Questions to Ask a Nurse in an Interview
Questions to ask a nurse in an interview, for the nurse managers, charge nurses and hiring panels who interview registered nurse candidates. The 63 questions follow the order of a real interview: background and licensure, clinical judgment, patient safety, hard patients and families, teamwork and shift fit, then a group to use with new graduates. The note under each one describes the answer to hope for and the one to worry about, and where the right answer depends on your country, state or employer, it tells you to explain how things work on your unit.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Background
Walk me through your nursing career so far: where you trained, where you have worked and who your patients were.
Why ask it
It is the tell-me-about-yourself question pointed at the work, and candidates expect it. The useful part is the patients, not the employers: 'adult step-down, mostly cardiac, four patients on days' can be measured against your unit in a way a hospital's name cannot. If family, health or anything else personal comes up, let it go by and return to the work.
Why did you become a nurse, and is that still the reason you do it?
Why ask it
The origin stories are much alike, a relative in hospital, a job as a tech, a first career that did not fit, and they sort candidates less than you might expect. What tells an experienced nurse apart is whether the reason has moved. One who came for the adrenaline and stays for the teaching, or for one kind of patient, has kept choosing the work; with a new graduate, take the origin story and go on to the next question.
What draws you to this specialty, and to this unit in particular?
Why ask it
The specialty half tells you whether they want these patients or simply a job, so listen for something particular, such as the pace of an emergency department or the long relationships on an oncology floor. Practical reasons like the schedule or the commute are fine to hear. Describe your real patient mix in return, because a nurse expecting cardiac step-down on a general medical floor will be disappointed within a month.
Where are you licensed to practice, and which certifications do you hold right now?
Why ask it
Your organization will verify the license with the body that issued it whatever is said here, so the point is to find the practical snags early. Ask when each item renews: a license still being transferred from somewhere else, a life support card that lapses next month and a specialty certification half finished can each move a start date. What must be in place before a first shift differs by place and employer, so tell the candidate your list.
Describe a typical assignment in your current or most recent job: how many patients, how sick, and what help you had.
Why ask it
Ratio alone misleads. Six stable patients with an aide and a unit clerk is a different day from four with drips, a fresh post-op and nobody to answer the lights. Set what they describe beside your own assignments, and if yours are heavier, say so and ask how they would close the gap.
Which skills and equipment could you manage alone on your first day, and which would you want to be signed off on again?
Why ask it
You are hoping for two lists. A nurse who can run your kind of pump and manage a chest drain, but has not accessed a port in three years, is handing your educator an orientation plan. A flat 'I am comfortable with everything' from anyone changing specialty needs a second question about the last time they did the rarest thing your unit does.
Which charting systems have you worked in, and how do you keep documentation from piling up at the end of the shift?
Why ask it
The system matters less than the habit, since software can be taught in orientation. Charting as they go, at the bedside or straight after each room, is the answer you want. Regularly staying an hour to catch up says something about either their time management or their last unit's staffing, and it is worth asking which.
How do you keep your practice current, and what do you do differently now because of something you learned in the past year?
Why ask it
Courses, journals and certifications are the easy half, and mandatory education proves little because everyone has to complete it. The change in practice is what counts: a nurse who secures a line differently, times a reassessment differently or teaches an inhaler differently after an in-service or a bad outcome is still learning on the job. Expect less from someone in their first couple of years, and find out what they hope to pick up next.
What is behind your decision to leave your current job?
Why ask it
Ratios, a schedule that stopped working, a move or wanting a new specialty are all ordinary reasons. Pay attention to how the old unit is described: criticism of conditions is information about what they will not tolerate, and contempt for every former colleague is information about them. If the reason is something your unit shares, tell them before they find out.
If I asked the charge nurses on your last unit about you, what would they tell me first, and what would they say you could do better?
