Children’s Nurse Interview Questions

Interviews can be daunting, especially for a competitive specialism like children’s nursing. In this helpful video, Alex goes over a range of interview questions and tips for answering them.

Hi guys. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Alex. I'm a Newly Qualified Nurse. I qualified in summer 2022 and I'm currently working in a neonatal intensive care unit as a Neonatal Nurse. I studied children's nursing at university.

Today's video is going to be all about children's nursing interview questions. This video will be relevant for prospective children's nursing students, and people who might be thinking about applying or might be applying right now.

The Interview Process

It is quite a scary time, as there's a lot of things that you need to think about. Obviously, you've got to think about where you want to go to uni, if you're going to move out or stay at home, and doing your research about the different interview processes because a lot of unis have a very different interview process.

This video is just going to touch on a few examples of interview questions that you might get; it's just going to be just giving a bit of advice from personal experience as to how to answer these questions as candidly, openly, and effectively as you can.

So, a bit of a background into my interview process, just for context. For me, I applied to five universities, all of which obviously required an interview. One out of those five I got offered an interview for, but I decided to not go because I didn't want to go to that uni anymore.

For the other four universities, I got offered interviews for all of them, went to all four of the interviews, and I got offered a place for all of those universities. Obviously, you then whittle it down to your top two. And then once I got my A Level results and everything, I ended up getting into the university that I wanted to go to. So, I'm very lucky.

It wasn't an easy process because there was a lot of preparation, a lot of nerves, a lot of traveling around the country to prepare for interviews, meeting a lot of new people. It is quite a daunting time, but it's really good for getting interview experience.

And obviously I'm very lucky that I was successful because it is a very competitive course, children's nursing. So, I'm just going to get into some common questions.

“Why Do You Want To Be A Children’s Nurse?”

The first question is probably one that is the most asked question you would get, the most obvious question, and which is probably something you would be asked in a job interview as well, when you are interviewing for Newly Qualified Nurse (NQN) jobs when you're about to qualify.

That is, "Why do you want to be a children's nurse?" Or they might phrase it as, "Why do you want to study this course at this university?" or just, "Why do you want to study this course in general?"

To answer this question, you just have to be open and honest. The way I like to think about it is your interviews for university are essentially an extension of your personal statement.

Revise Your Personal Statement

Before you go into your interviews, revise your personal statement: think about what you spoke about and how you were able to successfully get across why you want to study this course because, obviously, it's your personal statement that catches the eyes of the admissions people in the first place to even be able to offer you an interview.

So just think about all the reasons why, make it clear and short and concise, because obviously there's a lot of people they're interviewing. You've only got a certain amount of time, so just make sure you try to keep it as short and sweet as possible.

Use Anecdotes & Current Affairs

If you have some sort of anecdotal answer you want to give, like a story of something that happened in your life that inspired you to become a nurse, you can bring in maybe you did some work experience that inspired you.

Whatever inspired you, just be honest. It doesn't matter if it sounds cringey or cliche, you're giving your personal answer as to why you want to do this course, why you want to become a nurse.

You can bring in things to do with current affairs. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the nursing world at the moment, and maybe that might be something that's inspired you to want to make a change.

Anything that it is, just answer it very honestly and just show your passion. Don't necessarily use the word passion because I think it's a very overused word when it comes to uni applications and stuff, but as long as you can get across why you want to do it, what inspired you, maybe touching on some qualities that you have that would make you suitable for the role, then I think that those will all be really great ways to answer that question.

But I think it's very subjective and it's the way you answer that question is very specific to the individual.

"How Have You Displayed _ Quality In Your Life/ A Situation?"

The next question that I think is something that is quite commonly asked, and I'm pretty sure I was asked this question in one of my interviews as well, which was, "How have you displayed X quality in your life or in a situation?"

What I mean by this is maybe how have you displayed good communication or compassion, or something like that. This is a great place to put in your knowledge and understanding of the 6 Cs of nursing. If you don't know what those are, then please look them up and make yourself familiar with them because mentioning them will be useful for your interviews.

The 6 Cs Of Nursing

The 6 Cs of nursing are care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. These are the qualities that all nurses need to uphold and are very important in that they make up our day-to-day practice as a nurse. So, making sure you have a good awareness and knowledge of what those 6 Cs are and what they mean in general and what they mean to you is super important in general, and for the interview process.

If you were to be asked how have you displayed courage in your life, for example, it is a very on-the-spot question because you've got to think of something that might have happened to you in your life. That's a good thing to pre-plan, maybe thinking of ways that you've displayed an example of each of the 6 Cs just in case that comes up.

But take courage, for example. If you have example of a story where you have shown courage in your life, it doesn't have to be related to healthcare or helping people or nursing, and then bring in how it relates to one of the 6 Cs and how that is an integral part of nursing and that's why you would be suitable for the role. Definitely bring that in because it shows that you've done your outside research and you know a bit more about the more specific qualities that mean that you've got what it takes to become a nurse.

