Emergency Department Nursing Interview Guidance

“Thorough preparation prior to interviewing for a qualified post within the Emergency Department is paramount to increasing the chance of success.”

The field of emergency nursing can be a stimulating and uniquely rewarding career, yet it is certainly a competitive specialty that does not come without significant physical and mental challenges. Luckily, Registered Nurse Rachel is here to provide excellent advice on what to look out for in emergency nursing job interviews.

Thorough preparation prior to interviewing for a qualified post within the Emergency Department is paramount to increasing the chance of success.

This article gives an overview of potential interview themes to expect, to guide your responses and help you demonstrate suitability for the role.

Local Health Demographics

Having interviewed for and gained positions in both district general and trauma centre emergency departments, I have found it critical to project understanding of the unique challenges faced by the clinical unit for which you are applying.

Showing a clear awareness of the health demographics of the local population, as well as the hospital’s key specialties (such as trauma care or infectious disease), demonstrates awareness of the long-term management objectives of a department.

This can help to distinguish you from other interview candidates and show understanding of the wider context of your professional contribution to a department. For example, if the prevalence of respiratory disease, sexually transmitted infection or substance misuse is particularly high within the local population, providing some statistics and trust-specific goals around these issues can help to reflect sound foundational knowledge and motivation to improve health outcomes that are of particular interest to managerial staff.

Continuous Professional Development

This logically leads into examples of further study, both in a university or professional capacity, which highlights continuous professional development. Emergency-specific qualifications such as Intermediate, Advanced and Trauma Intermediate Life Support prove motivation to advance RCN clinical competencies and continuously maintain the highest standard of evidence-based practice.

Whilst these courses can support you in demonstrating your competence as a clinical practitioner, they also suggest an interest in the emergency field which goes beyond the minimum requirements expected of an ED Nurse.

For Newly Qualified Nurses, or those with ward-based backgrounds, alternative study to discuss within the interview setting may include completion of cardiology, respiratory or care of the elderly study days, or alternatively a self-selected emergency-focused university dissertation topic.

Clinical Scenarios

In order to evaluate the clinical decision making skills of a Registered Nurse, the use of scenario-based questions represents a frequently employed interviewing technique adopted by management. More specifically, the ability to manage emergency care of the acutely unwell patient through application of the Resuscitation Council A-E framework must be demonstrated by the candidate.

ED-based scenarios commonly used include medical emergencies in the waiting room such as seizure activity or cardiac arrest. This is to assess competence in airway management and cardiovascular interventions, as well as incidents of rapid deterioration to evaluate nursing skills in identifying and responding to sepsis flags.

Sound knowledge of the components of A-E assessment, ‘Sepsis 6’ and SBAR handovers are therefore vital in responding to these scenarios, to exemplify effective interdisciplinary working and your ultimate safety as an ED practitioner.

Thorough preparation prior to interviewing for a qualified post within the Emergency Department is paramount to increasing the chance of success.

Challenging Poor Practice

Finally, and more broadly, a contemporary topic consistently broached by nursing interviewers appears to be that of raising concerns around suboptimal practice. Otherwise known as ‘whistleblowing’, displaying the willingness to challenge and if necessary, report unsafe clinical activity is an indispensable skill within emergency nursing.

Situations where interviewers may expect nurses to intervene are those in which the behaviour displayed does not pertain to a Trust’s core values. For example, should an organisation place particular focus upon commitment to quality and safety of care, a staff member’s failure to employ appropriate techniques in ANTT or end of life nursing care may prompt competent ED Nurses to directly challenge the individual.

If supporting this discussion with signposting to evidence-based NICE guidelines and policies does not lead to improvement in their practice, it may be deemed reasonable to escalate this to management, with the sole objective of upholding the highest standards of emergency care.

Conclusion

Applying for your first position within the emergency department can be an intimidating experience for many practitioners.

However, focusing the interview preparation process upon the themes explored in this article may help you to inform your approach and advance to the next stage of your nursing career.

We hope this has been helpful in preparing for your interview.

You can view live A&E Nurse and Emergency Department Nurse job vacancies on our website.