Alberta Health Services Interview Questions & Reviews

Interviewed Apr 2009 in Edmonton, AB (Canada) (took a day)

I watched the capital health website for the Graduate Nurse Initiative (GNI) posting to go up. It is only posted for a few weeks at the beginning of February. I applied for the position online, and was phoned approximately 4.5 weeks later. At this time a date for an interview was scheduled for the following week.
I showed up for my interview, but nobody was present. I phoned the interviewer's administrative assistant - something had come up and they asked to reschedule for the following day.
When I arrived for the rescheduled interview, I was greeted by the admin. assistant and asked to wait in the patient lounge.
One of the interviewers came out to show me to her office. Two managers were present for the interview and wrote notes during the whole process. They were fairly friendly and attempted to make me feel comfortable with a little bit of small talk (the weather, traffic etc.) They both introduced themselves and described their positions a little bit. Then they asked me to some standard interview questions (why do you want to work here, what strengths/weaknesses do you bring... etc.). They asked a few scenario questions: Mr. Smith has this diagnosis, these are his symptoms. What would you do as his primary caregiver?
They asked a few safety questions (the 5 rights of med administration, insulin, delegation etc.) After this they asked me what I knew about the surgery program - what types of areas there are (eg. ortho, GI, urology, trauma...), typical acuity, type of staff (RN to LPN to NA ratio), and which would I prefer to work in.
After this they asked if I had any questions.
Once this was finished I was given a security clearance check form, reference check form and basic information (S.I.N., contact info, emergency contact) form to fill out. When I finished these forms I returned them to the Admin assistant and went back home.
Three weeks later I was informed that Orientation was being held on Monday (it was Friday when they phoned)

The whole process didn't seem very organized. The interview was average. My suggestion is to dress professionally (a student before me was dressed in jeans and a hoodie. She didn't get the job), ask questions, research the unit a little bit, and be friendly and confident.
The surgical units are quite fast paced and the patients can be quite heavy to look after. Most of the nurses have a lot of seniority (20+ years) so you'll be the junior for a very long time. The senior nurses are not very flexible in their thinking and you will have to change how you do some things in order to fit into the team.