10 ICU Nurse Interview Questions for Your Next Interview

If you’ve been invited to an ICU nurse interview, congratulations. It’s an exciting but often nerve-wracking moment, as you get one step closer to your ideal job. Now, you just need to impress the interviewers.

Fortunately, by preparing common ICU nurse interview questions, you can walk into that interview with confidence. Let’s explore some questions that might come up and how to answer them.

Common ICU Nurse Interview Questions You Should Prepare For

1. Tell Me About Yourself

This is your chance to convince the interviewer that you’re the ideal candidate for the job and establish rapport with them. As an extremely broad question, it lets you choose what to focus on. Pick carefully! You want to show who you truly are while underscoring that you have the qualities they’re looking for. Watch out for the two biggest errors: not keeping your traits relevant to the job and sounding generic or insincere.

2. What Is Your Biggest Strength?

Whichever strength you choose, make sure it’s relevant to being an ICU nurse. Then, back it up with an anecdote or example. For example, you could say:

“My biggest strength is that I’m not afraid to ask questions. Once, I reviewed a patients’ records, and some of the numbers seemed abnormally high to me. I asked a more experienced nurse, and we realized that someone had potentially entered the data wrong. I re-ran the tests and added the results to the records. Had I not checked, I might have provided the wrong care based on bad data.”

3. What Is Your Biggest Weakness?

When your interviewer asks you this, they’re looking for self-awareness and a willingness to improve. Rather than talking about a weakness that’s irrelevant or relatively small, think about the ways nursing has challenged you and how you’ve improved. Use the STAR technique — Situation, Task, Action, Result — to explain this. For example:

“I struggle to say ‘no’ because I always want to help people, but sometimes I need to do this so I can focus on more important tasks (situation). I know that as an ICU nurse, I need to be assertive about prioritizing my patients and ensuring their safety, so I’ve been trying to become more comfortable with saying ‘no’ (task). I remind myself that when I do this, there’s always a good reason, and if appropriate, I explain this and look for a compromise (action).

“This has made it much easier for me (result). For example, the other day, a lonely but stable patient asked me to keep them company, but I had another patient on a balloon pump who needed my undivided attention. I explained to the stable patient that I was needed elsewhere, but I lent them my magazine and stopped by for a chat at the end of my shift.”

4. Why Do You Think You Would Be/Are a Good ICU Nurse?

There are two parts to this question: showing that you understand what qualities a good ICU nurse has and that you also have them. To make your answer convincing and memorable, give examples of how you exhibit these traits. You may find it helpful to ask previous coworkers, managers and classmates what they liked about working with you.

5. What Should You Do If You Have a Sepsis Admission? (And Other Clinical Questions)

When it comes to clinical questions, you probably already know the answer from your studies. If you’re unsure, however, or you’re presented with a list of inconclusive symptoms, don’t panic. The interviewer also wants to see your critical thinking skills, as well as your focus on patient safety.

Start by explaining the information you would check, what you would do to ensure safety and how you would triage the patient. Don’t be afraid to say that you would ask an experienced nurse something, especially with more complex cases.

6. Why Do You Want to Work in This Hospital?

This is your time to show that you’re a good fit not just for the role but for the team. Ahead of the interview, browse the hospital’s website to work out what sets it apart from other locations. For example, you could mention the patient base it attracts, the facilities it has or its mission statement.

7. How Would You Handle a Difficult or Unhappy Family Member?

Dealing with stressed, scared and on-edge family members is part of being an ICU nurse. The interviewer will want to see that you can engage them with empathy, respect and understanding while de-escalating the situation. If you’ve experienced this before, use the STAR technique to talk about it.

8. Tell Me About a Time When You Had an Uncooperative or Scared Patient. What Did You Do?

Whenever you’re asked to talk about a past experience, remember to explain not just what happened but also what you learned and will do (or did) the next time. Even if you made a mistake, demonstrating self-awareness and the ability to improve can make a good impression on interviewees. Again, the STAR technique will help you structure your answer.

9. How Do You Handle Pressure?

Working in the ICU is a high-pressure environment, and your interviewer will want to see that you can handle it. Even if you thrive on pressure, mention your coping methods and how you decompress after a stressful day. This will reassure them that you’ve got the mental resilience to take on the job.

10. You’re Assigned One Patient When a Fellow Nurse Asks for Your Help with a Different Patient. What Do You Do?

Helping your fellow nurse makes you a flexible team player, but prioritizing your assigned patient shows you follow protocol and provide excellent patient care: which decision would be best?

Interviewers ask questions like this, in which any answer seems positive, to test your priorities and analytical skills. Remember that patient safety is of the utmost importance. You should make it clear that your decision depends on whether your assigned patient is stable and can be safely left for a short period.

Get Invited to ICU Nurse Interviews With a Stellar Resume

Interviewers want to see if you’re the right person for the job, not to trick you. As long as you’re well prepared for the different questions that might come up, there’s nothing to worry about. You just need to let your personality, passion and experience shine.

Of course, you can only impress an interviewer if you first get invited to the interview — and that comes down to having a well-presented resume that highlights your best features. If you want to stand out from all the other applicants, it’s essential that your resume is customized to both ICU nursing and your background.

Here at Rocket Resume, we’ve got over a dozen ICU nurse resume templates for you to choose from. They’re all ATS-readable and include recruiter-approved bullet points to help you capture the attention of the hiring team. What’s more, they only take 10 minutes to build.

Improve your resume to help you get invited to more interviews.