Describe a time that you worked on a team. What went well, and what didn't?
From working with doctors to relying on the other nurses on your unit, nursing is a team sport. Explain the qualities that lead to a good team with a good outcome and address the qualities that teams should avoid. The goal is to illustrate to the interviewer that you can contribute to a team environment and contribute to improving team outcomes.
"When I was in college, I participated in a pitching competition as a requirement for my business class. The professor assigned our teams, and I worked with four other students to create a proposal for an anti-bullying campaign. The thing we did well as a team is delegate tasks so that no one person carried more responsibilities than the other. An area that I think we could have improved upon is group communication. We showed up and presented successfully, but I felt that it was four parts that were not well connected. If we had spent more time talking to each other and brainstorming together, the project would have been more cohesive, and we would have placed better with other groups who had better-developed ideas."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
When I was training in my job, I had to move an overweight patient. I couldn't do it on my own, so I called my trainer and my nurses for help. We did well in completing the task and communicating with each other, but we could've improved in recruiting more help. Because the patient was overweight, it took 10 people to move him on the slider from one bed to another. If we called for help sooner, the task would've been completed more efficiently.
Chad's Feedback
Nice! This is a good example of a time you worked with your peers to accomplish a task that you would not have been able to complete on your own. You’ve done a nice job of explaining what the team did well together, as well as identifying how the team could have improved.
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