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Five Tips for Hiring Managers: NP and PA Interview Ideas

Posted on July 12, 2019   |   by   |   Advanced Practice Provider, Employers, Interviews, Job Seekers

We’re sharing five fresh ideas for planning a successful on-site PA or NP job interview. Get your recruits talking about their interview experience!

At Melnic, we love finding ways to make the PA and NP interview process easier for our hiring managers and our candidates. Every week, we schedule interviews, arrange travel itineraries, and streamline communication. Feel free to steal our tips to make your PA and NP interviews more effective!

1. An on-site interview schedule is a critical first step to facilitating an effective NP or PA interview.

Once you determine who will be part of the interview panel, time-block the day with a realistic schedule that provides enough wiggle room for transitions, breaks, and lunch. We recommend a grid layout that includes the time, location, interviewees’ names and titles (with headshots, if possible), brief bios, and contact information. When you share this schedule with the candidate, double check that it has contact information for a primary and secondary point of contact. This little detail will be a lifesaver for you and the candidate in the event of a travel delay or last-minute emergency.

2. A structured panel interview with standardized questions makes a big difference.

Start with a clear statement of the attributes, qualifications, and skills that you’re interviewing for. With this baseline, we suggest that you develop a set of standardized questions to hand out to everyone on the interview team. Include several behavioral questions to encourage open-ended responses that reveal how the candidate might approach challenges in the workplace. We have two great resources to get you started:

Repeating questions in each interview session gives you comparable feedback from different interviewers, and that leads to meaningful conversations and consensus. 

3) Job rounding or shadowing can be a great way for both you and the candidate to decide if the job is a good fit.

Set aside an hour or two for the candidate to round with the team or shadow a role-model employee in the same unit and role. Your candidate will jump at the chance to observe the work environment and get a feel for the role. When they envision themselves fitting in, they’ll be more likely to take your offer.

4) Personal touches like dinner and a tour around town show your candidate that your organization values them as an individual.

Take them out to dinner – you’ll get to know the candidate in a less formal, conversational setting. Plus, you’ll get valuable feedback by seeing the candidate interact with prospective colleagues. We also recommend that you arrange for a local realtor to take your candidate out for a tour of the city, pointing out reputable neighborhoods, shopping districts, and community centers. This will provide a great impression and help your candidate envision themselves relocating for your job.

5)  Look for the positive dynamic

As a final note, it’s important to look for a candidate who makes a positive connection. Promising candidates take a personal interest in your interviewers and demonstrate through words and actions that they are serious about the position and eager to join the team.

Melnic Specializes in APP Staffing

We are committed to helping hospitals and clinics build and grow APP services, through a focus on staffing, recruitment, and retention. If you would like more information about building an Advanced Practice Structure for APRNs and PAs, please schedule a call or email jill@melnic.com.

Check out our Advanced Practice Resource Center for more resources.

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