Hospice Nurse

☛ Why is hospice care important?

☛ Being a hospice nurse can be emotionally challenging. Why do you still want to follow this profession?

☛ What’s the difference between routine and GIP care?

☛ When do you administer morphine to patients?

☛ What other healthcare professionals should a hospice nurse collaborate with?

☛ How do you handle stress?

☛ In your opinion, what does a peaceful death look like?

I believe that everyone should learn from his or her mistakes. I always try to consult my mistakes with my kith and kin especially with elderly and experienced person.

I enrolled myself into a course useful for the next version of our current project. I attended seminars on personal development and managerial skills improvement.

As in any job, there are frustrations. The phones get busy at times. Since the goal is always to give each caller my undivided attention, I sometimes need to budget my words carefully.

Dealing with staff can sometimes be difficult. As a triage nurse, every time I call someone, I am asking them to do something—to work. Often, people in the field are stretched pretty thin and they must cringe when they see my number on their caller ID. Sleep deprivation can also be a problem. My body has adjusted over the years and I can wake up easily and fall back asleep quickly. Fortunately, I can get by with multiple short naps through the night.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to help people, so I’d say I’d always considered caring professions. However, my mother’s fight with cancer was very long, and my role as her caregiver caused me to research the hospice nurse specialization and realize it was really where I wanted to focus my efforts. I came to that conclusion about halfway through nursing school.

☛ One of the patients under your care starts complaining constantly. How do you deal with this?

☛ Imagine a patient dies suddenly when their family isn’t around. What do you do about the patient and how do you inform their relatives?

☛ Envisage that a DNR patient just died and a panicked caregiver tries to perform CPR on them. What would you do?

☛ How would you deal with a family member who tried to convince the patient to continue treatment that stopped at the patient’s request?

☛ What would you do if you suspected that a family member was stealing from the patient’s medication?

Try to include improvement activities that relate to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones handy to mention.

☛ Tell me about the first time you lost a patient. What has changed in your reactions since?

☛ Tell me about a time you felt great satisfaction about your job

☛ Describe a time you had difficulty getting the patient’s family to accept their upcoming death. How did you manage?

☛ Recall a time a patient started panicking. What did you do?

☛ Have you ever had to deal with conflict between a patient’s family members about the patient’s condition? Did you take part in it and what was your role?

Try to include improvements that are relevant to the job. A wide variety of activities can be mentioned as positive self-improvement. Have some good ones in handy to mention in this circumstance.

Employers tend to look for goal-oriented applicants. Show a desire for continuous learning by listing your non-work related hobbies. Regardless of what hobbies you choose to present, remember that the goal is to prove self-sufficiency, time management, and motivation.

Everyone should learn from his mistake. I always try to consult my mistakes with my friends and relatives, especially with elder and experienced persons.

☛ How have you changed in the last five years?

☛ Situation in which you had to arrive at a compromise.

☛ What was the most important task you ever had?

☛ What were the responsibilities of your last position?

☛ How did you react when faced with constant time pressure?

Be prepared to discuss in detail and with examples your five or six main attributes. This is the time you make advantage of the list of questions you have prepared earlier.

If you can come up with an example that relates to the position you're applying for that would be even better.

I interviewed for my first nursing job when I was in the middle of studying for my state nursing exam. The interviewer was aware that I had to sit the exam a week after my interview, and that any job offer would be contingent on successfully passing the test. For a two-week period, I was perusing hospice nurse interview questions while also looking over chapters in my textbook. In addition to those tasks, my mother was battling breast cancer at the time and I was her primary caregiver. In the end, I passed my state exam, and was offered my first job as a hospice nurse.

☛ Who was your favorite manager and why?

☛ Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?

☛ Tell about a time that you had to adapt to a difficult situation.

☛ What are the qualities of a good leader?

☛ What has been your biggest professional disappointment?

There was an instance a couple of years ago where a patient’s daughter was not happy with her mother’s wishes about end-of-life care. This conversation happened when emotions were high and both parties wanted to be heard. Ultimately, I was able to remind the upset daughter that her mother had completed a will the year before, and that the document outlined treatment directives. Once the daughter realized that, she calmed down and understood that legally, I had to abide by what was written in the will.

This question needs to be carefully answered as it is your opportunity to stick out from the rest of the applicants. You should focus on skills that you have, including those not yet mentioned. Simply responding “because I’m really good” or “I really need a job” isn’t going to work. You shouldn’t assume the skills of other applicants or their strengths, focus on yourself. Tell the interviewer why you are a good fit for the position, what makes you a good employee, and what you can provide the company. Keep it brief while highlighting achievements.

This question typically follows on from the previous one. Here is where your research will come in handy. You may want to say that you want to work for a company that is X, Y, Z, (market leader, innovator, provides a vital service, whatever it may be). Put some thought into this beforehand, be specific, and link the company’s values and mission statement to your own goals and career plans.

I would suggest having a year or two of hospice experience first. This is not necessarily an area of nursing for everyone and experience in hospice nursing can help you determine that. Also, because the hospice triage nurse often must operate independently, it is important to have a solid knowledge base about death, dying, symptom management and about grief and bereavement.

As a kid, seeing the nurses take care of my grandmother in the hospital really made an impact on me. But, my interest in nursing started when I volunteered at a hospice care facility near our school. The fulfillment I would feel after each day of taking care of patients in the facility made me decide that I wanted to pursue nursing as my profession someday.

I am a perfectionist and therefore, I rarely believe anyone can work as well as me. As a result, I am afraid to delegate important tasks to others as I want to get them done right

This is a “homework” question, too, but it also gives some clues as to the perspective the person brings to the table. The best preparation you can do is to read the job description and repeat it to yourself in your own words so that you can do this smoothly at the interview.