Tell me about a time you cared for a patient whose values or beliefs were different from yours. How did you handle the situation?
In the healthcare arena, diversity and inclusion are at the forefront of patient care. Your interviewer is asking this question to assess your ability to set aside your biases and provide care for patients whose values and beliefs are different from yours. By being employed in the healthcare field, Register Nurses will encounter patients from all walks of life and all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, genders, sexual orientations, religions, and other belief systems. To provide the best care to all your patients, you should always be aware of any conscious or unconscious biases you may have and set them aside while providing care. To successfully answer this question, you should give a specific example of a time when they recognized a patient's values and beliefs different from yours and explain how you worked with them in a compassionate and caring manner.
"I am active in my church and consider myself a devout Christian. At the hospital where I work, I often care for patients with different religious beliefs than my own, as I work in a very culturally diverse area. I enjoy caring for all people and feel like it is my calling, no matter who they are or what religion they practice. I strive to give the best care possible to all my patients, despite how different their religious or otherwise beliefs may be from mine."
I often come across patients who have different beliefs or customs that they follow. I enjoy these interactions as I learn about a different culture or religion. I often have patients from India; some coworkers get frustrated with patients from India as they have a different way of dealing with pain, and often nurses feel they can't do anything for themselves even though they physically could. But when you get into the subject with them and just start learning about their culture, it is not normal for a patient to care for themselves. They often have a family member with them who takes care of them. In their culture, if you are sick or have given birth or had surgery, you rest in bed while everything is done for you. They believe the patient needs to rest and will heal by resting. Instead of being negative about this, we need to support these patients as best we can. It is hard to be in a different country where you may not speak the language well, or at all. I always think about what it might be like to be in a hospital in another country. I would be scared, to be quite honest, not knowing what they are doing or why they are doing it. So giving compassion to these patients is very important.
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