The nurse practitioner school interview can be intimidating and overwhelming. BUT that doesn’t have to be your experience. The more prepared you are, the more relaxed and comfortable you will be at your interview.

When I was applying to nurse practitioner schools, I interviewed for four different schools. In each interview, I learned something new, and it helped me prepare for the next interview. In this article, I share with you commonly used nurse practitioner school interview questions with examples of answers to help you prepare. If you want more information on preparing for your interview, I recommend reading this article A Detailed Guide to the Nurse Practitioner School Interview.

Preparation

Start preparing for your interview before you even get offered to interview. Preparation is key to a successful interview. Don’t let your anxiety or fear of the interview cause you to put it off until later.

Recall Experiences:

There are several ways you can help yourself prepare for interview questions. First is to recall experiences from working, volunteering, and attending college for your RN degree. Particularly focus on specific experiences where you demonstrated leadership, critical thinking, setting goals, and working on a team.

By having these experiences fresh in your mind, it will help you answer scenario questions quicker and better. For example, these questions typically begin with “Can you tell me a time when you …” The interviewer is looking for an answer that shows you have demonstrated a specific skill or behavior in a professional or work setting.

Current Research:

Begin reading a few recent research articles. A common question asked in nurse practitioner school interviews is if you stay up to date on the latest medical research. You want to be able to answer yes and provide examples of an article or two that you last read.

You can find a lot of new research online, but make sure it is from reputable sources. For example, I suggest reading articles on sites like https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters or other nursing and medical journals.

Nurse Practitioner Role:

Before you go to any interview for nurse practitioner school, make sure you know the role of a nurse practitioner. I can almost guarantee you, the interviewer will ask you about this. While you may have shadowed nurse practitioners or worked with them, the school is usually looking for a textbook answer during the interview.

Do a little reading to answer this kind of question. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners defines the role, scope of practice, responsibility, and a few other statements about nurse practitioners here and here on their website. Most schools want potential students who understand the role of a nurse practitioner is more than just seeing patients and writing prescriptions. You will want to be able to explain the qualifications to become an NP and their roles in as a health care provider in addition to research, education, and policymaking.

You are applying to become a nurse practitioner, so this is an important question in which you want to prepare your response well beforehand.

Practice Interviewing:

The next suggestion that will help you to prepare for your interview is to practice interviewing. After going through the list of questions below, come up with your own answers. You can use ideas from the answer examples, but make sure your answers relate to you and your experience.

I also recommend memorizing the answers that you create. However, avoid memorizing the answers exactly word for word. Instead, memorize the general idea of answers or stories of past experiences. The questions asked may have different wording or emphasize other ideas. Make sure you can adapt to the question, and not just repeat answers. You want your responses to sound sincere and genuine.

Next step is to have someone ask you the list of questions so you can practice answering as if you were in an actual interview. I found this one of the most helpful things I did to prepare for my interview. Practice not only saying your answer but also practice your tone and inflection while you speak. It is also helpful to have whoever is helping you practice to watch your body language. Make sure you are sitting up straight and avoiding nervous or fidgety behavior.

Questions & Answers:

Most Commonly Asked Questions With Answers:

Why do you want to become a nurse practitioner?

I’ve always wanted to work in the nursing field from a young age, and I have loved working as a nurse for the past four years. From that, I have gained a solid background and feel ready to take on a more responsible and involved role as a nurse practitioner. I have taken the time to shadow nurse practitioners and have had the opportunity to observe and learn about the nurse practitioner role. I believe it is a career that I would enjoy and find very gratifying. I feel like I can make a difference in people’s lives and health in my community.

Tell me about yourself…

I am originally from Utah, where I obtained my BSN and worked as a registered nurse for over four years in a cardiac telemetry unit and a pediatric PACU. I then moved to Florida almost a year ago now, where I currently work in an outpatient surgical center. I have learned so much about nursing from these experiences. I have also learned a great deal about health care from working in leadership roles as a charge nurse and an informatics specialist for my unit. I want to take on a more responsible and involved role as a nurse practitioner. I believe it is a career that I would enjoy and find very gratifying. I feel like I can make a difference in other people’s lives and health by practicing in primary care.

Why do you want to go to this school?

I researched many nurse practitioner schools and their nurse practitioner programs. This school, in particular really stood out to me. I was even more impressed when I took a tour of the college of nursing. I met the admissions counselor who introduced me to several faculty. Each one described the high standards and expectations of this program, but also the dedication of the faculty to make sure each student succeeds in school and in their future practice as a nurse practitioner. This is very important to me as a prospective student. I am looking for a program that doesn’t just focus on students passing tests but ensuring that I am prepared after graduation to start working as a nurse practitioner. I also learned all the faculty here participate in research and still practice in their respective field. Because of the rapidly changing medical field, I think that it is very important to have professors up to date on research and understand how nurse practitioners are currently practicing in health care. I feel that this university fits my needs and what I am searching for in a graduate degree program.

What specialty are you interested in, and why?

My experience working in a variety of medical settings and with a wide range of ages and populations led me to realize that the majority of patient care involves treating people after they are ill and needing invasive treatments. I feel strongly that health promotion and prevention can improve the health and well-being of individuals in our communities. As a family nurse practitioner, I can participate as a key player in helping people of all ages and populations improve their quality of life and develop healthy behaviors.

What makes you a good candidate? Why should we select you? What can you contribute to this program?

I bring a positive attitude and a strong desire to learn and pursue the role of a DNP-FNP. I understand the role and purpose of a nurse practitioner. This is a path I have sought and prepared for during my years of RN experience. I am confident that I will succeed in this program. I have a variety of experiences in nursing across multiple health care settings. Nurse practitioners are essential in the delivery of primary care and are leaders in health promotion and wellness. As an advanced practice nurse, I will have the education and training to promote health at the highest level of nursing practice.

