20+ Strategic Clinical Nurse Specialist Interview Questions 

Clinical Nurse Specialists play a unique healthcare role. Unlike their registered nurse (RN) counterparts, clinical nurse specialists offer direct, focused patient care in specialty fields (like geriatrics or oncology) and can, pending state rules, prescribe medication. They’re typically leaders in clinic settings who manage other nurses. (RNs are often more generalized and could be members of a clinical nurse’s team.) 

The specificity of their role then requires making sure you’re finding the best candidates to join your clinic, practice, or institution. Let’s look at some general clinical nurse interview questions you can ask.  

Clinical Nurse Specialist Interview Questions

Along with these high-level questions, be sure to also ask questions that target specific skill sets and competencies. You can adjust these base-level interview questions to fit specific areas, too! (For example, when asking about patient care, tailor the question to what type of patient they’ll be working with.)

CNS interview questions that gauge leadership skills: 

• What is your prior experience training, supervising, and/or evaluating other nurses? 
• How do you balance managing newly graduated and experienced nurses? 
• Have you worked under or alongside any strong leaders? What attributes did they possess that made them a good leader? 
• Share a time when you felt proud of your team. What contributed to the success? 
• What action would you take if a nurse wasn’t listening to your instructions? 
• What benchmarks do you use to evaluate your team’s performance and success?
• What would past coworkers say about your leadership style? 
• Describe a difficult patient or case you’ve previously handled as an RN. How would you train other nurses to handle similar cases?
• Share a time when your nursing unit/research team was short-staffed. What steps did you take to ensure patients received proper care?
• How do you balance and prioritize your workload between patient care, research, and education-based responsibilities?  

CNS interview questions about interpersonal communication: 

• How would your past patients describe your care? 
• Have you experienced conflict with another nurse or research member? How did you resolve the conflict and what was the outcome? 
• How do you work with physicians to ensure proper medication and treatment protocols?
• How do you resolve conflicts between other team members? 
• What steps do you take to ensure patients and their families have provided informed consent before, during, and after a clinical trial? 
• Share successful strategies you’ve implemented to improve patient efficacy in clinical research. 

CNS interview questions that target continued learning: 

• What nursing career progression are you hoping to achieve in this role? 
• How do you stay up to date with changes in clinical practice and regulations?  
• Have you attended any recent training or workshops? What was your favorite takeaway? 

Find your next clinical nurse specialist 

Clinical nurse specialists are a critical part of patient care. Finding a candidate who possesses the right combination of hard and soft skills—and then retaining them—can take time. That’s why it’s important to be strategic about the interview questions you ask prospective clinical nurse specialist candidates. 

For help finding exceptional nursing candidates across the spectrum, reach out to Insight Global.