How to Answer: How do you prioritize when multiple patients and procedures demand your attention at once?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Travel Nurse job interview.
1. How do you prioritize when multiple patients and procedures demand your attention at once?
How to Answer
Working in any patient unit or clinic comes with times where the patient load is crazy. During these times, nurses are often the glue that holds everything together in the department to ensure that things run smoothly. Try to talk about a particular situation where you had to prioritize multiple patients at one time, how you handled the situation and what the outcome was.
Written by Darby Faubion
1st Entry Level Example
"During my clinical rotation in an Urgent Care clinic, we had a very busy day where many patients were coming in due to widespread flu. In working with my preceptor, I learned how to communicate to patients. His calmness in handling the situation was inspiring. Also, personally, during my final year of coursework in college, I was taking 18 credits each semester. During these semesters, I had to learn to prioritize my classwork by due dates and order of importance. By utilizing checklists and working through each thing one at a time, I learned invaluable skills that I can bring to my nursing career."
Written by Darby Faubion
1st Answer Example
"During busy times, I always remember that the needs of the patient come first so my triage skills come into use to prioritize which patients should be seen first. Exercising good communication between myself, the physicians and my patients is extremely important. Once I have established a good line of communication, I remember toI stay calm and handle patients with quality care one at a time."
Written by Darby Faubion
1st Experienced Example
"One day on my shift as a nurse in the surgery center, we were booked full of cases throughout the day. As the day progressed, we had a couple of other trauma cases that were a high priority come in due to an auto accident. When this happened, we had to work as a team to communicate to current patients and family members in waiting that we had to push their times back in the day due to an emergent situation. An on-call surgeon came in later in the day to help cover the regularly scheduled cases and I had to communicate with the three surgeons on duty as to where I was needed and when I needed to be there. In the end, being able to prioritize the patients and my duties was crucial in helping the day in the surgery center run smoothly."
Written by Darby Faubion
2nd Experienced Example
"I always begin by examining patient safety. If there are multiple needs and one involves patient safety that is where I first direct my attention. I then address any acute, urgent needs such as if a patient is experiencing significant pain that needs treatment. I then prioritize according to the time that individual tasks need to be completed by. For example, I would prioritize my patients having procedures according to what time their procedure is and when they will be picked up by the surgical team."
Written by Tabitha Cumpian on December 28th, 2022