How long before job offer extended?

Keep looking until you have an offer..there are often delays.

Yeah - for my first APN position, I interviewed with the practice manager, then two weeks later, the MD President of the practice, then another two weeks, the other mid-levels...then I shadowed one of the NPs...then I waited another three weeks, got an offer, I countered the offer, they went back to the docs again and finally we came to an agreement...it seemed to take forever! lol

I took about 8 weeks to get an offer from one practice that I interviewed for, and 30 minutes for another. There is no way to predict. Good luck.

In my experience (and I've worked in 4 different hospitals as an NP), the job offer comes in less than a week after the interview but the wait for getting references called, background check, credentialing, clearing with HR, etc. can take months so the date of hire comes much later than the day I was told I got the job.

Yup, that too. I was offered my current job on 8/20/08. I remember, b/c it is my spouse's birthday and we were out celebrating when the call came. I counter offered and eventually accepted the job about 3 weeks later. However, my official date of hire was 12/19/08 because it took HR and the credentialing committee that long to get their ducks in a row!

I've always been told that I'm hired before the background checks. They will also ask you to consent to the background check and this is going to cost the hospital money so they will not proceed with this if they're not interested in the candidate. Of course, they'll say the hiring is contingent on passing background checks. References are typically called before the job offer but I've had references called after.