Why ask it
Naming a witness makes this harder to answer with a rehearsed line than strengths and weaknesses asked straight. 'The one who gets the difficult IV starts' or 'the one families ask for' tells you their role on a unit. The second half should be a real thing, such as delegating too little or charting late, with some sign they are working on it.
Have you precepted, taken charge or served on a unit committee? What did it involve?
Why ask it
For an experienced hire this shows whether a previous unit trusted them with more than an assignment. Ask what they taught a new nurse first, or what the hardest decision of a charge shift was. A good bedside nurse may have done none of it, and then the answer simply tells you how long it will be before they can take charge for you.
Clinical judgment
You come out of report with five patients. How do you decide whom to see first?
Why ask it
Give them a real assignment from your unit, with one patient who is quietly the sickest. The reasoning you want puts the unstable or changing patient ahead of the scheduled task and the loudest call light, and says why. Ask what would make them reorder the list an hour later, since a plan that never changes is not prioritizing.
Tell me about a patient who was getting worse before anyone else had noticed. What did you see, and what did you do?
Why ask it
The best accounts start small: a patient more tired than at the last check, breathing a little faster, not quite making sense. Then there should be action in order, with a reassessment, a call and a result. If the story begins at the moment the emergency team arrived, ask what the hour before looked like.
The vital signs are within range, but something about the patient seems off to you. What do you do next?
Why ask it
Experienced nurses recognize this at once, and their answer is to look harder: compare with the patient's own baseline, repeat the assessment, ask the patient and the family what has changed. Then they tell someone, even without a number to point to. 'I would keep an eye on it' with no time attached is the reply to push on.
How do you decide it is time to call the provider, and what do you have in front of you when you do?
Why ask it
Preparation is what separates candidates here: a fresh set of vitals, the relevant labs, the medication list, and a clear idea of what they are asking for. Many units have a set format for these calls, and a nurse who names one and can run through it has made the call many times. Say which format and escalation route your unit expects.
Tell me about a time you could not get the response your patient needed from a provider. What did you do then?
Why ask it
Every unit has a route for this, and you are finding out whether the candidate will use it. Calling again with new facts, going to the charge nurse and then up the chain is the pattern to hope for, told without drama. Stopping at 'I documented that I called' protects the nurse and leaves the patient where they were.
A provider writes an order that you think is wrong for this patient. What do you do?
Why ask it
A sound reply includes holding off, checking their own understanding, and going back to whoever wrote it with a specific concern. Ask what happens if the provider insists. A nurse who would carry it out unquestioned and one who would quietly not carry it out are both a problem, and how the chain of command works on your unit is yours to explain.
Tell me about a code or a rapid response call you were part of. What was your job in the room?
Why ask it
Roles are the thing to hear: compressions, recording, medications, the family, or the nurse who knew the patient and gave the team the story. A candidate who can also say what the ten minutes before the call looked like, and who watched their other patients meanwhile, has thought past the drama. From a nurse who has not been in one, 'not yet' is an honest answer, and you can ask what they would do on finding a patient unresponsive.
It is two hours into the shift and you are already behind. What do you move, and what do you refuse to move?
Why ask it
This is prioritization without the tidy scenario. Baths, routine teaching and tidying can shift, and a good candidate says so and hands them over at report, while time-critical medications and a second look at the patient they were worried about stay put. Note whether they would tell the charge nurse early or at the end.
You are handed a medication, a device or a procedure you have not dealt with before. What do you do before you start?
Why ask it
Not knowing is normal, and what matters is where they go next. The drug reference, the policy, the pharmacist, the unit educator and a colleague who has done it are all good sources, and a strong answer picks the one that fits the problem and tells the charge nurse. Spend longer here with anyone changing specialty, who will be in that position every week with you.
Describe the sickest patient you have looked after. What exactly was your part?
Why ask it
A job title does not show the upper limit of what someone has managed, and this does. Listen for 'I' as well as 'we': which drips they were managing, what they were watching for, what they reported. If that limit sits below your unit's ordinary Tuesday, the orientation needs to be longer than the standard one.
