Top 21 Pediatric Nurse Interview Questions In 2024 [With Answers]

Infants are one of the most wonderful gifts of nature. Their appealing movements, adorable gibberish talks, and delightful activities, not only enchants an individual but makes them fall in love with them. It is an established fact that toddlers fall prey to viruses, bacteria, and illnesses more than their grown-up counterparts. In order to keep up with their health, and provide excellent medical assistance, pediatric nurses are employed by established hospitals, nursing centers, and units, run and operated by individual pediatrics doctors.

Pediatric nurses get a highly lucrative salary and bonus or incentives. With experience, a nurse can scale the hierarchical structure, which will increase their in-hand pay and enhance their respect within the organization. Thus, it is necessary to work hard for the interview process, as there is a lot of competition for places. The best way to prepare for the interview session is by referring to the frequently asked interview questions.

21 Best Interview Questions To Study

1. Explain The Composition Of Human Blood?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of basic biology. Blood is a hot and favorite topic of the interviewers and there will always be questions from this topic.

Sample Answer

Sir, blood is composed of two elements, which are further sub-divided into several sub-elements. These are:

Elements of Human Blood	Percentage	Sub-elements
Plasma	It is 55% of the total composition of blood.	The plasma consists of: a) 90% water b) 2% minerals, nutrients, electrolytes, hormones, enzymes, etc. c) Protein, which is roughly 60-80 grams per liter. This sub-element can be further divided into, Albumin, Globulin, and Fibrinogen.
Hematocrit	It is 45% of the total composition of blood and consists of all the blood cells.	This element can be sub-divided into White blood cells (1%) and Red blood cells. (44%) and Platelets.

2. How Are Blood Cells Produced In Our Body?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of basic biology. Blood is a hot and favorite topic of the interviewers and there will always be questions from this topic.

Sample Answer

Sir, there are three types of blood cells, which are White blood cells, Red blood cells, and Platelets. All these blood cells are produced by the bone marrow in our body. When a person is not more than 18 years old, these blood cells are produced by Yellow marrow. And on the other hand, when a person matures and becomes of age more than 18 years than these cells are produced by Red marrow.

3. What Is The End Result Of Every Food That We Intake?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the human digestive system.

Sample Answer

Sir, every food molecule is digested by our human body, and in the process, it goes through a variety of steps. The digestion of food starts as soon as we intake the food in our mouth. The saliva, produced by salivary glands, consists of salivary amylase, which helps in the digestion of starch present in our food, and changes it to maltose. Further, the bile juice produced by our liver breaks down the larger food molecules into smaller particles, which are ultimately converted into Fatty acids and Glycerol, by Lipase (an enzyme produced by the pancreas)

4. What Does The Deficiency Of Riboflavin and Niacin Causes In Our Body?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of vitamins and minerals.

Sample Answer

Sir, both of these are scientific names of Vitamin B2 and Vitamin B3 respectively. There deficiency causes:

• Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin): Cracking of skin, Cracking of tongue, and Reddish eyes
• Vitamin B3 (Niacin): Pellagera, Glossitis, Dermatitis

5. What Is The Reserve Food Of Humans?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the human digestive system.

Sample Answer

Sir, in humans, Glycogen is the reserve food, and it is stored as fat, in the Liver and Muscles.

6. Are You Aware Of The Ratio Of The White Blood Cells and Red Blood Cells Present In Our Body?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the various types of blood cells.

Sample Answer

Yes sir, White blood cells and Red blood cells are present in the ratio of 1:600. This means, after every 600 red blood cells, there is a single white blood cell.

7. Explain The Development Of A Clot.

Clots protect our body from wounds and restrict the further entry of germs/bacterias and viruses. Clots form through a response, which is initiated by our immune system and follows a proper clotting procedure. This clotting process is asked in this interview question.

Sample Answer

Sir, the clotting process could be defined as the union of several proteins and other elements. This process is:

• Prothrombin + Thromboplastin + Calcium = Thrombin
• Thrombin + Firbrinogen = Fibrin
• Fibrin + Platelets = Clot

8. What Do You Understand By Water Soluble Vitamins?

This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the various vitamins, nutrients, and minerals that are required by our bodies.

Sample Answer

Sir, Vitamins are divided into two categories, these are:

Type of Vitamins	Features
Water-Soluble Vitamins	These vitamins are required by our body constantly as they do not get stored in our body and are constantly evicted out through urine. These vitamins are unstable to heat and light. There are only two such vitamins, which are, Vitamin B and Vitamin C.
Fat-soluble vitamins	These vitamins are not regularly required by our body, as they get stored in our fat as muscle deposits. These are stable to heat and light. There are four such vitamins: Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K.

9. What Is Your Understanding Of The Concept Of Erythroblastosis Fetalis?

This question tests your core pediatric knowledge.

