Hello everyone! My name is Emily Davies and I am the Associate Director of Employer Relations in the Career Services department at Boise State. I also serve as the liaison to the School of Nursing.
Today I will be covering phase two of the nursing application process.
First and foremost, interviews are not about memorizing answers. They are about articulating your skills and abilities and how they relate to what you are applying for. Really think about what the question is asking and make sure your answer fits. You do not have to use a healthcare example if that is not what the question is asking. Draw on all life experience. We are not asking you to be polished and perfect. We prefer you to be what we refer to as raw and real.
You do not need to use the full time for the videos. Having a shorter but well thought-out answer is better than filling the time just to fill the time. We are looking at the quality of your answers. You can start by reflecting on the following questions:
- Why are you interested in becoming a nurse?
- What do you know about the profession?
- How have you prepared for the challenges of nursing school?
- What skills do you have that will make you a strong nursing student?
- What about a strong nurse?
Be resourceful. Utilize our Career Services resources, including the Pre-Nursing Career Community. The QR code on this slide will take you directly to those resources, including the Phase Two Interview Preparation Workshop, which is highly encouraged to complete.
The Phase Two Interview Workshop will prepare you for Phase Two of the BSN application process. Our career counselors have seen a significant improvement in student preparedness and confidence for their interviews after using the workshop.
One past participant shared, “It gave me time to think about my answers for the actual interview and what examples from my life I could bring up. I would 100% recommend the module to future students looking to interview for the nursing program.”
Practice. Make sure to practice so that you are prepared. You can schedule two different interview appointments with our career counselors on Handshake. Please make sure to select either pre- nursing interview preparation or pre- nursing mock interview in Handshake.
Select interview preparation if you would like to review strategies to prepare for phase two of the School of Nursing application cycle.
Select mock interview if you would like to resemble this upcoming interview as closely as possible. This is not to discuss strategy and instead is to help you experience what it is like to participate in the future interview.
It is expected to complete the Phase Two interview workshop before your mock interview. If you have not done so, we will kindly ask that you reschedule. Appointments fill up quickly and availability is not guaranteed.
Prepare for your virtual interview. Test your technology and ensure that you have internet connection. Remove distractions. It’s suggested to be in a quiet place with little to no interruptions. Take a breath before answering.
Consider answering questions with a headline. Use the first sentence of your answer to restate the question for the interviewer. For example, the question could be, “What do you consider to be your greatest professional strength?” You can start your answer with, “I consider my greatest strength to be…”
It is likely that you will have five to six verbal questions and one to two written questions. For the verbal questions, you will see the question on your screen and have 90 seconds to think about your response. At this time, you will not be recorded. Once the 90 seconds expires, your timer will start and you will have 2 minutes to answer your question. If your answer is under 2 minutes and you have fully answered the question to the best of your ability, you should be able to stop the recording.
For the written questions, you will have six minutes to respond to each question.
This concludes the Phase Two portion of this workshop. Wishing you all the very best of luck.