51 replies to this topic

[chevy]

What are the best interview questions that you have received or heard of? Give a suggested answer if you want.

I'll start:

"You see your partner kick a patient. What do you do?"


Possible answer.

"My partner has now become a "hazard". As the safety of my patient comes first, I will take actions to make sure they are safe. I check my pt. to make sure that they are uninjured. If they are unhurt by the kick, and if I judge my partner able to drive us safely to the hospital, I will take over patient care, while he/she drives. Once we get to the ER, I will tell my partner to stand-down and I'll get help with the offload and transfer of pt. care to the ER staff. Once that is done, I'll have to get the supervisor involved."

This response will have variations depending upon if the pt. was hurt or is now distressed by the presence of the other medic or if I judge my partner unable to get us safely to the ER.

[akflightmedic]

Fork, knife, or spoon.

Which one are you and why?

[becksdad]

First off, the only acceptable reason to attempt harm to a patient is in self-defense. My safety comes first, then my partner, then my patient. Barring that scenario, I would have immediately put the truck out of service, summoned LE, had another truck respond to take over patient care. Obviously, a supervisor, too. There are usually others available on scene. If necessary, I would have recruited an FD medic to take over patient care.

As far as interview questions, I think very good ones are "tell me about your strengths and weaknesses?". This implies the ability to self-evaluate, which I think is a necessary quality for any practitioner.

[becksdad]

AK- Ah, Zen interviewing....

[akflightmedic]

I am serious. That was an interview question I had this past summer for my job in FL.

[chevy]

"First off, the only acceptable reason to attempt harm to a patient is in self-defense. My safety comes first, then my partner, then my patient."

Yes, but what if it wasn't self-defense? Maybe the pt. said something derogatory about the medic's ancestral origins. What then?

[becksdad]

Chevy - Then I would do exactly what I said. Remove us from service, have LE respond, attend patient, recruit assistance. My "partner" would be done. Partner is in quotation marks because no partner of mine would do that.

AK - So which one are you? I say I'm a spoon.

[akflightmedic]

You have to tell me why you are a spoon.

I am a fork. I will tell why shortly. I want some other people to have fun first.

[becksdad]

OK, AK - I say I am a spoon because of the 3 utensils, a spoon causes the least damage, while still accomplishing the objective. The knife cuts, the fork impales, but the spoon transports whole. Your turn....

[akflightmedic]

OK, if you really want to know.

I am a fork and all of my dreams, goals, and achievements are kernels of corn.

If you try to scoop all the kernels at once, several will fall off.

If you stab at them, you will get some of them but again not all of them.

However, if you persist with your scooping and stabbing, and sometimes even getting a little help from your piece of bread to push them in your path better, you will get them all. It is just a matter of time, patience, persistence, and determination.