These tips can teach you how to prepare for nursing interviews. Strategies for landing your first nursing job include preparing your resume, mastering your elevator pitch, practicing common questions, carrying yourself with confidence, using eye contact, arriving with questions, and showing gratitude for the interviewer’s consideration.
Throughout nursing school, you worked hard to master the content, acquire clinical skills, and develop a bedside manner. After you’ve passed the NCLEX-RN, it’s time to land your first nursing job. Luckily, nurses are in high demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 5% growth in nursing employment in the next 10 years, faster than the average for all occupations. Knowing how to prepare for nursing interviews will help you take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
At Felician University, the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program will prepare you to launch into a successful career. Both our Hybrid ABSN, which combines online classes with hands-on labs and immersive clinical rotations, and On-Ground ABSN, which is entirely in-person, offer a comprehensive curriculum that maintains a practice-ready focus.
Through the program, you can earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in as few as 16 months, prepared with the nursing skills needed to excel in your career.
Before starting your first professional nursing role, you’ll need to implement effective interviewing skills. Consider what employers look for, how to prepare for a nursing interview, interview tips for nurses, and questions and answers.
What Employers Look for in Nurse Candidates
Healthcare employers hire nurses with technical proficiency in essential clinical skills, such as medication administration and charting. As important as these clinical skills are, soft skills and personal qualities are equally important. Healthcare employers also look for nurse candidates who:
- Are attentive to detail
- Are committed to unwavering professional ethics
- Are eager to continually learn and refine their skills
- Communicate well
- Display empathy and compassion
- Possess cultural competencies and are non-judgmental
- Prioritize patient safety and quality of care
- Work well with others
Keep these essential nursing strengths in mind as you develop your resume and cover letter and learn how to prepare for a nursing interview.
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How to Prepare for a Nursing Interview Before the Big Day
Performing well during a nursing interview requires thorough preparation. Take the following steps:
1. Prepare Your Resume
The first step in how to prepare for nursing interviews is creating and polishing your resume. Your resume is your interviewer’s first impression of you, so take your time with it. On your resume, include the following:
- Educational history
- Prior healthcare and patient care experiences
- Nursing school clinical experience
- Patient care skills
- Other recent or relevant professional experiences
- Volunteer work
You’ll also want to include a cover letter that’s specific to the job you’re applying for. Before finalizing your resume and cover letter, have a few peers or mentors review them and offer feedback.
2. Master Your Elevator Pitch
One of the first prompts to expect in any job interview is, “Tell me about yourself.” When you’re asked to describe yourself in an interview, it’s best to have a clear answer ready to share. This is an important question, and your answer matters because it provides a high-level view of what you bring to the role.
Cover a few highlights about yourself. Avoid discussing your resume word-for-word or going through your life chronologically. Instead, focus on three essential qualities or strengths you want the interviewer to know about you. Then, offer evidence or share a story that shows those strengths. This will help the interviewer see the you beyond the resume.
3. Research the Organization
It’s important to understand the mission and values of the organization you’re applying to. Go beyond the About page on the facility’s website. Explore their social media accounts, read patient and employee reviews, and visit online nursing forums to get an inside perspective.
4. Re-Read the Job Description Thoroughly
Read the job description a few times, slowly. Understand the qualifications and skills required for the role. Consider how your experiences in nursing school, such as clinical shifts, helped you develop those skills.
5. Clean Up Your Social Media Accounts
As a professional nurse, your public presence will reflect on your healthcare organization. Healthcare facilities generally do not want to hire nurses who might court controversy or otherwise demonstrate an unprofessional public persona. Take some time to clean up your social media accounts as needed and strengthen your privacy settings
Interview Tips for Nurses: Questions and Answers
It’s always a good idea to practice answering nursing job interview questions ahead of time. This will help you easily respond when you hear these questions in an interview.
As you practice, focus mainly on the challenging or in-depth questions and how you would answer them, such as:
- Can you give an example of a time you worked through a conflict in the workplace?
- How would you handle stress during a nursing shift?
- Tell me about a time when you overcame an obstacle.
- What are your long-term nursing career goals?
- Why are you interested in working in this role?
- Why did you choose nursing?
- What is your greatest weakness?
Your answers will, of course, be unique to you and your experience. While you’re developing your answers, consider the STAR format. This stands for situation, task, action, and result. Using the STAR format to formulate responses is a storytelling strategy that can help you develop more thoughtful answers. When discussing a nursing situation you experienced, always explain what you learned from it.
Although it’s a good idea to develop a general idea of your responses to common questions in advance, keep in mind that the interview will not follow a script. Pay close attention to the interviewer and tailor your responses accordingly.
How to Present Yourself Confidently and Professionally
During the interview, it’s important to demonstrate confidence and professionalism. Try these tips:
1. Carry Yourself With Confidence
When you begin your interview, enter with confidence. Maintain good posture and confident body language. Remember that all the coursework, nursing lab experiences, and clinicals placements have paid off, making you a skilled, competent, and compassionate nurse.
2. Make Eye Contact
Maintain eye contact with the interviewer. Not only does eye contact display confidence, but it also creates a connection with the interviewer. Additionally, it shows your interest in the position and helps affirm you as a top-quality candidate
3. Make a Personal Connection
An often-overlooked strategy for nursing job interviews is to make a connection that helps you stand out in the interviewer’s mind. The best conversationalists always find a way to minimize the separation between them and the other person, creating a shared link. It can be beneficial to form that personal connection during a job interview.
For example, if you notice a sports poster on the wall in their office, and you also cheer for that team, you can bond over your shared interest. If you know someone who attended their alma mater, use that to make a connection.
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Smart Questions to Ask During a Nursing Interview
At the end of nearly every interview, the interviewer will ask, “Do you have any questions for me?” The worst thing you can do is not have any questions. A few targeted, high-quality questions show the interviewer that you’re interested in the role. It also signals that you researched the position in advance.
What to Do After the Interview to Stand Out
Before leaving the interview, shake your interviewer’s hand and thank them for their time and consideration. Afterward, send them an email expressing your gratitude and sharing how excited you are to learn more about the opportunity. Not only is expressing gratitude the right thing to do, but it also shows your genuine and kindhearted nature, which are essential qualities of the best nurses.
Launch Your Nursing Career at Felician University
With Felician University’s ABSN program, you can earn a BSN in as few as 16 months. Our Hybrid ABSN program in Parsippany, New Jersey, combines online coursework with in-person experiential learning, while our On-Ground ABSN in Rutherford, New Jersey, is entirely in-person. Our comprehensive, values-based curriculum and thorough NCLEX preparation will help you succeed on the licensure exam and prepare you for a professional nursing role.
Contact our admission counselors to learn more and explore the eligibility requirements.