How to Prepare for a Nurse Practitioner Job Interview
You’ve done the hard work. You’ve gained experience as an RN, applied and were accepted into an NP program; you’ve put in countless study hours, clinical rotation hours, passed your certification exam, got your license – now you want to secure a job as an NP. Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve had a job interview, and now you have to prepare for an interview as a new grad, in a heath care landscape that doesn’t have set standards for the NP role, job description, or salary. You may feel like you don’t have a lot of leveraging power– but think twice and know your worth to your patients and the healthcare system!
Think of it this way: Your prospective employer is interviewing you, but you can interview them as well. It’s a two-way partnership. You have a right to know what you’re getting into and whether “X” job will be a good fit for you, as your employer will evaluate whether you will be a good fit for their organization. This goes for new graduates and seasoned nurse practitioners.
What Interview Questions Should I Expect?
A good place to start is being familiar with the job posting. Read the job description or job posting carefully, often employers will pull questions from this. For example, if the job description includes primary care experience, they may ask you about your experience in the primary care field (clinical rotations as a student counts!)
Tell us about yourself. This isn’t a question per se, but it is very commonly asked first. Generally, the employer wants to know about relevant experience. Gear it towards the job description (i.e. if it’s a primary care NP job, talk about your primary care and related experience – if it’s a pediatric NP job, talk about your pediatric experience – you get the point). For example, “As an NP student I worked in a community health center and gained experience providing care to patients of all ages, with acute care and chronic disease presentations. Prior to this as a registered nurse, I worked in the emergency department and had exposure to a variety of patient presentations.”
If the job description touches on leadership, education, or research responsibilities, you can talk about your experience in these roles. For example, “I’ve enjoyed working as a research assistant in the field of X and have given lectures to students on topics such as X.” If you’ve been a preceptor, you may touch on this as well.
Case scenario questions: these are often asked (which can be hard to prepare for) – but pull from your recent knowledge and experience and take your time answering these questions. You can ask the interviewers to come back to this question when you’ve had a moment to think about it. Often, interviewers want to see that you can approach a case scenario in a logical, organized fashion. If you don’t know how to approach a specific case scenario, you can partially answer it, or be honest and say that you would collaborate with a colleague or consult a specialist – employers appreciate honestly and this answer reflects your ability to recognize your limitations!
How do your values align with the organization’s mission, vision, and values? I’ve had this question asked in multiple job interviews – it pays to review the organization’s mission, vision, and values ahead of time. Reflect on them – how do they align with your own values and how you want to practice as an NP?
Tell us about a time you experienced conflict in the workplace, and how you dealt with it. I have been asked this during RN and NP interviews. Thinking of a case scenario ahead of time is handy. Reflect on how you dealt with the conflict, and how you learned from this experience.
What are your strengths? Reflect on this ahead of time and gear the strengths towards the NP role. You can provide general strengths – for example, I’m organized, efficient, I adapt well to new roles and responsibilities. Alternatively, you can provide specific strengths that could highlight how you might be a good fit. For example, if the job description highlights chronic disease management, touch on your expertise and strengths for managing patients with chronic diseases like diabetes and heart failure.
What are your weaknesses? This question isn’t always asked, but if it is, consider the following: employers might want to know whether you can reflect on your learning gaps, challenges you have faced, how you deal with constructive criticism, and how you intend to develop yourself professionally. For example, you can comment on your learning gap in the field of dermatology, and how you plan on addressing this through continued medical education opportunities.
Why do you think you are the best fit for this job? They want to know why they should hire you instead of other applicants. You can frame your question around your clinical experience, expertise, strengths, and clinical area(s) of interest. You can reflect on the organization’s values, how they align with your own values. Can you bring something unique to the role that they are looking to fill? For example are they looking for someone with leadership experience? Teaching experience? Do they need someone to perform dermatology procedures? Are they looking for someone with psychiatric experience?
How do you engage in professional development? They want to know your commitment to the profession, and how you stay up to date with best practices. Reflect on how you currently (or intend to) do this. Do you attend lectures? Grand rounds? Conferences? Do you read articles? Listen to podcasts? Precept students? Enroll in courses?
What questions should I ask the employer?
