7 Key Pre-op Nurse Interview Questions to Ask

Hiring a new pre-op nurse for your facility’s surgical team is an exciting step toward delivering optimal patient care. Once you have crafted a pre-op nurse job description, gathered resumes, and narrowed the applicant pool, it’s time for the interview. Asking the right pre-op nurse interview questions is essential to finding the right nurse to fill this position.

Pre-op nurses help multidisciplinary healthcare teams ensure that patients are properly prepared for surgical procedures. This position requires knowledge of the types of procedures your facility offers, along with excellent time management, organization, and patient care skills. Our list of interview questions is tailored to the pre-op nurse role so that you can get the most of your face-to-face time with your nurse candidates.

As you prepare to interview candidates and convince them to join your team, consider seeing how other facilities are making their pitch in their job postings. Keep track of the strong candidates, and their answers, with our free nurse candidate evaluation form.

7 Pre-op Assessment Nurse Interview Questions

Pre-op nurses are trained to conduct thorough head-to-toe assessments, provide preoperative teaching, administer medications, identify potential risks, and communicate critical information to the healthcare team. As you prepare to interview candidates, it may be helpful to consider the typical day of a pre-op nurse at your facility, including challenges that these nurses commonly face. Will your pre-op nurse candidates need to assist with any invasive procedures, or cross-train for the PACU/recovery unit?

In addition, review your facility’s mission and core values, as well as data about your patient population. Being mindful about this information during the interview will help you figure out if the nurse candidate is not only qualified and competent, but also a great match for your facility.

We gathered a mix of pre-op nurse interview questions to help you get insights into your candidates’ motivation, experience, and caregiving approach. The following questions are suited for various clinical settings including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, and physician offices. You could further customize these questions for a closer fit with your patient population, or use them as inspiration for interviews for other nursing positions.

1. What makes you want to work as a pre-op nurse at our facility?

This pre-op nurse interview question (and answers) will help you get to know your nurse candidate right off the bat. It will take you beyond what’s listed on their resume, and dig into what motivates them. This exchange could give you valuable information about how well the nurse knows your organization and the role of the pre-op nurse.

What to listen for:

• Knowledge of your facility’s approach to patient care, company culture, mission statement, and values
• A desire to safely prepare patients for surgical procedures

Potential follow up questions:

• Are there any specific aspects of being on our perioperative team that appeal to you?
• What is your understanding of the role of the pre-op nurse within the surgical multidisciplinary team?

2. What is your approach to identifying and working with anxious patients?

Nurses in the pre-op setting must be adept at handling patients who are anxious about upcoming surgical procedures. Individual nurses may have unique methods of working with patients with anxiety, based on the nurse’s personality and caregiving style. All should be able to identify signs of anxiety and vocalize effective techniques for offering comfort and high-quality patient care according to agency protocols.

What to listen for:

• An awareness of the different ways anxiety can manifest
• Experience successfully comforting and supporting a patient using appropriate therapeutic techniques

Potential follow up questions:

• How do you typically assess a patient’s anxiety level?
• What steps would you take before administering an anti-anxiety medication to a pre-op patient?

3. Tell me about a time when you had to find a balance between efficient and safe patient care. What was the situation and how did you handle it?

One of the biggest challenges that pre-op nurses face is when the OR is ready for the patient early. The pre-op nurse may expedite the assessment and preparation process, but must also use sound clinical judgment and follow protocols in detail to ensure the patient is safe to transfer. This pre-op nurse interview question can help you judge whether your nurse candidate understands the importance of working quickly and efficiently while prioritizing patient safety.

What to listen for:

• Ability to work in a fast-paced and dynamic environment with rapid workflow transitions
• Clear prioritization of patient safety

Potential follow up questions:

• Have you ever been in a situation where a nurse coworker was in a rush and wanted to skip a step on an agency protocol?
• How have you promoted a culture of safety in past healthcare environments?

4. How would you use structured communication to safely hand off a patient to another nurse?

Clear and strategic communication is vital to a safe and smooth transition to the OR. Use this question to assess your nurse candidate’s ability to communicate detailed information to other members of the healthcare team with a standardized, evidence-based method. If your facility utilizes a specific handoff process, such as the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) method, you can ask the nurse if they have any experience with it.

What to listen for:

• Experience with communication tools and strategies, such as SBAR
• Understanding of the importance of using a structured approach for both verbal and written communication

Potential follow up questions:

• Have you ever been in a situation where vital patient information was miscommunicated? What was the outcome?
• What was the handoff protocol at the facility where you last worked?

5. How do you stay up to date on the latest advances in surgical procedures, technologies, and best practices?

Whether your facility has distinct staff for the pre-op, intra-op, and post-op phases of care, or uses one large perioperative team, the pre-op nurse needs to be informed about advances in surgical care. An up-to-date understanding of best practices is key, because critical decisions that mitigate risk often fall on the pre-op assessment nurse. Interview questions like this one will help to ensure you hire a nurse who can take correct, crucial action steps when preparing a patient for surgery.

What to listen for:

• Passionate about continuous learning and adapting to changes in best practices
• Participates in courses, workshops, or training opportunities to enhance surgical care knowledge-base and clinical skills

Potential follow up questions:

• What was a recent surgical care training you participated in?
• Are you a part of any professional organizations that support your continued learning in this field?

6. Describe a challenging situation when a patient did not do what you expected and you had to react promptly. What was the outcome?

Though most of us want things to go according to plan, there are times when things go off course. When a busy pre-op nurse is working through a checklist, they may expect the patient to answer yes to a series of routine questions, but what will they do if they get a no? This is an example of a behavioral pre-op nurse interview question involving a challenging situation. It gives your candidate a chance to reflect on a patient interaction that requires critical thinking, clinical judgment, and problem solving.

What to listen for:

• Ability to utilize sound clinical judgment in stressful or urgent situations
• Experience providing quality, patient-centered care and advocating for patients

Potential follow up questions:

• What steps would you take if a nursing supervisor disagreed with your decision?
• How do you typically develop trust and rapport with your patients?

7. What are the top three skills or attributes that make you a great fit for the position of pre-op nurse with us?

You are likely looking for a pre op nurse who is organized, detail-oriented, compassionate, team oriented, and more. Use this question to learn what the nurse candidate hopes to bring to your team.

Whether it is a concrete skill, like the ability to start a peripheral IV on even the most dehydrated patient, or something more abstract, like a positive attitude, it’s a personal and unique contribution that sets this candidate apart. Using this as your final pre-op nurse interview question gives your candidate a chance to end the conversation on a positive note.

What to listen for:

• Characteristics, qualities, and competencies that align with the delivery of safe and high-quality preoperative care
• An understanding of the essential qualities of a pre-op nurse and self-identification with key attributes

Potential follow up questions:

• What new clinical skills do you hope to gain within the next year?
• How do these personal attributes affect your direct patient care?

Connect With Qualified Applicants Today

Asking the right mix of pre-op nurse interview questions is an essential step toward finding a great nurse to join your surgical care team. We know hiring takes work, and we’re here to help you streamline the process. Connect with our network of over 1 million nursing professionals actively seeking employers like you.