Interview with a family clinic?

phillycpnp-pc, MSN, RN, NP · May 3, 2012

Patients of all ages, YAY! Day shift and no weekends, plus most holidays off yay! Plus an unsafe assignment is not my only choice, yay!
What are the questions they might ask?
What will the job be like?
What will the pay be like? Large urban city.
Any advice or tips or whatever appreciated. Not loving my current job. :)

I just had an interview today at a peds clinic...it went very well. I was interviewed by the 3 doctors in the practice first. they had my resume and went over the type of patients they saw and asked me about my nursing experience and the type of patients i have taken care of. Next i was interviewed by the nurse manager and the office manager. They took turn asking me questions. Some questions were:

How do you improve patient satisfaction?

What do yo see yourself doing in 5 years?

How do you motivate others?

Why do i want to leave my current job

they also asked about my nursing experience

I didn't ask about salary and they didn't tell me. I guess they will tell me if im offered the job.

I was a nervous wreck but it wasn't as bad as i thought it would be. The two managers were very laid back.

JZ_RN · May 3, 2012

Thanks. I will try to prepare some good answers to those types of questions. Good luck!!

phillycpnp-pc, MSN, RN, NP · May 3, 2012

Thanks. I will try to prepare some good answers to those types of questions. Good luck!!

Thanks....Good luck to you too. This place is part of a large hospital system and also in a large urban city....i hope the pay will be decent.

JZ_RN · May 3, 2012

Same here, I don't want to take a huge pay cut but then again I am desperate to get out of unsafely staffed ltc..

phillycpnp-pc, MSN, RN, NP · May 4, 2012

Im in the same boat good luck.

SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS · May 4, 2012

Sounds like the clinic I work in! I love it. Busy urban setting. Busy clinic. Wonderful docs.

Questions you might get asked...

How do you feel about doing phone triage vs having the patient in front of you where you can do a full assessment, how confident are you that you can do it.

Why are you making a change to ambulatory vs LTC. Is it because you think it will be easy? (it isn't easy. Physically, yes, easier.)

How confident are you in your teaching skills? They will probably have you do patient education.

How do you feel about working with this population. (socioeconomic, language barrier, compliance issues, life choices) Hopefully they will be honest about whom the clinic serves. When I had my interview, they had me wait in the lobby for a long time on a really busy day.

Questions to ask...

What are your manager's feelings about the RN delegating to other staff, be they LPNs or MAs.

Can you shadow for a day if they offer you the position. (we require that nurses shadow before accepting a position, since we had so many quit after very short periods of time)

How do they feel about nurses pursuing higher education? In the primary care setting, you just may find yourself wanting to become an FNP. They may ask about your educational goals too. Many of our RN's started NP school while working in our clinic.

I hope this helps! Best of luck to you.

phillycpnp-pc, MSN, RN, NP · May 4, 2012

Sounds like the clinic I work in! I love it. Busy urban setting. Busy clinic. Wonderful docs.
Questions you might get asked...
How do you feel about doing phone triage vs having the patient in front of you where you can do a full assessment, how confident are you that you can do it.
Why are you making a change to ambulatory vs LTC. Is it because you think it will be easy? (it isn't easy. Physically, yes, easier.)
How confident are you in your teaching skills? They will probably have you do patient education.
How do you feel about working with this population. (socioeconomic, language barrier, compliance issues, life choices) Hopefully they will be honest about whom the clinic serves. When I had my interview, they had me wait in the lobby for a long time on a really busy day.
Questions to ask...
What are your manager's feelings about the RN delegating to other staff, be they LPNs or MAs.
Can you shadow for a day if they offer you the position. (we require that nurses shadow before accepting a position, since we had so many quit after very short periods of time)
How do they feel about nurses pursuing higher education? In the primary care setting, you just may find yourself wanting to become an FNP. They may ask about your educational goals too. Many of our RN's started NP school while working in our clinic.
I hope this helps! Best of luck to you.

Thanks still waiting to hear back. The one doc didn't like that i was working on my PNP in fear that it would interfere with my office duties. But the office manager loved that i was continuing my education. They asked similar questions to the ones you posted.

JZ_RN · May 4, 2012

Thanks for your reply, hey_suz. Luckily I am pretty good at talking assessment, I am pretty quick to be able to determine/ask questions to determine whether or not the issue is dire and needs immediate addressing. Also, I am pretty good at teaching as well.. I spent some time in another life working as a teacher's aide with special needs and small children, so if I can explain things to them, I've got a pretty good technique for making things seem understandable, at least I think lol! And I am comfortable working with those of all socioeconomic groups, races, etc. I did some of my clinical rotations in very ethnic and impoverished areas, i actually enjoyed it (minus some of the smells but that's part of life haha)

I would love to shadow for a day. It's hard currently with a fulltime night job though and not being able to leave it until guaranteed a spot. Never get any sleep!

phillycpnp-pc, MSN, RN, NP · May 11, 2012

I didn't get the job:( they explained that i interviewed well but they were worried about too many conflicts with my grad program. oh well what can you do.

SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS · May 11, 2012

Oh, so sad to hear that! Their loss. Best of luck in your search- may you find something better!

JZ_RN · May 11, 2012

Sorry to hear you didn't get the job. I have not had a call back, either. And I thought it went quite well.