Often at the end of the interview, you will be offered a chance to ask questions. This is your time to interview your employer! You don’t need to ask all of the questions up front, some can be reserved for after the job is offered to you. In order to accept the job, you should have all of your burning questions answered. You may consider the following questions:
What other healthcare providers are on the team? (e.g. physicians, physician assistants, pharmacists, social workers, dieticians, etc.) – this will give you an idea of what interdisciplinary supports you will have access to, and how the team operates.
Do NPs have clinical and administrative support? For example during clinical time, will you have nursing support with patients (e.g. gathering vital signs, providing immunizations) among other things? Do support staff help NPs with tasks like following up on normal lab results, among other things?
What is the orientation process like? What you want to know, especially if you are a new grad, is will you be getting support and mentorship, for at least a window of time (e.g. first 3 months on the job).
Are there any after-hours, on-call, evening, or weekend obligations? If so, is there renumeration for this (e.g. overtime pay)? This will give perspective on whether this fits with your life obligations.
Do nurse practitioners work autonomously in this role? What you want to know here is, are nurse practitioners working to full scope independently (as opposed to being governed by other practitioner expectations). What do nurse practitioners do in the organization? Do they see all patients (acute presentations, chronic disease management, preventive care visits, etc)? Clarify the job description. Does it sound like NPs are working to full scope?
How many patients is the NP expected to see in a day, and how long are patient appointments? This will give you clarity on how quickly you will be expected to see patients, and whether there is time to balance clinical time with administrative time in your day. You can ask how much administrative time is allocated to you per day. Remember, administrative time may include tasks that come out of patient appointments (e.g. ordering tests, sending referrals), inbox management, form completion, etc.
Aside from clinical time, what else is expected from the nurse practitioner role? You can pull specific questions from the original job posting – for example, if engaging in research projects is listed on the job description, you can ask about what projects the organization has on the go, and what is expected of the NP role. Other questions may include expectations for precepting students, presenting in grand rounds, etc.
What is the NP salary? This is a very fair, and commonly asked question. Will you be paid on an hourly basis or will you have an annual salary? How are you being paid (in other words, is the government funding your position? If not, where is the money coming from)? Is your salary fair, compared to standard NP wages in your geographical area? Certainly, your wage should be higher than an RN and should at least be on par with the average NP salary in your specialty. Also try to leverage your years of experience as a nurse practitioner.
Are any benefits included? Do you get any paid time off for sick days or medical appointments? Do you get paid vacation days? Do you get paid time off for statutory holidays? If not, how is this compensated in your salary (it should be!)
Do NPs get professional development funding? Many workplaces have perks like annual professional development funding (including paid time off for attending conferences etc.). Some workplaces will also cover the cost of educational tools like UpToDate. This is a great bonus, and something you may be able to negotiate into your contract.
A note on contract review: if you are offered the job, read the contract carefully. Don’t be in a rush to accept the job – if there are questions arising from the contract itself, you have the right to get clarification from the employer. You may even consider having a lawyer review it with you.
A note on preparing or updating your resume and cover letter: If you don’t know where to start, there are plenty of free resume builders online. They can be used to build a brand-new resume, or you can upload an existing resume that you want to update, using free templates. If you’re a new grad, you can include your clinical rotation experience. Pro-tip: keep your resume succinct and tailor it to the job posting, many employers won’t read past the third page.
Key Take Home Point: Interviewing is a skill itself, do your best to prepare answers ahead of time, and have a list of questions to bring with you to the interview (along with your cover letter, resume, and 2-3 job references).
References/Readings
Government of Canada [Internet]. Primary health care nurse practitioner (PHCNP) in Canada; November 2022. Available from https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketreport/wages-occupation/25524/ca
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [Internet]. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics; May 2022. Available from https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes291171.htm
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [Internet]. Nurse anesthetists, Nurse Midwives, and Nurse Practitioners; September 2023. Available from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nurse-anesthetists-nurse-midwives-and-nurse-practitioners.htm
Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions [Internet]. Fulfilling Nurse Practitioners’ Untapped Potential in Canada’s Health Care System: Results from the CFNU Pan-Canadian Nurse Practitioner Retention & Recruitment Study. Available from https://nursesunions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CFNU_UntappedPotential-Final-EN.pdf