Employers in the Healthcare industry look out for the very best when hiring new talents. To achieve this, interviewers conduct a series of interviews. But what questions do these recruiting or hiring managers ask healthcare professionals? Let’s find out together.
Usually, healthcare interview questions highlight four basic areas. The experience and achievements of candidates, their problem-solving skills, and most importantly, general work philosophy.
More so, employers look out for healthcare professionals with dedicated soft skills like, accountability, communication, and teamwork, to work under them.
In this article, expect to find the top questions to ask healthcare professionals during interviews. And, as an applicant, you will find the right prompt suggestions for each question.
Questions to ask Healthcare Professionals
For a quick and successful interview, you want to consider a wholesome approach. This approach helps you quickly get an insight into the strengths, skills, and weaknesses of prospective employees.
Also, as an applicant, the interview is your opportunity to show off your skills via your composure and presentation.
Hence, Asking the best questions to ask during the interview session helps you get the most qualified candidates for the position.
So, what questions should I ask a healthcare professional? Here is the best approach.
#1. Ask Professional Based Questions:
The healthcare industry covers different professionals, caregivers, and much more. Each of these professions has different duties and socialization, hence there are specific interview questions for each.
Therefore, crafting professional questions in this context means maintaining a structured interview question format that captures different roles and responsibilities.
Question sample For Nurses:
- What is your experience with nursing care plans?
- How do you delegate tasks to other members of the team?
- What is your experience working with patients with [specific condition]?
- How do you handle difficult patients or patients with complex medical needs?
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Questions For Doctors:
- What is your experience with making diagnoses and developing treatment plans?
- How do you communicate complex medical information to patients and their families?
- How do you stay up-to-date on the latest medical research and guidelines?
- What is your experience with working in a team setting?
- How do you handle stress and pressure?
Questions For other Healthcare Professionals:
- What is your experience with the specific equipment and technologies used in this role?
- How do you maintain confidentiality and patient privacy?
- How do you work with other members of the healthcare team to provide coordinated care to patients?
- How do you educate patients about their condition and treatment options?
Hint: You can also ask more specific questions about the healthcare professional’s experience with certain procedures, patient populations, or conditions.
For example, if you are interviewing for a role in a pediatric hospital, you can ask about the candidate’s experience working with children of different age ranges and health challenges.
Asking profession-specific questions helps you evaluate a candidate’s capabilities and potential. This is a good way to analyze an individual candidate’s skills, experience, and achievements.
#2. Ask Open-ended or Unstructured Questions
Although Open-ended questions are great, it is wise to use them lightly. This is because you may not get as much information as you desire to get the right candidate. Open-ended questions inspire candidates to talk more about their experiences and themselves.
While this is great, you want to keep it moderate.
Here are some examples you can ask:
- Tell me about your experience in healthcare.
This is a great opening question because it helps you grasp the candidate’s journey and motivation over the years. It allows you to feel their personality while also helping candidates stay at ease.
Other Questions under this category are;
- What are your thoughts on the future of healthcare?
- Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a patient.
- What is your philosophy of care?
- How do you stay up-to-date on the latest medical trends and research?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses as a healthcare professional?
- What are your career goals?
- How do you handle a situation where a patient disagrees with your recommended treatment plan?
- How do you stay motivated and engaged in your work, even when things are tough?
Intent: As mentioned, these questions help interviewers understand candidates’ mindsets, strengths, and personal beliefs toward work and life. As an employer, you want to know the reasons behind prospective employees’ choices and their efforts to build a better work environment to improve output.
Hence, observe the ease with which candidates express their answers. This shows how enthusiastic they are in the role. Open-ended questions help you, as the interviewer discover whether a candidate’s goals align with your work. The same goes for applicants.
#3. Ask Structured Questions
With structured questions, you can identify candidates’ soft and hard skills. According to the How to Become blog, “Structured interview questions are pre-set questions that assess how you have previously performed in specific situations”
These questions are centered around what goes on in the workplace and what candidates are likely to do to address such crises. The purpose of asking structured questions during healthcare interviews is to know how effective they are in crisis, time, and behavioral management.
Here are some sample questions to address:
1. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a patient.
This question helps you assess candidates’ devotion to work and ability to communicate with patients. More so, this offers an insight into a candidate’s ability to work effectively.
2. How do you handle a situation where a patient disagrees with your recommended treatment plan?
Here you want to identify candidates’ ability to work with people even under unfavorable circumstances, as this is inevitable. Note candidates’ expressions and answers. You should look out for candidates who express good communication skills and adaptability. Such candidates would thrive better.
3. How do you educate patients about their condition and treatment options?
For most of the time, healthcare professionals maintain one-on-one contact with patients. Asking this question helps you evaluate further candidates’ people’s skills.
4. Over time, how do you balance work and personal life?
The healthcare profession entails a lot of dedication and can affect another aspect of candidates’ lifestyles. So, you want to know how effective candidates are in time management as this will help them live optimally. By understanding candidates’ approach to balancing life and work, you can tell how productive the employee would be.
Other questions to note:
- Have you ever worked under presence during work hours, how did you handle it?
- On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your experience with performing [specific procedure]?
- What percentage of your patients with [specific condition] achieved a successful outcome with the treatment plan you recommended?
- How do you stay up-to-date on the latest research and best practices for [specific condition]?
- What are your strategies for educating patients and their families about [specific condition]?
- Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news to a patient. How did you handle the situation?
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Intent: This question helps employees assess a candidate’s ability to remain calm and focused under stress. Also, it helps you evaluate candidates’ problem-solving and decision-making skills in challenging situations.
However, when asking these questions, you must pay close attention candidate’s responses. This will help further assess other qualities like level of confidence, enthusiasm, and passion.
Conclusion on Questions to Ask Healthcare Professionals
The best questions to ask healthcare professionals during interviews depend on the level of the professional and specifications. However, during the interview process, it is wise to have many questions to have an all-round evaluation of the candidates.
First, start with unstructured or open-ended questions, which are general questions about passion, motivation, and general work ethics. Then slowly slide into structured questions that highlight candidates’ ability to apply both soft and hard skills to improve performance at work.
Consequently, with these questions, you (an employer or hiring manager) can successfully hold interview sessions with healthcare professionals. On the flip side, healthcare professionals bearing this in mind can scale any healthcare interview.
Overall, I wish you success all the way.
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