Registered Nurse Med Surg Ortho jobs in Milwaukee, WI

Tell me about a time you disagreed with a physician or provider about a patient's care plan. How did you handle it?

whether they can advocate for patients respectfully within a hierarchical clinical team

Walk me through how you'd prioritize your first hour on a med surg ortho unit if you're handed five patients, including a fresh total knee replacement, a post-op bariatric patient, and someone on telemetry showing a new arrhythmia.

whether the candidate can triage across mixed diagnoses quickly and safely, which is the core demand of this unit

Tell me about a time you cared for a post-surgical orthopedic patient and had to manage their pain while also watching for signs of complications like a blood clot or infection.

real hands-on experience with post-op ortho assessment and pain management balance, not just textbook knowledge

A patient who had a sliding transfer earlier in the shift now needs to be moved again, and you only have one other person available instead of two. What do you do?

judgment about safety protocols versus real-world staffing constraints, and whether they'd cut corners under pressure

How do you assess and document a change in a patient's condition that could indicate something like a post-op complication, and who do you escalate to first?

understanding of clinical assessment skills and the chain of communication expected on an acute med surg floor

Describe a shift where you had a bariatric patient, a urology patient, and a telemetry patient all at once. How did you organize your care and your time?

ability to handle the actual diagnostic variety this unit is known for, not a narrow specialty comfort zone

What's your experience reading telemetry strips, and can you tell me about a time you caught something abnormal and what you did next?

baseline competency with cardiac monitoring since the unit takes some telemetry patients despite being primarily surgical

If a patient or family member became verbally aggressive or agitated during your shift, how would you de-escalate the situation while still keeping the rest of your patients safe?

comfort with verbal de-escalation and safety judgment, which the posting explicitly calls out as a physical requirement