7 Essential Outpatient Nurse Interview Questions to Ask
Outpatient nurses, also known as ambulatory care nurses, are specialized in providing care services outside of hospital settings. They play an important role in helping patients manage chronic conditions and promoting community health through education. As the skills needed to work in outpatient vs. inpatient care settings are quite different, it’s important to prepare targeted outpatient nurse interview questions to help you recruit the best candidates for this role.
Posting a well-written job description will help attract a strong pool of applicants, but the interview process is where you’ll really get a sense of each candidate’s personal qualities. The following seven interview questions will help you identify the best outpatient nurses for your team.
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Interview Questions for Outpatient Nurse Candidates
Outpatient settings are popular workplaces for both new graduates and senior nurses, so it’s helpful to keep your questions focused more on job-related skills than experience. Here are seven outpatient nursing interview questions that will help you gauge these essential skills.
1. What brought you to outpatient care?
This is one of the best outpatient nurse interview questions to start with because it gives you an introduction to a candidate’s motivations for choosing this specialty. You can get a better sense of who they are and hear about their professional experiences in a more personal context.
Listen for answers that demonstrate a candidate’s passion for helping and empowering patients throughout their care journey. Their answers will also indicate whether a candidate’s personal values align with your facility’s mission and goals.
2. Describe your process for teaching patients about self-management and medication adherence.
Outpatient nurses often see patients who need help managing chronic conditions in their day-to-day lives. Because of this, they must feel comfortable teaching patients about self-management and daily medications. This question assesses their approach to providing patient education.
Listen for answers that demonstrate a candidate’s understanding of how to break complex medical information down for patients. Clear, nuanced answers will indicate that a candidate knows how to tailor their education approaches to meet each different patients’ needs.
3. What would you do if you encountered a patient who was non-compliant with their care?
It’s common for patients to revisit outpatient settings when their treatment isn’t working or if they’re having trouble managing their care at home. This question evaluates how well a candidate can work with a patient who may not want to follow their initial care plan.
Listen for answers that demonstrate a candidate’s ability to maintain empathy and understanding in more difficult situations. Candidates should feel comfortable working with patients who may require more ongoing guidance or education than others.
4. How do you prioritize tasks when dealing with multiple patients at a time?
Outpatient nurses can see patients at a much higher volume than nurses in inpatient settings. As such, they must be comfortable managing their time under pressure. This question invites the candidate to share their personal approach to handling the daily demands of the job.
Nurses entering ambulatory care should already anticipate working with more patients. As such, the strongest answers will demonstrate a candidate’s confidence working with multiple patients without compromising care quality.
5. Describe your process for coordinating patient care with other members of the healthcare team.
Outpatient settings require good communication and coordination throughout the entire team in order to optimize each patient’s visit. Patients will see many different staff members in a short time period, so it’s important for candidates to have effective teamwork skills and stay on top of their tasks.
Strong answers will indicate a candidate’s understanding of their scope of practice, including both delegation and appropriate communication. If they’re a new nurse, they should be able to draw on their past experiences working with others in their clinical rotations.
6. What steps do you take to provide culturally competent care to diverse patient populations?
Outpatient nurses will provide care for diverse patient populations across the community. So, it’s important for outpatient nurse interview questions (and answers) to touch on cultural competence.
Candidates should express a willingness to adapt their care and meet patients where they are based on their cultural values. If a candidate seems set on delivering care based on their own cultural standards, this may be a red flag.
7. How comfortable are you with providing patient care and education via telephone or other remote telehealth platforms?
It’s becoming increasingly common for patients to have telehealth or virtual visits with outpatient care teams. This question assesses a candidate’s comfort level with consulting patients through these types of platforms.
While you shouldn’t expect candidates to be experts on telehealth, they should — at baseline — express an openness to learning on the job. Strong answers will showcase a candidate’s flexibility toward new technologies and willingness to connect with patients through different modes of communication.
Find the Right Candidates to Interview for Your Outpatient Facility
To ensure you’re asking the right people your outpatient nurse interview questions, it’s important to first attract a strong pool of applicants. Not sure where to start? IntelyCare’s job board can help you reach a nationwide network of nursing professionals who are actively seeking jobs.