How to Hire a Nurse Practitioner

Why hire a nurse practitioner?

An efficient nurse practitioner helps the facility maintain accurate patient records, schedules appointments and helps take care of patients. A nurse practitioner will:

• Conduct initial patient screenings and perform physical examinations of patients
• Maintain and update patient records
• Review test results and schedule follow-up appointments and discuss further options for treatments

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance nurse practitioner

Hospitals and health care centers can use freelance nurse practitioners to provide coverage for full-time nurse practitioners who call out or are on vacation. They can also employ freelancers to help take care of patients if the hospital is taking in more patients than its current nursing staff or doctors can handle. 

Additionally, individuals can look into hiring a freelance nurse practitioner for nursing care in the home because it may be more comfortable than staying in a hospital. 

Health care facilities often employ full-time nurse practitioners to handle responsibilities doctors may not have time for, and many people prefer to see the NP if they have urgent care and their primary doctor is unavailable. 

What are the ranks of nurse practitioners?

In the nursing field, each rank comes with additional responsibilities. These jobs include:

• Certified nursing assistant (CNA): A CNA is often responsible for taking care of patients’ daily needs. They can help patients eat and drink, bathe, change their clothes and use the restroom. CNAs may also administer certain medications.
• Licensed practical nurse (LPN): A licensed practical nurse performs routine procedures for patients. This can include taking blood pressure, starting IV drips, inserting catheters and changing bandages. 
• Registered nurse (RN): A registered nurse takes patients’ medical histories, monitors their health, performs specific diagnostic tests and administers medicine. 
• Advanced practice registered nurse (APRN): APRNs can give patients medication, order and perform tests and refer patients to specialists. 
• Nurse practitioner (NP): A nurse practitioner is able to perform and interpret diagnostic tests, make official diagnoses and prescribe and administer medication. NPs often work directly with a doctor. 

Where to find nurse practitioners

To find the right nurse practitioner for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies: 

• Hire from within. Make inquiries with your nursing staff to determine if any of them would be interested in training to become nurse practitioners.
• Network. Build and maintain relationships with other hospitals and members of the nursing community. This may lead to information about nurse practitioners who are currently looking for work. 
• Search online. Some established nurse practitioners may be active on online forums and actively looking for work. 
• Post help wanted signs. Hang flyers to let the community know about the position and encourage quality candidates to apply. 
• Post your job online. Try posting your nurse practitioner job on Indeed to find and attract quality nurse practitioner candidates.

What are the ranks of nurse practitioners?

In the nursing field, each rank comes with additional responsibilities. These jobs include:

• Certified nursing assistant (CNA): A CNA is often responsible for taking care of patients’ daily needs. They can help patients eat and drink, bathe, change their clothes and use the restroom. CNAs may also administer certain medications.
• Licensed practical nurse (LPN): A licensed practical nurse performs routine procedures for patients. This can include taking blood pressure, starting IV drips, inserting catheters and changing bandages. 
• Registered nurse (RN): A registered nurse takes patients’ medical histories, monitors their health, performs specific diagnostic tests and administers medicine. 
• Advanced practice registered nurse (APRN): APRNs can give patients medication, order and perform tests and refer patients to specialists. 
• Nurse practitioner (NP): A nurse practitioner is able to perform and interpret diagnostic tests, make official diagnoses and prescribe and administer medication. NPs often work directly with a doctor. 

Writing a nurse practitioner job description

A thoughtful description is important to finding qualified nurse practitioner candidates. A nurse practitioner job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your nurse practitioner job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on nurse practitioner jobs, according to Indeed data:

• Nurse practitioner
• Physician assistant
• Family nurse practitioner
• NP
• Pediatric nurse practitioner
• Psychiatric nurse practitioner
• Telemedicine nurse practitioner
• Advanced practice registered nurse
• Nurse practitioner new grad welcome
• Women’s health nurse practitioner

Interviewing nurse practitioner candidates

To hire a suitable nurse practitioner, take the time to vet candidates and ask detailed interview questions to understand their knowledge and skills. A quality nurse practitioner will be confident answering questions regarding:

• Proficiency in providing patient care services
• Past experience in maintaining patient records and appointments and providing patient care
• How they’ve contributed to increased business revenue and profits by proactively improving patient care quality

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of nurse practitioner interview questions for examples (with sample answers).