Your patient, who has just returned from surgery, now has multiple tubes and lines that you did not insert. You need to administer a drug into her central line, but are having a hard time finding this tube. As you are in a rush, tell me how you proceed.

When returning from the operating room, intensive care unit, or other units of the hospital, a patient may have many more tubes and lines inserted into their body than normal, and at times, it may be difficult for a nurse to differentiate the lines. This is especially the case if the nurse is in a rush. In this scenario, the nurse, in order to administer medication into the patient's central line, they should take time to ensure they have the correct tube. Administering the medication into the incorrect line or into a drain is a medical error that could have negative consequences for the patient. The interviewer is asking this question to determine if the candidate would take the time to confirm that they are using the correct tube to administer the medication in the patient's central line. To effectively answer this question, the patient should indicate that they would carefully ensure that they had the correct tube for the central line before administering the medication. A more successful answer to this question would include a specific example from the candidate's nursing career where they were in a similar situation, and they took time to ensure they were administering a medication in the appropriate line.