Safety
Tell me about a medication error or near miss you were part of. What happened afterward?
Why ask it
Nearly every practicing nurse has one, so 'never' usually means either very new or not looking. The answers to trust include that the patient was checked first, who was told, and what the nurse does differently now. How you react counts as well: a candidate who is honest here and sees you flinch learns something about your unit.
Walk me through giving a high-risk medication, from reading the order to leaving the room.
Why ask it
Have them choose the drug, then listen for the pauses: the order checked against the patient, the calculation, a second nurse where policy asks for one, the identity check at the bedside, and staying to see the effect. Which medications count as high-risk and what each requires is set by your employer, so finish by telling them your rules.
The scanner will not read the patient's wristband and you are already late with medications. What do you do?
Why ask it
It is a question about workarounds, and every unit has them. Getting a new band printed, or following whatever your downtime procedure says, takes time the nurse does not have and is still the right answer. Scanning a spare label kept at the desk, or skipping the identity check because they know the patient, is how a wrong-patient error gets through, however ordinary the habit was at their last job.
What do you do when you watch a colleague skip a safety step?
Why ask it
Make it concrete if they stay general: a wristband not checked, a line dressing changed without clean technique. You want someone who says something in the moment, privately and plainly, and who knows when it has to go to the charge nurse or into a report. Hesitation over a friend is human, so ask what would tip them.
How do you keep a patient at high risk of falling safe during the hours you cannot be in the room?
Why ask it
Get past 'I follow the protocol' by asking what they actually set up: toileting on a schedule before the patient tries alone, the call light and belongings within reach, the alarm checked, the aide and family told what to watch for. Then ask about a fall that happened on their watch and what they made of it.
What goes into the report you give at the end of a shift, and what do you check for yourself when you are the one taking it?
Why ask it
Shift change is where details go missing. A good report runs in a set order and ends with what is still pending and what the nurse is worried about. Stronger still is the candidate who walks the room with the outgoing nurse, looks at the lines and the pump settings, and asks the question while the person who knows is still in the building.
Tell me about a time you thought an assignment was unsafe. How did you raise it?
Why ask it
There are two good endings: the assignment was changed, or it was not and they put the concern on record and did the safest job they could. Walking off the unit, or saying nothing and hoping, are the two to worry about. How an objection is made, and what protects the nurse who makes it, varies by employer, contract and place, so be ready to describe your own process.
Where do infection control habits slip when a unit is busy, and what do you do about your own?
Why ask it
Everyone can recite hand hygiene, which is why the question asks where it fails. An honest candidate names the moments: between rooms when a light is going off, gowning for a thirty-second task, a line port cleaned in a hurry. Someone who claims never to slip has given you the audit answer and not the true one.
You realize an hour later that something you charted is wrong. What do you do?
Why ask it
Openness is the instinct you are hiring: the entry corrected in the way the record system and policy allow, marked as a correction, and a word to whoever acted on the wrong information. How corrections are made is set by your employer. Ask also whether they ever chart ahead of the care, and treat a casual yes as a warning.
Someone phones the unit, says they are a patient's close friend and asks how the patient is doing. What do you say?
Why ask it
Privacy training is universal, so a scenario shows more than a definition would. The careful answer gives out nothing clinical until the nurse knows what the patient has agreed to share and with whom, and under some policies it will not even confirm that the person is a patient. The exact rules depend on the law where you are and on your own policy, which you should state.
Patients and families
Tell me about the most difficult patient you have cared for. What made it hard, and what worked in the end?
Why ask it
Listen for whether the difficulty is described as a person or as a cause. Pain, fear, withdrawal, confusion and loss of control sit behind a great deal of hard behavior, and a nurse who went looking for the reason usually found something that helped. An account in which the patient was simply impossible and nothing worked tells you how the next one will go.
A family member stops you in the hall, angry, and says nobody is telling them anything. What do you do?
