Interviewer Tips in Nursing: 5 Best Practices
The interview is a critical step in the hiring process. As a team leader, it’s your chance to evaluate a nursing candidate’s values and fit for the role. On the flip side, it’s an opportunity for a nurse to get a glimpse of your facility’s culture. From a recruitment standpoint, this means that a well-conducted interview could be the deciding factor for a top candidate who’s weighing multiple job offers.
Nursing professionals are in high demand, and learning how to be a good interviewer can be an impactful way to improve your hiring and recruiting practices. In this article, we’ll outline five essential interviewer tips to help you leave a lasting impression on your candidates.
How Are Nursing Interviews Conducted?
Before we dive into interviewer tips, let’s briefly go over the different interview formats that are used when hiring nurses. Each format has a slightly different purpose, and it’s important to decide which types of interviews are best for your prospective candidates.
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| Phone Interview | This is typically held between a recruiter and a candidate over the phone. It’s often used to screen candidates and assess whether they should be brought in for in-person interviews. |
| In-Person Interview | This is an interview that’s held face-to-face. There may be multiple rounds of in-person interviews with various members of the team. |
| Peer or Panel Interview | This is a group interview where a few current staff members take turns asking a candidate questions. It’s generally used to assess culture fit and how a candidate meshes with the team dynamic. |
| Individual Interview | This is a one-on-one interview held between the unit/nurse manager and the candidate. A variety of questions are asked to assess a candidate’s skills, knowledge, and overall fit. |
5 Essential Interviewer Tips and Best Practices
Regardless of the type of interview you’re conducting, it’s always important to follow basic etiquette. Beyond being professional and respectful, effective interviewer techniques can take time to learn — but, with practice, you’ll get better. As you prepare to bring in your next candidate, these five interviewer tips can help you put your facility’s best foot forward.
1. Do Your Research
Just as you’d want a nursing professional to research your facility prior to an interview, you should also be taking the time to learn about your candidates. This means thoroughly reviewing their resumes, cover letters, and profiles before bringing them in. Take notes and identify key parts of their background or skills that you’d like to learn more about within the context of the role.
2. Tailor Your Questions to the Candidate
Preparing a targeted list of interview questions should also be a regular part of your prep work. You should plan on asking questions that will evaluate the skills and knowledge needed for the role — but it’s also important to tailor each question to a candidate’s professional background.
For example, let’s say a new grad is applying to be an operating room (OR) nurse. Asking the candidate if they have formal experience in surgery is a dead-end question and redundant of what’s on their resume. You can instead tailor your question by asking how their prior education and training has prepared them to work in the OR.
3. Make the Interview a Conversation
If you’re wondering how to start an interview as an interviewer, remember that this isn’t a formal interrogation. It’s an opportunity for you and the candidate to get to know each other. Greet the interviewee with a warm smile, introduce yourself, and make it feel conversational. This will build rapport and help the candidate feel more at ease. Here are additional tips to help you keep the interview more conversational:
- Actively listen and acknowledge a candidate’s answers to your questions.
- Stay attuned to the flow of the conversation and ask relevant follow-up questions.
- Be natural and don’t shy away from elaborating on points of common ground.
- Leave time for a candidate to ask their own questions during the interview.
4. Identify and Unlearn Unconscious Biases
Unconscious biases are what lead us to form preconceived opinions about individuals based on their initial appearance. During the interview process, these biases can cause harmful stereotyping and cloud decision-making.
For example, studies have shown that some recruiters may stereotype male nursing candidates as “bold,” “aggressive,” or “less caring” because nursing is a predominantly female profession. However, these types of beliefs can drive highly qualified candidates away and prevent diversity in the workplace.
In order to be a good interviewer, it’s important to take steps to continuously identify and address your own cognitive biases. You can start by taking an implicit association test or exploring training resources that can help you unlearn unconscious biases over time.
5. Sell Your Facility Without Making Empty Promises
While it’s important to represent your culture in a positive light, avoid misconstruing the perks of working at your facility. Authenticity is an integral part of being a good interviewer, and candidates will be expecting an accurate snapshot of what the role offers.
If you’re promising training opportunities that don’t exist and your candidate accepts the role, this is going to lead to a lack of trust and potential turnover down the line. Focus on promoting benefits and opportunities that your team can deliver, and be as transparent as possible when answering any questions that the candidate may have.
Find the Best Nursing Candidates to Interview
After learning these interviewer tips, you may be feeling equipped and ready to recruit quality nursing professionals. Not sure where to start? IntelyCare’s nursing-only job board can help you reach a nationwide pool of talent and collect the applications you need to fill your next open position.