NP School Interview Questions

Mine had a lot of scenario type questions (if I were charge nurse, what would I do if there were staff nurse conflict..., If I were put in a position to do something I wasn't trained on, what would I do..., etc.), and then they wanted to learn a little bit about me and why I wanted to become an NP, what I planned to do after graduation (plan for 5 years down the road), and also why I chose that SPECIFIC school over others. So be prepared to know a little bit about the school and why it is your preference! Good luck!

There are two questions I would be willing to bet $100 they will ask:

1) Why do you want to be an NP? (Includes subquestions such as: Why do you want to be an FNP or a Pediatric NP or an AGNP?)

2) Why do you want to go HERE to be an NP?

I spent a great deal of time formulating my answers to these questions, and it paid off.

Other questions were things like:

3) Describe a time you failed.

4) Tell us about yourself.

5) How do you resolve conflict.

6) Where do you see yourself practicing

Take it for what it's worth, but it's my theory at this point that if you have been selected for an interview, you are 90% accepted. They just want to talk to you and see if you are a calm, rational, smart and stable person. Look, we all know a nurse who has behavior that makes us wonder how they got to be a nurse, right? Somebody we wouldn't want taking care of our kid? I feel that the interview is there to weed out people like that.

If someone's answer to question 1 above is "I want more money" and their answer to question 2 above is "Short commute, I guess" it demonstrates a lack of passion, social skills, and judgement. Those are not people that the University wants representing them, even were they likely to sucessfully complete the program. Again, this is just my theory. Take it for what it cost you.

Lastly, I did a lot of research preparing for my interview. There is a YouTuber with the screen name of "Nurse Liz" who has a really great and concise video titled NP School Interview Tips. I watched it after I interviewed and found that she was pretty spot on.

Good luck.