purpose of phone interview

[Ms.RN]

today i got a phone call from a human resources person from a major hospital in my area and she wanted to set up a date and time for a phone interview. i dont know why she didnt ask me to come to the hospitla for a person to person interview? is it becuase nurse manger is too busy or is it because she wanted to find out more if i qualify for this job or she already filled the position but she wanted to interview more people? what is the purppose of phone interview?

[elkpark]

They may do this as a screening process; from the 'phone interviews, they decide which few people they want to interview in person.

One other possibility -- I had a telephone interview last year for a position at a local hospital; when I said I'd be happy to come in for an interview, they said that one of the applicants for the position was from out of state and the facility had a policy, to be fair, that all the applicants for a position had to be interviewed the same way. If one applicant had to do a telephone interview (because of distance), all the applicants had to be interviewed by telephone, even the local people, so the one long-distance person wouldn't be at a disadvantage.

[oslogirl]

I think they do this to initially screen applicants for the on-site interview. They want to see how well you communicate under pressure.