Why ask it
The strong reply begins with stopping and listening, somewhere other than the hallway. Then it gets practical: what the family may be told, what the nurse can explain right now, and when the provider will speak to them, with a time attached. Getting defensive, or promising a call that is not theirs to promise, both make the next shift's job harder.
A patient refuses a medication or treatment that has been ordered. How do you handle it?
Why ask it
The first move should be to ask why, since nausea, a bad experience, the cost at home or not knowing what the drug is for can often be dealt with. If the patient still says no, look for respect for that decision, a note in the chart and a word to the provider. Arguing, or leaving the pills on the table, are the wrong endings.
Has a patient or visitor ever threatened you or turned violent? How did you keep yourself safe?
Why ask it
Personal safety comes first in a good answer: space, an exit, a calm voice, help called early. Afterward there should be a report, though plenty of nurses have learned to shrug this off as part of the job. Tell the candidate what your unit does when it happens, because they are also deciding whether you would back them.
How do you care for a patient whose choices frustrate you, such as someone back for the fifth time with the same problem?
Why ask it
Honest candidates admit the frustration, and that is a better sign than a claim to feel none. What should follow is the same assessment, the same pain control and the same courtesy the patient in the next room gets. Notice the words they use for these patients, because labels that are used on the floor tend to come out in an interview.
How do you settle a confused or agitated patient before reaching for medication or restraints?
Why ask it
You are hoping for a search for the cause before the fix: pain, a full bladder, missing glasses or hearing aids, an unfamiliar room at night. Familiar voices, lower lights and the same faces come next. When restraint or sedation is allowed, and who decides, is governed by policy and law where you are, so tell them yours.
How do you teach a patient who is going home with something new to manage, such as injections or a wound dressing?
Why ask it
Handing over the printed sheet is not teaching. Starting before discharge day, having the patient do the task while the nurse watches, and asking them to explain it back in their own words are the marks of someone who has seen a patient return because the teaching did not hold. Ask who else they bring in when the patient cannot manage alone.
How do you explain a plan of care to a patient who speaks a different language from you, or who nods but has clearly not understood?
Why ask it
For a language gap, hear whether they go to a trained interpreter by whatever means the facility offers, and whether they know why a relative is a poor substitute for clinical information. For the patient who nods at everything, look for plainer words, a drawing, and checking back. Tell them what interpreting you have at night, when it is hardest to get.
Tell me about a time you spoke up for a patient when staying quiet would have been easier.
Why ask it
Advocacy is in every job description and is rarer in practice. Good stories are specific about what the patient needed and who had to be persuaded: pain that was undertreated, a discharge that came too soon, a wish about resuscitation that had not reached the chart. Ask what it cost them to push, and how it ended.
Tell me about looking after a patient in their last days. What did the patient and the family need from you?
Why ask it
The nurse's part goes beyond comfort care: pressing the provider when pain or breathlessness is not controlled, making sure the patient's stated wishes are the ones being followed, and telling the family in plain words what the changes they are seeing mean. Good accounts also include the hour afterward, when relatives were given time and not hurried from the room. If deaths are rare in the candidate's specialty, ask about the nearest thing they have handled.
Team and shift fit
Tell me about a conflict with another nurse. What did you say to them directly?
Why ask it
The word 'directly' is the test. Plenty of unit conflict is conducted through the charge nurse, the group chat or silence, and a candidate who spoke to the person first, in private, is less common than you would like. If it went to a manager, ask what they tried before that.
Tell me about a physician you found hard to work with. How did you keep it from getting in the way of the patient's care?
Why ask it
The risk you are probing is the nurse who puts off a call because of who will answer it. Hope for someone who kept calling, kept to the facts, and either raised the manner with the physician privately or took it to the charge nurse when nothing changed. A story with a villain and no working arrangement by the end deserves one more question about how the two of them got through the next shift.
Which tasks do you give to an aide or tech, and how do you follow up once you have handed one over?
