delivery of educational information or discharge instructions to ensure the family of the patient understood what was being communicated.

"I use a variety of education techniques depending on the learning style of my patients. I ensure that all information I present is organized and relevant, and I try to create real-life examples and scenarios that they will remember. During my educational sessions, I pay attention to the patient's attention span and body language, knowing when they are no longer engaged or listening or have checked out mentally. I'm often aware that I may need to adjust my education plan based on the patient's health status, environmental factors, and aptitude to learn."

"As a patient flow nurse, giving patients their discharge instructions is a big part of my job. Each time I am assisting with a patient's discharge at the hospital, I review the written discharge instructions with both the patient and any family members or other advocates they have present. In these situations, there have been times that the patients are unable to understand and comprehend their aftercare instructions. I check their understanding by having them explain back to me the instructions I just gave them. I know that in the NICU setting, the education comes down to successfully educating families of patients on the medical statuses of their children when on the unit and when patients are being discharged. I know that this piece of the job can be very emotional and I would come to your team with the emotional stability to handle this aspect of the job."