Registered Nurse Interview Assignment

Interview Assignment I had the opportunity to interview a registered nurse who has worked in this profession for over ten years. She has had the opportunity to travel all over the United States to work as a Registered nurse at many well known hospitals and institutions. The experiences she shared with me where amazing. Her name is Dawn Pope and she is currently employed as a Registered Nurse at Duke University in the intensive care department. I chose to interview a nurse because I wanted to learn as much as possible about the career before I applied for the program this fall. I chose Ms. Pope because she was my grandmothers' nurse in ICU at Duke and she was the one who influenced me to purse a degree in nursing after the wonderful job
she did with me and my family. My goal for this interview is to learn as much as possible about the nursing career itself and what to expect once I get accepted into the nursing program. Because Ms. Pope has worked and specialized in many different fields of nursing she was able to give me some very useful advice for school and she also helped me decide what area of nursing I wanted to specialize in. She also gave me some pointers on getting scholarships and grants for this particular program. I called the hospital to speak with Ms. Pope in the morning but she was unavailable so I asked the lady at the front desk what would be the best time to reach her. She told me that she could not give me an exact time so I kindly asked her to leave a message for Ms. Pope to call me at her earliest convenience. She returned my phone call that evening and I explained to her who I was and that I wanted to speak with her briefly about her career for school. She was very excited that I chose her for this assignment and she actually remembered me from my grandmothers' hospital stay. I only asked her for 30 minutes of her time and we set up a time in place that was convenient with both of our busy schedules. With the appointment in place, I began to prepare myself for the interview.
The first thing I did was research nursing degrees and schools. I also read a few articles and testimonies from nurses about their jobs, experiences, and education. I wanted to learn as much about the nursing occupation as possible so I would sound well educated and ask the right questions. After a lot of research I made a list of questions that I thought would help me gather the information I needed. After listing all the questions I could think of I narrowed my list down to about eight questions that were all open ended questions. I wanted to make sure that I asked enough of the right questions to get the information I was shooting for, but also didn't want to go over the thirty minute session that we had scheduled. After a few days of preparation I was ready for the big day. On the day of the interview I dressed professionally as if I was going to be interviewed for a job. I made sure to bring along a notepad with my questions and paper to jot down some notes. I chose not to tape record this interview because she preferred not to be recorded. I arrived about 10 minutes early so that I could find the right office. I greeted Ms. Pope with a handshake and a smile and thanked her for making the time to help me with this
assignment. The interview went well as planned. I asked all the questions that I had brought and still ended the interview 5 minutes early. She answered every question with great detail and all the information she provided was very helpful. Anyone would think that we had known each other for ever the way we carried on casual conversation. I was very relaxed and I could tell that she was very interested in helping me. I ended the interview by thanking her for her time and shaking her hand once again. I think that I left Ms. Pope with a good impression. She gave me her contact information and told me to call her if I needed help with anything. She said that I would make a great nurse and she hoped to see me succeed. On the whole, I found the interview with Ms. Pope to be enlightening and very helpful. Our interview was very productive and gave me a lot of relevant information. She gave me new insights about the nursing career. I definitely am excited about pursuing my career in nursing and saving lives. I am glad that I had the opportunity to interview such a great person and I would definitely be comfortable with performing another informational interview if I needed to do so.