What is a nurse practitioner?

A nurse practitioner is an advanced health care provider, known as an advanced practice nurse. They obtain a graduate or postgraduate degree in nursing. Nurse practitioners are an essential part of our health care system. They can provide primary, acute, or specialty health care services. According to the state they practice in, they are capable of assessing and diagnosing patients health conditions; ordering labs, therapies, and medical tests; prescribing medications and therapies; and educating patients about their health. Nurse practitioners also have the education and training to assume leadership positions and participate in research and teaching as well.

Scenario and Behavioral Questions:

These questions require you to elaborate on an experience, typically about a problem and how you conducted yourself and handled the issue. The question is often asked as “Can you tell me a time when _____ and how did you handle it?” The best way to answer this type of question is by using the STAR method. Using this method is an effective way to tell a story in a way that is concise and to the point. This acronym stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result:

- Situation: Describe the situation to provide background and context to your story. This usually entails describing a challenge or problem you encountered. Remember this should be a brief summary, so avoid unnecessary details here.
- Task: In this section, explain your task or responsibility in the scenario. What did you need to do to fix the problem? What was required to overcome that specific challenge? Don’t confuse this section with the “action” section. The task section should describe how you fit into the scenario and explaining what the goal or objective you needed to achieve was.
- Action: Now, you can describe the behavior or action you took to achieve the task. Describe the steps you took and the skills you used to meet your target or overcome a challenge. Try to focus specifically on what you did versus your team, boss, or coworkers. Give details and showcase the skills and action you took.
- Result: For the last section, explain the results of your action. What happened? What was the outcome? How did you make an impact? Describe what you were able to accomplish. You could also include what you learned from the experience in this section as well.

I recommend keeping your response to about two minutes in total. This means each section of the star method should only be 1-3 sentences each. Practice using this format as you recall experiences and scenarios from your past work and school experiences. The more you practice, the easier it will be to answer the question in your interview.

Here are a few scenarios to practice and remember to explain how you solved or handled each situation. What did you do and how did you respond?

- - Tell me a time when you did not get along with another nurse
  - Tell me a time when you were under a lot of stress
  - Tell me about a clinical experience that didn’t go the way you expected
  - Tell me a time when you stepped into a leadership role
  - Tell me a time when you witnessed unethical behavior at work
  - Tell me a time when you had to work with a difficult coworker
  - Tell me a time when you were proud of your healthcare team
  - Tell me a time when you were under a lot of pressure
  - Tell me a time when a change was implemented at work and how you adapted
  - Tell me a time when you set a goal and failed to meet it
  - Tell me a time when you went above and beyond your required work
  - Tell me a time when you received negative feedback
  - Tell me a time when you provided effective patient education

If you are asked to tell a scenario you haven’t experienced, don’t make one up. Be honest and tell the interviewer you have not encountered that particular scenario. Then explain what you would do if such a scenario did happen.

Additional Questions:

- - How do you respond to stress? What do you do to manage stress?
  - Why did you pursue a nursing career?
  - What attracts you to nursing? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it?
  - Where do you see yourself in five years in regards to nursing? Ten years?
  - What do you think about health care reform?
  - What makes a nurse practitioner distinct from a physician or nurse?
  - Why do you want to become a nurse practitioner as opposed to a physician or physician assistant?
  - Are nurse practitioner doctors real doctors? Why or why not?
  - What patient population are you most passionate about? Why? What are your thoughts about the health problems affecting that group? How might you go about solving those problems?
  - Why are you choosing now to go to school? What makes you feel like this is the best time?

Questions to Ask the Interviewer:

- - Is this program accredited?
  - What portion of classes are online versus in-person?
  - What kind of time commitment is needed to be successful in this program?
  - What characteristics have you seen that make students successful in this program?
  - What are the most common reasons applicants are not offered admission to the program?
  - What do graduate students find the most challenging in this program?
  - What clinical experiences are included in the program?
  - Do I seek my own preceptor, or do you assign a preceptor to me?
  - Are there opportunities to conduct and publish research?
  - What kind of academic, financial, and career counseling is offered for graduate nursing students?
  - How do graduate students in the FNP program perform on their board exams?
  - Are recent graduates employed? Where are they finding employment?
  - What challenges do students most commonly experience in the program?
  - In your opinion, what makes this program different than other schools?
  - Do you have any questions about my qualifications or concerns in my ability to succeed in this NP program?

Final Tips:

Here are a few final tips for the interview. First, don’t rush the interview. Take your time to think of your response. Thoughtful answers are more impactful. If you don’t understand the question, don’t be afraid to ask them to repeat or rephrase the question.

Remember keywords. Before interviews, I would always make a short list of keywords that I could include in my response that described my personality, skills, or qualities and keywords that also described a nurse practitioner. I used keywords such as confident, passionate, responsible, leader, supervise, successful, family practice, primary care, health promotion, community, advocate. I then used them in my response if I began to stumble over my words or wasn’t quite sure how to answer.

Stay positive before, during, and after the interview. As nervous as you may feel, try to think positively. Your positivity or your negativity will reflect in your responses during the interview. You may have to force a smile, but it will make you feel more happy and positive. Position your body in a posture that reflects positivity and confidence: head up, shoulders back, and back straight. Create mental images of you completing the interview and doing very well. Viewing yourself in a positive image will help you convey that in the actual interview.

As mentioned before, preparation is the key to a successful interview. Practice, practice, practice! The more time you can prepare the more confident and ready you will feel for the interview.

Nurse Practitioner School Interview Questions & Answers