Sample Answer

Sir, it is a vital concept, which is used in maternity. As per this concept, if Father is Rh-positive and Mother is Rh-negative, then the first child of the couple would be healthy and fine, post this, all the subsequent pregnancies won’t bear fruit and would not result in a matured child.

10. Name The Five Types Of White Blood Cells.

White blood cells are known as soldiers of our body and help us to fight off diseases and common illnesses. The relevance of WBCs in the interview is quite high and there will always be questions in this regard. This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the various types of white blood cells.

Sample Answer

Sure, sir, these are:

• Eosinophil (granulocytes)
• Basophil (granulocytes)
• Neutrophil (granulocytes)
• Monocyte (agranulocytes)
• Lymphocyte (agranulocytes)

11. What Motivates You To Work?

It is common for the interviewers to ask this question. We are all motivated by a few motivational factors that prompt us to work hard and achieve our goals and objectives in a time-bound manner. This question is a bit personal in nature and is heavily influenced by your financial conditions, living circumstances, and personal desires. Hence, it is always advisable that you share an original response and never go for the generic answers.

12. How Will You Handle The Disgruntled Parents Of A Child?

This is a practical question and represents a challenging situation, which you will soon be dealing with. It is common for the parents of toddlers, to yell, doubt and mistrust the treatment provide by health care centers. Hence, it is necessary that you ought to develop techniques to handle such a situation. Your answer must put on display, your level of patience, intelligence, and interpersonal skills.

13. At Our Centre, Nurses Perform Several Tasks In Their Shift. How Do You Prioritize?

It is a common interview question, wherein your prioritization techniques are being asked for. You might arrange or order the tasks on the basis of their difficulty levels or time consumption. Whatever it is, just share an appropriate strategy with your interviewer.

14. How Do You Prefer To Work – Team or Individually?

This is a tricky interview question and presumably, you are never safe. If you go for the “team” as an option, then you will be perceived as a candidate who can not work without supervision and minimal guidance. On the other hand, if you choose “individually”, then you will be referred to as a person, who is not able to develop harmony or camaraderie with his or her colleagues. Thus, whatever you choose, make sure that you are able to completely explain, and justify it using relevant reasons and logic.

15. How Do You Handle Failure At Your Workplace?

Failure leaves a devastating impact upon human minds and adversely affects the performance of employees at the workplace. Thus, failure needs to be managed using appropriate techniques and measures. As an ideal response to this question, you are requested to share the best strategies that you can adopt to manage your failure at the workplace.

16. We Believe In Quality Performance and Treatment. How Do You Interpret The Term “Quality”?

This is a word-based interview question. In this, you are requested to share your own version of the interpretation of the term “quality”. Quality can be achieved in operations when an employee is able to deliver the performance, which satisfies the needs and wants of the customer and is as per the benchmark or standards designed. Frame your answer on similar lines, and make sure you use a persuading tone.

17. Medicine Is Challenging Profession. How Do You Manage Your Stress Levels?

This statement is absolutely true. Stress is a common negative trait, which is found in almost all medical professionals working across the world. Stress management is a common expectation of business organizations. As an ideal response to this question, you are required to share a strategy, using which you can manage your stress levels.

18. Are You Currently Working Somewhere? If Yes, When can You Begin Working With Us?

This question requires you to state your availability. We all work somewhere and need some time before switching over. By having an understanding of the nearest date, on or after which, you will start working for the company, an interviewer can make better hiring decisions. The perfect reply to this question, is the exact date, post which, you can begin working for the company.

19. What Are Your Salary Expectations?

There is nothing technical in this interview question, yet this question has the ability to reduce your selection chances. You are always requested to share a salary bracket, which is based on some deep, thoughtful, and precise research upon the industry to which you belong. Find out the median salary offered to the professionals, similar to you, and then quote a salary figure on the same lines.

20. Why Do You Prefer To Work With Us?

We all apply to different business organizations, to increase our selection chances. Through this question, an interviewer wants to know your level of commitment, interest, and seriousness towards the company, you are getting interviewed with. The best source to prepare for this question is by browsing the official website of the company and noting down all the relevant facts and details. Post this, compile all these notings with your personal interests in the company and present a well-crafted answer.

21. Do You Have Any Questions For Us?

An interview session is always concluded by this question. Through this question, an interviewer wants to know all your apprehensions and doubts in regards to the business organization. It is always recommended to attempt this question and ask a few relevant counter-questions related to the organization, its working culture, ethics, harassment policies, etc. You can always refer to the model questions mentioned below:

Model Questions

• What are the various shifts that are run by this medical facility, and also share the work timings followed?
• Please share a list of all the anti-harassment policies and rules formed by the company for its full-time employees.
• Is it the policy of the company to give paid leaves to its employees in events of maternity/paternity?

References

1. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jonm.13232
2. https://bmcfampract.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-021-01457-1