Why ask it
What a nurse may delegate is set by regulation and by the employer and varies from place to place, so describe your own arrangement and listen to how they reason. The sound version is that the task goes and the responsibility stays: clear instructions, what to report back, and a check afterward. Doing everything alone and handing off everything are equally poor signs.
An aide tells you one of your patients does not look right while you are in the middle of something else. What do you do?
Why ask it
Aides are often the first to see a change, and how a nurse receives that report decides whether the aide bothers next time. Going to look, soon, and thanking them whether or not it turned out to be anything, is the answer. If you have an aide on the panel, let them ask this one.
When your own patients are settled and a colleague is drowning, what do you do?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone says they help, so ask for the last time and what the help was. Answering a light, hanging a bag, taking an admission or doing a set of vitals are real, and 'I asked whether they needed anything' is thinner. Ask too how they call for help themselves, because the nurse who never asks is the hardest to rescue.
Have you worked nights, twelve-hour shifts or rotating weekends before, and how did you find them?
Why ask it
Name the real pattern for this position before you ask, holidays and late finishes included. A nurse who has done nights knows whether their sleep can take it, and one who has not deserves a plain description. Keep to availability and leave the reasons behind it alone, since what you may ask about personal circumstances differs by place.
How do you feel about floating to another unit, and what would you need in order to do it safely?
Why ask it
Few nurses like floating, so enthusiasm is not the measure. The second half is: a quick tour of where things are kept, an assignment that fits their competencies, and a named person to ask. Say how often your nurses float and where to, because learning it on the first weekend sours a new hire quickly.
When a shift is going badly and you cannot leave the floor, how do you handle the stress?
Why ask it
Candidates rehearse this one, so move past 'I stay calm' to the last shift it happened on. Real answers are small and physical: two slow breaths in the medication room, a task list rewritten, telling the charge nurse 'I am sinking' before it shows in the work. Ask how a colleague would know they were overloaded, since some nurses go quiet and some go sharp.
What do you do after a shift where a patient died or a code went badly?
Why ask it
No routine is the correct one, and what you are checking is that they have one: a debrief, a colleague they call, a run, a quiet drive home. 'It does not affect me' from a nurse in a high-acuity specialty deserves a gentle second ask. Mention whatever support your organization offers after a hard event.
Tell me about a stretch when your unit was short staffed for weeks. How did you keep going, and where did you draw the line?
Why ask it
A single bad shift tests skill, and a bad season tests endurance, which is what you are hiring for. Listen for limits they set, such as turning down a fourth extra shift, alongside what they did for the team. If the honest end of the story is that they left, that is fair, and it tells you what your own unit must not become.
What is the most useful criticism a preceptor or charge nurse has given you?
Why ask it
A real answer has a sting in it: 'you talk over the patient', 'you do not ask for help until it is late'. Then comes what changed. Praise dressed as criticism, like being told they care too much, means they either did not hear the feedback they were given or do not want to share it.
Where do you see your nursing career five years from now?
Why ask it
Certification, charge, education, advanced practice school and a long career at the bedside are all respectable answers. A nurse planning graduate school in two years can still give you two strong years, and saying so honestly is a point in their favor. What helps you plan is whether your unit has the next step they want.
We have asked you a lot. What do you need to know about this unit before you could say yes?
Why ask it
Leave ten minutes for it and answer with figures, not adjectives: the ratio on each shift, who covers breaks, how sick calls are filled. What a nurse asks shows what their last unit taught them to check. Ask it last whichever groups you used, and if staff nurses are on the panel, let them take the questions about daily life.
New graduates
Tell me about your clinical rotations. Which one taught you the most?
Why ask it
A new graduate has no work history, so the rotations are the resume. Go past the favorite to what they did there: how many patients, which skills, how much was hands-on and how much was watching. Interest in a specialty other than yours is not disqualifying, though it is fair to ask what they expect to like about this one.
What did your final practicum involve, and how many patients were you carrying by the end of it?
