PICU Nurse Mock Interview
Master 39 PICU Nurse interview questions covering critical care scenarios, family communication, and pediatric emergencies.
Question 4 of 39
How do you reflect after dealing with a difficult and challenging patient situation?
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Dianne Barnard is a Registered Nurse and former nursing instructor. She is also board certified in Psychiatric Nursing and Holistic Nursing Critical Care.
One fact that you need to come to terms with prior to applying for a position as a PICU nurse is that you will face some very difficult and challenging patient situations. As a nursing professional, reflecting, learning, and growing from these challenging situations is vital to future patient care success. Your interviewer poses this question to ensure that you will take the time to reflect and learn after you have handled a difficult situation in their Pediatric ICU.
Dianne Barnard is a Registered Nurse and former nursing instructor. She is also board certified in Psychiatric Nursing and Holistic Nursing Critical Care.
"I really like to go back and review with myself and the team what happened and ways to be better in any situation that doesn't go as planned. I think it's important to distance myself a little bit from the emotions and try to review the situation logically. I think that when emotions run high, intelligence can run low, and we need to talk about situations and responses without blame. Blame isn't helpful and impedes learning. As a PICU nurse on your unit, I know that I will be facing some of the most difficult situations that any nurse can handle and I'm ready for that challenge. I want you to be assured that I would take any difficult situation and learn from it moving forward."
Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
During your future career as a PICU nurse, you will no doubt be put in situations where young patients receive life-threatening diagnoses, go into cardiac arrest, or even die. It's human nature to rationalize or justify and not face the difficult feelings or emotions of a situation gone bad, but this reflection is extremely important so that you know you are doing all that you can do to help in the situation. Talk to the interviewer about your ability to reflect on a situation and learn from it moving forward. If you have an example of a time you have done this during your career, don't hesitate to talk openly and honestly about the situation and what you learned.
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