Interviewing pharmacists for positions in patient-focused health care organizations

Providing pharmaceutical care requires pharmacists to have the personal attributes necessary to function as part of a health care team. Assessing candidates' personal or behavioral values during the employment interview can be a valuable tool to determine future performance. The use of a structured interviewing format designed to identify predetermined key behavioral indicators as an assessment tool is described. Through detailed probing, candidates' previous actions in specific situations are used as predictors of future performance by the interviewing organization. Use of the interviewing tool described improves the likelihood of selecting candidates with behavioral values deemed important to the organization.