Why ask it
It is the closest thing to a job they have had. Carrying most of a preceptor's assignment by the last weeks, giving report and calling providers themselves puts them well ahead of someone who mainly shadowed. Programs differ a great deal in how much they allow, so compare the candidate with what was possible for them.
Tell me about a time in clinical when you were unsure of something. Whom did you ask, and what did you say?
Why ask it
For a new nurse this may be the most important question on the page. You cannot expect them to know everything, and you have to be able to trust that they will ask before they act. A story of asking at the right moment is a strong answer; one in which they worked it out alone to avoid looking unprepared is the worrying one.
Which skills have you only practiced in the lab, or done once on a real patient?
Why ask it
An honest list is the good answer, and a long one is normal. IV starts, catheters and anything involving a central line are often thin after school. A graduate who claims confidence across the board either had an unusual program or does not yet know what they do not know, and a preceptor needs the true list.
What do you expect your first six months as a nurse to be like, and what worries you most?
Why ask it
Realism is the thing to hear: a graduate who expects to feel slow, go home tired and ask a lot of questions is describing what is coming. The worry they name, whether it is missing something, talking to physicians or a first code, is a gift to whoever precepts them. Answer it by describing how your orientation actually builds.
How do you learn a new skill best: watching it done, reading the policy first, or doing it with someone beside you?
Why ask it
Nothing here is a wrong answer, and it is asked for the preceptor's benefit. Pairing a read-first learner with a preceptor who teaches by throwing people in costs both of them weeks. Follow up by asking how they like to be told when they have got something wrong.
What did you do before nursing school, or alongside it, that you expect to draw on here?
Why ask it
Years as a tech or an aide mean they already know how a unit moves and how to talk to patients. A first career in teaching, the military, restaurants or retail brings its own strengths: explaining things, staying level under pressure, handling ten demands at once. Weigh it beside the grades, which say little about any of that.
Where are you with your licensing exam, and when do you expect to be able to start?
Why ask it
Dates are what you need: when they sit it, or when they passed. Whether a graduate can begin before passing, under what title and supervision, and what happens to an offer after a failed attempt all depend on where you are and on your employer. Explain how it works with you before they have to ask.
You are three weeks off orientation, it is 3 a.m., and you cannot decide whether a change in your patient is worth a call. What do you do?
Why ask it
Going to the charge nurse or a senior colleague, describing what they see, and making the call if there is still doubt is the answer to hope for. Fear of waking a provider over nothing is the real subject, so say out loud how your unit treats a call that turns out to be unnecessary. Their relief when you do is part of the interview.
How to interview a registered nurse
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Choose the questions by the vacancy
Nobody asks the whole list. For a staff nurse post, take the first two or three in each group and add the ones that match what the unit has been short of, whether that is nurses who escalate early or nurses who can take charge. Put that core to every candidate for the post in the same words, so that the answers can be set side by side.
Write one scenario from your own unit
Take a real assignment from the past month, strip out every detail that could point to a patient, and use it for the prioritization question. Decide in advance what a safe answer has to contain and what would rule a candidate out. A scenario from your own floor also tells the candidate, more honestly than a job description, what the work is.
Put a staff nurse on the panel
A manager hears how a candidate talks to a manager. A staff nurse hears whether the clinical stories ring true, and an aide or tech, if you can include one, hears how the candidate talks about the people they delegate to. Give each panel member their own questions so nobody sits silent, and collect their views separately before you discuss.
Agree on what good sounds like
For each core question, note two or three things a strong answer includes: the patient checked first, the charge nurse told, a time attached to the reassessment. Scoring against those notes straight after each interview is fairer than a general impression formed at the end of a long day of them.
Leave verification to the process
The interview is not where a license is confirmed. Verification with the issuing body, references and whatever checks your employer requires happen separately and for every hire, independent of how well the conversation went. What has to be complete before an offer or a first shift depends on where you are, so ask whoever handles hiring how it works there.
