Top 7 Advice Nurse Interview Questions to Ask

An advice nurse, sometimes referred to as a telehealth or phone triage nurse, is a healthcare professional who provides remote guidance and support to patients in need. While they don’t provide direct clinical care, they answer patient queries and deliver recommendations for further treatment. If you’re looking to hire one of these specialized employees, developing well-written advice nurse interview questions can help you pick a candidate with the necessary skills and expertise.

In this article, we’ll outline seven potential phone triage nurse interview questions and answers that can help you through the candidate selection process. We’ll also review clarifying follow-up questions you can ask to ensure the interviewee is qualified and prepared for the role.

Before you begin crafting your interview questions, it’s essential that you gain insight into your local nurse job market. Perusing our advice nurse job board can help you review salaries, benefits, and scheduling options being offered by other competitive facilities in your area. Once you’ve done your research, build a tailored advice nurse job description to advertise your vacancy and highlight specifics of your position.

To assist you through the interview process, you can download the following advice nurse candidate evaluation form, which will help you fairly assess all candidates and keep track of each individual’s responses.

Advice Nurse Interview Questions and Answers

Advice nurses provide care over a variety of virtual platforms. These can include but aren’t limited to:

• Telephone calls
• Internet chats
• App-based messaging
• Emails
• Video conferencing

Catering your questions to suit your facility’s unique needs can help you ensure that you pick the best possible candidate. Start the interview out with a broad, conversational question to get to know the candidate before diving into the more complex and clinical nurse interview questions.

1. What makes you interested in this advice nurse position?

Starting out with advice nurse interview questions like this shows whether the candidate did their homework about your organization. Do they have the urgent care or emergency nurse bedside experience you’re looking for? Have they previously served in a remote nurse role? Are they familiar with the platforms you use and the patient population you serve?

Getting these answers early on not only saves you time and effort if the candidate doesn’t have the minimum qualifications, but it also helps you get a feel for their conversational style, professionalism, and confidence.

What to listen for:

• Passion for providing virtual patient care
• Thorough understanding of the duties and expectations of the position

Potential follow-up questions:

• Why are you looking to leave your current position?
• How will your skills align with our organizational mission, vision, and values?

2. How has your previous experience prepared you for this role?

Serving an advice nurse role can be challenging without the right clinical or remote nursing experience. While you may have already read about a candidate’s professional background in their resume or cover letter, asking this question can help you learn a bit more about their previous duties and responsibilities to see if they’re fit for the job.

What to listen for:

• Previous bedside experience as an urgent care, emergency room, or outpatient clinic RN
• Compassion, empathy, and drive to meet patients where they’re at

Potential follow-up questions:

• Do you have any previous nursing leadership experience?
• What are your professional goals for the next five years?

3. List key qualities of a high-performing remote healthcare team.

Multidisciplinary teamwork is essential to providing exceptional patient care, especially in remote settings where employees may not work together directly. In this type of care environment, it can be easy to miscommunicate or forget to mention an important detail. It’s important that nurse candidates are prepared to collaborate and work as a team of healthcare professionals, even if they’re sitting alone at their desk.

What to listen for:

• Thorough understanding of the characteristics of strong teamwork (goal-driven, trusting, strong leadership, clearly defined responsibilities, time-management)
• Genuine desire to help the entire team succeed, not just achieve personal gain

Potential follow-up questions:

• Have you ever worked on a poorly performing team? How did you work to improve unity and collaboration?
• How would you handle a disagreement between yourself and another coworker?

4. A patient calls in and you determine they need immediate medical treatment. How would you handle the situation?

Once you’ve gotten a feel for the RN’s personal and professional background, it’s time to dive into the next phase of the interview — going over critical thinking nursing interview questions and answers. Now you can put their previous experience to the test — do they have the skills necessary to keep patients safe?

If a nurse discovers that a patient’s health or wellbeing is at risk, it’s imperative that they’re aware of the steps necessary to help the patient access in-person care. If the nurse is unsure of how to proceed, it’s important that they understand which team members they should alert to help them establish a care plan.

What to listen for:

• Thorough understanding of chain-of-command procedures
• Ability to stay calm during emergencies or critical situations

Potential follow-up questions:

• Have you ever had a patient who didn’t want to follow your recommended advice? How did you handle the situation?
• Have you ever made a mistake on the job? How did you work to limit the consequences of your error?

5. Describe a time when you provided advice to a patient who was unable to communicate in English. How did you ensure they received the guidance they needed?

Navigating language differences in healthcare can be a challenge, especially when care is provided in a remote environment. Some organizations provide care to a large percentage of non-English speakers. For these roles, bilingual advice nurse candidates would be highly preferred to streamline care.

Other facilities have contractual agreements with phone translation representatives, making nurse translation unnecessary. Regardless of how your organization handles language barriers, it’s essential that interviewees are familiar with navigating these kinds of situations and confident in reaching out to support services for assistance.

What to listen for:

• Familiarity with a variety of virtual translation services
• Patience and understanding when working with patients who may require more time and attention

Potential follow-up questions:

• How would you assist an individual who claimed to struggle with technology?
• It can be difficult to connect with a patient remotely. What techniques do you use to develop rapport over the phone?

6. Working from home can make it difficult to separate professional and personal responsibilities. How do you plan to balance your priorities?

Most nursing jobs take place in a hospital or care facility, so nurses are rarely in a position where they’re working from home. Therefore, nurse candidates that don’t have previous experience working in a remote position may find it challenging to separate family and work demands.

When asking your advice nurse interview questions, be sure to investigate whether your prospective employee is prepared for the challenges of remote working and has a plan in place for managing conflicting priorities.

What to listen for:

• Shows an understanding of professional work-from-home requirements
• Ability to maintain a healthy work-life balance

Potential follow-up questions:

• Imagine you’ve just finished a difficult phone call. How would you de-stress and prepare to help the next patient?
• How do you plan to stay up-to-date on the latest clinical recommendations and research?

7. How do you plan to ensure patient privacy, confidentiality, and HIPAA Compliance?

As the telemedicine specialty expands, so too does the need for patient data protection. It’s important that advice nurses understand HIPAA restrictions to ensure high-quality care and maintain facility compliance.

After asking all of your pre-selected advice nurse interview questions, be sure to allow extra time for candidates to ask any clarifying questions of their own. Nurses who do so demonstrate active listening and engagement and show that they have a genuine interest in the position.

What to listen for:

• Thorough understanding of HIPAA rules and regulations
• Acknowledgment of how important it is to earn and keep a patient’s trust

Potential follow-up questions:

• What are your salary expectations for this position?
• Do you have any other questions about our organization or our advice nurse position before we conclude?

Find Nursing Professionals for Every Hiring Need

Now that you’ve developed your advice nurse interview questions, you’re probably looking for ways to attract top talent to your vacant position. By posting your advice nurse job on the nation’s top healthcare hiring board, you can appeal to over 1 million qualified professionals looking for work.