Interview Questions

What would make you a successful CRNA?

General

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

General

Talk about your leadership experience.

General

How do you handle stress?

General

What have you learned from the Army?

General

Who is the greatest influence in your life?

General

Tell me about your proudest achievement.

General

Why did you choose this career field?

Career

How do you feel that your background will influence your research, clinical work and areas of interest?

Career

What changes in your personal or professional lifestyle do you anticipate as a graduate student and as an advanced nurse practitioner? How have you planned for this?

Career

What is your single strongest personality trait that will you help you in your academic and professional career as a CRNA?

Career

What is your most important weakness that you will struggle with during your academic and professional career?

Career

Tell me about your clinical CRNA shadow experience? How did that influence you to pursue this profession?

Career

What have you done to develop or change in the last few years?

Career

Why did you decide to go from being a nurse to applying to CRNA school?

Career

Why did you choose our program?

Program specific

What are your expectations of the program?

Program specific

What will you do if you don't get into this program?

Program specific

What makes you think you're able to complete this type of program?

Program specific

How do you think you will fit into the program?

Program specific

Why should we pick you over someone else?

Program specific

Tell us about your research projects.

Educational

Tell me about the Cs in your transcript.

Educational

I see you took Organic Chemistry or retook A&P, how has that class helped you in your clinical practice?

Educational

Tell us about your work experience.

Work

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Work

What is your unit like? What kind of patients and drips do you take care of? What is your favorite and why?

Work

Tell me about a typical patient in your ICU.

Work

Give me an example of a time when you had to think out of the box.

Work

Give me an example of when you worked on a team.

Work

Tell me about a time when you had to manage a difficult clinical situation.

Work

Tell me about a time when you were working with someone else who wasn't pulling their weight, and they had a different value system than yours. How did you deal with this person?

Work

Tell me about a time when you failed. What happened, and how did you recover?

Work

Give me an example of where you showed leadership.

Work

Discuss a mistake you made and how you solved it.

Work

Give me an example of your problem solving.

Work

Do you work well under pressure? Give an example.

Work

What was your last difficult patient? What made it difficult and what did you do?

Work

Be prepared to talk about any sedation/paralytics/pain med infusions you use in the ICU.

Work

In clinical, if someone told you that you were taping your IV wrong, what would you do?

Ethical

If I told you do the IV "this" way, and you didn't want to do it, what would you do?

Ethical

Tell me about a time when you had an ethical dilemma at work. What did you do?

Ethical

If you saw one of your fellow students or colleagues using drugs outside of work/classroom, what would you do?

Ethical

How do you wean a patient from the ventilator?

Clinical

Select a vasoactive medication and describe how it works on the molecular level.

Clinical

Tell me about Vasopressin. Where does Vasopressin work?

Clinical

What is the difference between SaO2 and PaO2?

Clinical

What is mixed venous?

Clinical

Tell me everything you know about hemoglobin.

Clinical

Discuss the pharmacological differences between dopamine and dobutamine.

Clinical

Identify myocardial infarctions on a 12 lead EKG

Clinical

What are appropriate interventions for cardiogenic shock?

Clinical

What is the FIRST thing you do if you looked up and saw 2nd degree type 2 heart block, and the BP was low?

Clinical

How does Atropine work?

Clinical

What would swan numbers show in a septic patient and why?

Clinical

What does levophed do? What is its mechanism? What receptor sites does it work on?

Clinical

What do balloon pumps do and how are they beneficial for heart patients?

Clinical

How do you calculate SVRI?

Clinical

If I told you to give you atropine, what would you do? (Would you follow orders without asking questions?)

Clinical