Whatever inspired you, just be honest…you're giving your personal answer as to why you want to do this course, why you want to become a nurse… get across why you want to do it, what inspired you, maybe touching on some qualities that you have that would make you suitable for the role.

“Tell Me About A Time When You Overcame A Challenge”

Another example that is similar to this is when interviewers could ask you to tell them about a time where you overcame a challenge.

That is quite a similar question. There are no set questions that they will ask you in interviews. Every uni does it differently, every uni changes their questions around all the time.

People have asked me before, "What questions have people asked you? What they're going to ask?" And it's like, "I don't know and I'm not going to tell you.” I can't obviously say everything people have asked because that would not be fair at all. But there are very common questions that always come up, so it's important to prepare for everything.

But a very common question that people do get and that I have heard is, "Tell me about a time where you overcame a challenge.

Don’t Overshare

Again, this is something that doesn't have to be nursing or healthcare related, it could just be anything that has happened to you. Ideally, it would be quite nice if it was something to do with maybe just a difficult time you've had, whether it's to do with your personal health or anything that you feel comfortable sharing. Don't feel like you need to overshare about your personal life.

Tell them something that is important to you and answers their question properly, but don't feel like you need to overdo it and give a story that might be a bit too personal to you, that might evoke emotions or make you feel uncomfortable for the rest of the interview. Just make sure that you're comfortable with the answers that you're giving. But being able to show how you can overcome a challenge is a really good thing to do.

Bringing in the 6 Cs again and applying that to a challenge that you overcame and how that would help you in a nursing situation, or how that would help you to overcome the challenges of being a Student Nurse, as well as being a qualified nurse. It's a quite nice way to end a question.

“How Have You Displayed Teamwork?”

Another example could be talk about an example of teamwork that you've displayed. Teamwork is an integral part of being a healthcare professional in general, let alone a nurse.

We work with all sorts of different professionals, doctors, physios, occupational therapists, healthcare assistants, nursing associates, so many different people, obviously other students as well.

Talking about how you've displayed teamwork, that could be within hobbies that you have, it could be within work experience, or it could be at school, etc. It's a really nice way to show that you're a team player; it's all well and good being able to display what you can do by yourself and all these skills that you have, but being able to show that you can work with other people will make you a lot more ideal for a role.

And obviously being a Student Nurse as well at university, you have to do a lot of group work, do a lot of things together. So, it's important to be able to display that you have those skills.

Always link back everything to qualities of being a nurse because it's showing that you can apply all your other skills to this anything new that you'll be learning when you become a nurse… it's very important to be able to show those transferable skills.

“What Are Your Hobbies & Interests?”

Related to that as well, some interview questions may include things about your outside hobbies and interests that you have outside of your studies, which is important to talk about.

If you've been playing an instrument for so many years or you've been doing a sport or you've been a dancer, talk about it, because that shows really good commitment. It shows that you are committed to learning something else, you've got other talents, you have certain skills that you can apply to nursing because you're able to commit to something.

You may be showing good teamwork because you might be part of a team, like a sports team or something. It displays confidence if you're a performer, as well as problem-solving skills.

There are so many different things that you could apply to your hobbies, even if they are completely unrelated to nursing. Of course, those are quite good things to slip into your personal statement anyway.

Sell Yourself

So, in your interview, you can just expand on that if you have mentioned it in your personal statement because obviously the people interviewing you are very, very unlikely to know anything about you or your personal statement obviously. It's important to speak to this person: they have never met you, they know nothing about you, so just sell yourself.

Always link back everything to qualities of being a nurse because it's showing that you can apply all your other skills to this new skill that you're about to be learning when you become a nurse. And that's very important to be able to show those transferable skills.

I feel like those are some quite popular generic questions that you may or may not get asked in your different interviews from different universities when you're applying to children's nursing.

Be Prepared, Professional & Polite

There are different interview styles as well. Sometimes there may be scenario questions, there may be actors, some universities even bring in actual children that will ask you questions, and they'll be looking at how you interact with them and things like that.

It really varies, but university websites will tell you what they expect from you and what you should expect from them, so you have plenty of time to prepare and know what to expect. It can be daunting, it can be overwhelming, especially if you've not got much interview experience, which I didn't at the time. But you just have to be yourself, don't take yourself too seriously because you might overwhelm yourself.

Just be professional, be polite, don't overthink your answers, but make sure you take a few seconds after you've been asked a question to just gather your thoughts before you answer.

Stay Relaxed & Patient

Just relax, and I wish you the best of luck if you are in this part of your journey right now. Also be patient for the result. Sometimes it can take days, or it can take a couple of months to hear back from your interview, regarding getting a place at the university.

It's different for everyone, so don't think just because you're waiting longer than someone else that that means that your interview was worse or that you're not going to get in. Just be patient, and just do what you can because whatever's meant to be will be.

I hope that video was helpful, and I will see you in my next one.

Bye.