Talk about a time you had to deal with an upset or sad patient or family member as an RN. How did you handle the situation?

"One thing about NICU nursing is that the patient is not always the only 'patient,' so to speak. I have learned that being a good pediatric nurse also means being able to communicate with family members who are unsure of what to expect or who don't quite understand a diagnosis--this takes a great deal of stress off of them. Last year, I had a young patient who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, and his mother immediately broke down in tears. The child, who was three, didn't understand what was happening and I took the time to console the mother and reassure her that her child would be in the best care possible with our pediatric oncology team. I helped lay out an initial care plan for her and left the rest in the hands of our oncology team. She gave me a great big hug at the end of the appointment and thanked me for consoling her."

Being able to identify stressors that may affect a family member of a PICU patient is important in this role. You ideally want to highlight to your interviewer that you will always have an empathetic and understanding approach while you educate the family members on all the steps of their loved ones' care. Be sure to stress that your caring approach will help ease the minds of both patients and their family members because that sense of ease helps the healing process in young patients.