Stay on the job's demands
Name the shift pattern, the weekends, the lifting and the hours on your feet, and ask whether that works. Why it does or does not is the candidate's own business, and what an interviewer may ask about family, health, age or faith is set by law that changes from one country and state to the next. Have HR read your list beforehand, and if a candidate volunteers something personal, do not pick it up.
In the room
Start from a shift that happened
Scenario questions invite the answer from the textbook, and an experienced nurse can give it without having lived it. Ask first about a shift they worked: which patient, what time of night, who else was on. The scenarios earn their place with new graduates, with nurses changing specialty, and for events most nurses meet rarely.
Follow with 'what did you do next?'
Clinical stories told in an interview often stop at the decision. The reassessment, the second call and the handoff are where judgment shows, so ask for the next step once or twice. If the account stays vague after that, move on and make a note; a third push turns an interview into an interrogation.
Listen for the 'I' inside the 'we'
Nursing is team work and good nurses say 'we' naturally. You still need to know what this person did: who noticed, who called, who stayed in the room. Asking 'and what was your part?' is not rude, and a candidate who can answer it precisely was there.
Answer their questions with numbers
A nurse choosing between units compares figures: the ratio on days and on nights, how often a shift runs below plan, how often people float, how many posts are open. Give them, including the ones you would prefer not to. A nurse who finds out in the first month what you left out takes the orientation you paid for elsewhere, and the staff who watched it happen draw their own conclusions.
Give your finalists a shadow shift
For the one or two candidates you are serious about, a few hours beside a staff nurse, where your policy and privacy rules allow it, shows what an interview cannot: how they speak to a patient they have just met, what they notice in a room, what they ask the nurse. Tell that nurse beforehand what to watch for, and ask afterward.
Interviewing new graduates
Hire for how they learn
A new graduate will not know your equipment, your patients or your pace, and nobody expects it. What you can assess is whether they ask before they act, whether they take correction without folding, and whether they are honest about what they have not done. The questions in the last group are built around those three.
Borrow from the earlier groups
Most of the questions under Clinical judgment and Safety work for a graduate once 'tell me about a time' becomes 'what would you do'. Judge the reasoning and the sequence of steps, not the polish. 'I would go and look at the patient, then tell my preceptor or the charge nurse' is a good answer from someone who has never worked a shift alone.
Count the work around school
Time as an aide, a tech or an extern, and jobs that had nothing to do with health care, show reliability and how someone treats people when they are tired. Ask about them properly. For many graduates they are better evidence than a transcript.
Describe orientation exactly
Say how long it runs, whether there is one preceptor or several, how the patient load builds, and what happens if they are not ready at the end. A graduate choosing between offers is often choosing between orientations, and a vague answer reads as a short one.
Answers that call for a second question
No errors, ever
An experienced nurse with no mistake or near miss to describe is unusual, and the likelier explanations are that they have not been noticing or would rather not say. Ask once more, more gently: 'something small that you caught yourself?' If there is still nothing, weigh it alongside the other safety answers.
The policy recited back
'I would follow the protocol' is correct and tells you nothing. Ask what the protocol had them do the last time, and what got in the way. People who have done the thing can describe the awkward parts.
Nobody else in the story
Count the other people in a candidate's accounts. When no charge nurse was told, no colleague was asked and no provider was called, it can pass for competence, and on a unit it describes the nurse who is found late in a situation that needed help early. Ask when they last asked for help and how long they waited first.
Every former colleague was the problem
Bad units exist, and a nurse may have good reason to leave one. When the physicians, the manager, the night shift and the aides were all at fault, ask what the candidate would do differently if they had those years again. A thoughtful answer changes the picture.
Patients as rooms and diagnoses
Shorthand is normal at the nurses' station. In an interview, with time to choose words, a candidate whose patients are only ever 'the hip in twelve' or 'a frequent flyer' is showing you a habit. Ask about one patient as a person and see whether there is anything to tell.