Top 7 Wound Care Nurse Interview Questions to Ask

Wound care nurses are highly skilled and experienced healthcare professionals. They’re responsible for performing focused skin assessments, assisting with minor surgical procedures, and providing education on skin care products and medications. If you’re looking to hire a wound care RN, it can be challenging to find a qualified and compassionate employee to fill the position.

Asking the right wound care nurse interview questions can help you find a driven and motivated employee. In this article, we’ll review seven questions — and nurse responses to listen for — to help you choose a top-tier candidate. First, you’ll want to research current information about the wound care nurse job market. You can get started by searching for similar positions on our nurse job board.

Wound Care Nurse Interview Questions and Answers

After conducting background research, you can begin developing your wound care nursing interview questions. Asking a variety of critical-thinking and behavioral questions can help you better understand a nurse’s passions, motivations, and clinical experience. Here are some example questions to get your team started.

1. Why do you want to be a wound care nurse at our facility?

Start out your interview with a few introductory wound care nurse questions to set a casual, lighthearted tone. While it might seem too generic, open-ended questions like this one can help hiring managers get a feel for a nurse’s communication style, personality, and bedside manner.

Listen for answers that show a candidate has done their homework and understands the basics about your facility. Are they passionate about serving your unique patient population? Do they want to be a part of your team’s cutting-edge wound care treatments and procedures? Answers like these can hint that a nurse is genuinely interested and committed to your organization and the role.

After the interviewee responds, you can share a bit about your own personal journey with the company. Provide insight into the intricacies of the position that may not have been advertised directly in the job description, and be sure to answer questions they may have regarding employee benefits or scheduling requirements.

2. How have your previous roles prepared you for this position?

You’ve probably already read about the candidate’s clinical experience and educational background in their resume. However, asking these questions directly in an interview can help you determine a nurse’s understanding of the duties and responsibilities of your open position.

While newly graduated RNs might not have the exact level of experience you’re looking for, they may have served as a CNA or medical assistant in a department similar to yours. It’s important to not immediately disqualify these applicants — they often have the passion and team-oriented mentality you need.

3. Imagine that you’ve been assigned to prepare a patient for a bedside wound debridement. Describe the steps you would take to get ready.

Now that you’ve gotten to know the candidate, asking scenario-based wound care nurse interview questions can help you see how well a nurse can think on their feet.

One of the primary responsibilities of wound care nurses is preparing for bedside procedures. Knowing how to appropriately set up supplies, tools, and dressings is essential to providing safe patient care. An experienced nurse may mention performing the following tasks:

• Retrieving sterile gauze, saline, and enzymatic agents to have ready at the bedside
• Setting up a sterile field and educating patients and visitors about the importance of maintaining a clean area
• Collecting a set of pre-procedural vital signs
• Pre-medicating the patient with the appropriate analgesic medication prior to the procedure
• Taking pictures of the wound prior to the start of the procedure (using a hospital-approved camera) and uploading images to the patient’s electronic health record (EHR)

4. How do you care for patients with painful pressure injuries?

Managing patient discomfort can be a challenging task for a wound care nurse. Interview questions that touch on pain management strategies can help you choose a candidate capable of providing exceptional care.

Using pillows to relieve pressure, frequent repositioning, and placing hydrocolloid dressings to promote wound healing are a few techniques that may be used to promote comfort in patients with pressure injuries. You can respond to a nurse’s answer by outlining any facility-specific products or practices you use to prevent and treat wounds.

5. What techniques do you use to optimize tissue viability?

Nurse interview questions like this one can help you gauge a candidate’s familiarity with current evidence-based guidelines. Preventing infection and promoting tissue growth are two of the biggest wound care challenges. Knowing a candidate has the knowledge and skill set to keep patients safe can help you improve patient outcomes and reduce readmission rates.

Take the opportunity to showcase any projects or quality-improvement initiatives your team may be working on. By discussing opportunities to attend nursing conferences or research fairs, you can get a candidate even more excited to join your team.

6. How would you educate a patient who refuses to follow the recommended treatment plan?

It’s important to listen to a nurse’s tone and language when they answer this wound care nurse interview question. Some clinicians immediately get frustrated or angry when a patient doesn’t listen to their directions or guidelines.

A kind and compassionate nurse understands that there are many factors that affect a patient’s ability to care for themselves. They show respect and patience by asking individuals about their preferred method of learning and tailoring education to meet each patient’s needs.

7. Have you previously served in any leadership positions?

Nurses who take on leadership roles are the clinicians who care about improving patient and staff engagement. Listen for answers that showcase a nurse’s ambition, drive, and dedication.

Candidates that have filled leadership roles may mention spearheading quality-improvement initiatives, mentoring new members of staff, or chairing hospital shared-governance meetings. These team players are the clinicians you need on your team.

Quickly Fill Your Vacancies With Qualified Nursing Professionals

Asking well-written wound care nurse interview questions can help you choose a great candidate, but sometimes finding nurses to interview is the toughest part of the hiring process. Posting your open position on our nursing job board can help you reach the largest nursing network in the nation.