All employers want to hire honest employees, but perhaps with nurse practitioners it’s even more important that they are trustworthy. Patients, after all, find trust paramount when it comes to seeing a doctor, and you will also want to trust your new hire to be honest and do a good job. This guide will go over what you should do and look for when looking to hire a trustworthy nurse practitioner.

1. References

References are perhaps your best tool when it comes to hiring trustworthy nurse practitioners. Require every applicant you interview to provide at least two references of character from preferably former employers. Contact them and ask about your applicant’s behavior in the past and specifically discuss their level of trust with your applicant. You should be able to get a sense of how they feel about your applicant through their answers. Be wary of jobs listed on your applicant’s resume that they didn’t provide a reference for, and perhaps ask about it in the interview or contact that employer directly to ask the same questions.

2. Experience

It is generally a good sign when a nurse practitioner has many years of experience and has been stably employed for a long time. (Note that this is not always the case, simply a good sign.) That is not to say that if he or she has no experience you should be more wary, just that it speaks well of your applicant if they have been doing this for a long time and have worked for well-respected hospitals and doctors.

3. Background Checks

Besides the standard background checks, with nurse practitioners, there are databases that you can access to quickly check the licensure status of any applicants you are considering hiring. This will tell you that they are currently licensed and any infractions that might have happened in the past as well.

4. Look for Signs of Endurance

This is hard to test in a job interview, but the best nurse practitioners have to have a lot of endurance in order to work the sometimes long hours and taxing emotions that come with the role. Perhaps ask them in the interview about trying times they have faced on the job. Also look at tenure of previous nurse practitioner or other nursing jobs to see if your applicant lasted long in those positions. Nurse practitioners who have demonstrated their endurance in past jobs are likely to stick around a lot longer and be more trusted to consistently show up on time.

5. Personality

Nurse practitioners need to be patient, kind and caring to provide the best patient care. You also have to be able to trust them to work well and make good decisions on their own, as well as give patients top-notch care. So when trying to determine whether to hire someone, trust your gut. Does your applicant seem trustworthy with a good personality needed to succeed as a nurse practitioner in your facility?

It’s very good that you value trustworthiness so highly in your nurse practitioner applicants, as your facility will simply have to have nurse practitioners both employees and patients can trust. Hopefully these keys will help you hire trustworthy nurse practitioners who will be great assets to your medical facility.

Dixie Somers is a freelance writer and blogger for business, home, and family niches. Dixie lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is the proud mother of three beautiful girls and wife to a wonderful husband. Dixie recommends WebServicesID for doctor data as needed for your business.