Question: Has your department’s budget been cut; and, if so, how have you met that directive?
Answer: Met corporate directives for budget cuts, eliminating overtime, and out-sourced contracts to achieve savings of $750,000+. Maintained a 100% record for budget compliance throughout tenure as Medical/Surgical Nurse Manager.
Question: Was there a particular problem—for instance, from lax documentation—that you corrected?
Answer: Brought past-due evaluations of nursing staff into compliance for 90-day, 120-day, and annual performance reviews; maintained strong record for documentation of disciplinary action (with no legal repercussions).
Question: Did you conduct staff training?
Answer: Introduced staff-development program “Seldom-Used but Vital Equipment”; program improved competency on critical emergency department instrumentation and ensured rapid response in emergency situations.
Question: Did you restructure staffing or job descriptions?
Answer: Initiated use of no licensed assistive personnel to assume non-nursing functions, freeing licensed staff to focus on trauma care.
Question: Did you revise outdated policies?
Answer: Revised outdated department policies (last updated circa 1980) for compliance with federal and state mandates.
Question: Were there morale issues you were able to address?
Answer: Accepted challenge of supervising medical unit clerks with history of chronic absenteeism; increased their accountability, improved productivity, and negotiated changes in scheduling despite union opposition.
Question: Has your department undergone major changes; if so, how have you managed these changes?
Answer: Aided in conversion of Labor & Delivery Unit from traditional model to Labor Delivery Recovery setting; designed staffing and communications systems to accommodate change. Survey feed-back from new mothers indicates 96% would return to hospital for their next birth.
Question: Did your hospital work include special or more difficult assignments?
Answer: Performed all facets of circulating nurse responsibilities in an open-heart setting, including significant medical/pharmacological preparation and intervention.
Question: Did you work in a teaching hospital or regional trauma center?
Answer: Provided full-time staff nurse-anesthetist functions in 350-bed regional trauma center/teaching hospital.
Question: Did you serve as a Team Leader or informal resource?
Answers: Functioned as Team Leader on Acute Ortho-Neuro Floor serving Level III and IV post-trauma (MVA, GSW) neurovascular injuries.
Served as resource and clinical expert for nursing staff in Post-Anesthesia and Burn/Pediatric Trauma units.
Question: Is your scope of experience broader than others?
Answer: Extensive experience in post-anesthesia recovery, burn care, wound therapy, neurological care, hyperbaric oxygenation, and cardiac care.
Question: Did you work in a rural setting where you typically see a higher level of acuity?
Answer 1: Responded to rural health-clinic patients presenting with a high level of acuity, multisymptom disease, and complex emergent care needs.
Answer 2: Utilize functional literacy in Spanish to communicate with a primarily Spanish-speaking, migrant farm-worker patient population.
Question: Did your home health nursing include exposure to multisystem disease processes?
Answer: Provided high-tech nursing services for home health patients with multisystem disease processes.
Question: Did your home health nursing skills lower return-to-hospital rates?
Answer: Reduced return-to-hospital rates to record low through strengths in assessment, problem solving, and clinical intervention.
Question: Did you write nursing protocols?
Answer: Designed nursing protocols that assisted physicians in expediting patient care.
Question: How would others describe you?
Answer 1: Proactive patient advocate with in-depth knowledge of Patients’ Rights.
Answer 2: Characterized by supervisors, patients, and their family members as a competent clinician with the ability to bring a reassuring presence to crises.
Answer 3: “Ms. Benayan consistently handles diffi-cult situations in a calm and efficient manner—making extra efforts beyond the explicit requirements of her posi-tion to ensure a well-integrated treat-ment outcome.” Dr. John L. Manton, Director of Medical/Surgical Services, St. Joseph’s Hospital.
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