Shuffle your interview practice

What are issues that people living with addiction face during a pandemic? What are some solutions to these problems?

Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news.

What would you hope to achieve as a physician?

What problems lie at the intersection of indigenous people's relationship with government operated healthcare in Canada and rural communities?

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

Describe a time when you stood up to an authority figure.

You are a surgeon, and you discharge a patient. She becomes ill and dies not long after. The family asks why you discharged her. How do you respond?

What are your thoughts on universal basic income?

What are some difficulties faced by physicians during the pandemic?

Medical schools across Canada continue to switch between in-person and online delivery of medical education. Discuss the impact of online medical education.

What are the difficult parts of being a physician?

You are a family physician and another physician at the clinic is dating one of their patients. What would you do?

You are on clinical rotation with Dr. A and admire how highly professional and compassionate they are with patients. However, you notice that after patient interactions, Dr. A makes jokes about their patients with other physicians and residents. Dr. A notices your shock at this and mentions that "everyone does this” and “as long as you are good with the patients in person, it’s just private fun". Do you see any issues with this behaviour? Would you say anything to Dr. X? What would you do if Dr. A refused to change their behaviour?

What characteristics do you think are important for a physician to possess as members within a team and why?

What is your greatest strength and greatest weakness? Which one is more important to you?

Describe a time when you felt excited. What happened?

Describe a time when you asked for help.

You are playing the card game hearts, and your partner is demonstrably less skilled and experienced than you. After a few hands, you both are down by over 100 points as a team, mostly because your partner keeps apologizing for making stupid mistakes during the game. What do you say to your partner?

Describe a time when you did something you were not proud of.

There have been more medical students and physicians participating in activism. What is your perspective on our role in activism?

A lot of people you work with have noticed that many random things which they own are going missing. It appears that some personal items that are not extremely valuable have gone missing over the course of the last two months. Regardless, many of your co-workers are concerned. What suggestions would you bring to an upcoming meeting with your co-workers about finding a way to address this issue?

Describe a time when you disappointed your parents/grandparents.

What is the most important issue facing health care today?

You are a student in an advocacy group. You feel like another student in that group routinely dismisses the ideas of others and is often stuck in their own perspective of what is best. Do you say anything? If so, what do you say? What would you do if they left the advocacy group as a result of your discussion?

A 16-year-old child wants to have a procedure done but their parents disagree with this. What would you do as the teenager’s physician? Do you have to listen to the patient or the parents?

A couple has decided to have a child through artificial insemination. They asked the doctor for sex selection of the child. What should the physician do?

The Olympics is a global competition of sport and athleticism. Historically, there have been controversies in numerous Olympic Games. Select one of these controversies and discuss.

The Cannabis Act 2018 came into action across Canada. What are your thoughts on how this Act has affected Canadians?

Social media platforms have been restricting content that is deemed discriminatory and offensive. What do you think about these practices?

You are a member of a student leadership group. You feel that one of the other members of the group only joined to use the experience as a "resume booster". They contribute only the bare minimum to the group and participate just enough to make regular attendance. What would you do in this situation?

What is your greatest weakness?

How has technology improved healthcare?

What would you consider before moving your practice to a rural setting?

You are an attending physician who works at a busy hospital. Patient X frequently ignores the medical advice given by you and seems to dislike being in the hospital. How would you go about handling such patient encounters?

Medical students are involved with many extracurricular activities. Choose one and talk about it.

In healthcare, mandatory vaccinations has been met with mostly support. With COVID-19, mandatory vaccinations and booster shots have been further explored ethically and pragmatically. Discuss your perspective on mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19 compared to others (e.g. flu).

You started your clerkship rotations coincidently with your best friend. In your conversations, he often mentions patients by name and gives details on their conditions as well as their behaviour. What are some ethical issues that may arise in such a situation?

Describe a time when you learned something new.

You are a medical student on rotation in the emergency department with Dr. A. A patient comes in complaining about pain in their hip. Dr. A gives them some medication and the patient very quickly appears to improve and leaves the hospital feeling better. After the patient leaves, Dr. A reveals that the drug was a placebo and that that particular patient comes in often with a pain complaint that "has no pathological basis". Dr. A says that in cases like that, a placebo can be enough to help patients feel better and that telling patient it is a placebo would ruin the effect. What ethical issues do you see here? Would you say anything to Dr. A? Should you report this behaviour?

Describe a time when you had to say “no”.

Describe a time when you improved on a weakness.

Some medical schools have a preference for selecting medical candidates from certain geographical locations. What are your thoughts about such selection policies?

Aside from the Medical Expert role, select another CanMED role and discuss why you think it is the most important one for a physician.

Resident physicians are employees but also still completing their training. What are challenges that resident physicians face?

You are a resident under the service of Dr. A. A medical student currently on rotation with Dr. A confides in you that they simply “can’t get through to Dr. A” and that they feel like Dr. A doesn’t really care that they are there. The medical student says they feel like your relationship with Dr. A is much more cordial and asks your advice on how they can better interact with Dr. A. What do you say to them? Do you say anything to Dr. A?

It is not uncommon for medications to have various adverse side effects. As a physician, how would you help your patients navigate those side effects? How would you determine whether a treatment option is worth any adverse effects or risks?

You have two patients who have been admitted after a serious accident. Both require immediate attention in order to survive. One patient is 20 years old; the other is 60 years old. Which life would you save?

What is one lasting effect on healthcare from the COVID-19 pandemic?

Orphan diseases are diseases whose rarity means there is a lack of a market large enough to gain support and resources for discovering treatments for them. What is your approach to treating orphan diseases?

Physicians are expected to be leaders. In today’s health care system, do you think leadership is important – if so, why?

Do you think that physicians who, for personal reasons, feel uncomfortable with certain procedures (e.g. medically-assisted death, abortion) should be required to perform or refer for them? Why or why not? What ethical issues do you see in this situation?

Your little cousin needs to complete 40 hours of volunteering for his school. He thinks volunteering is useless and serves no purpose since you don't get paid for it. What would you say to convince him of the benefits of volunteering?

Why is confidentiality important for physicians? In what cases should physicians breach confidentiality? Have you ever had to break confidentiality in your life? Why or why not?

You are a judge for a student competition on public health. Student competitors had to present on a current health topic, describing the health issue, current solutions, and possible other health solutions. You and the rest of the judging panel have narrowed down the submission pool to two presentations; one on lung cancer and the other on geographical inequalities in population access to primary care. You and the other judges believe that both projects are extremely well done, but they vary significantly in their subject matter. The competition rules are clear that there can only be one winner. How would you go about choosing a winner?

Discuss your perspective on shifting the COVID-19 crisis from a pandemic to an endemic. What are the positives and negatives? Who stands to benefit and face harm as a result of such a decision? What do you think is the best course of action going forward?

The government wants to track citizens across the country in order to maintain public safety in the face of a pandemic. How would you advise the government to do this?

If you were on the admissions committee, what would be the most important thing you look for in a candidate?

A proposed bill would require all individuals to vote in federal elections or face a $100 fine. What do you think about this bill?

Describe a time when you doubted yourself.

Medical school applicants come from a variety of different backgrounds, with volunteer and leadership experience ranging from small local initiatives to worldwide advocacy trips. Do you think medical schools can fairly compare volunteer and leadership experiences that are dissimilar? If you were in charge of medical school admissions, how would you evaluate applicants’ co-curricular experiences?

If you were the manager of a seniors home how would you address an employee coming to work with symptoms? What would you do if this was during an active outbreak?

Describe a time when you were scared.

Pick a health topic that is relevant to today’s society and discuss your thoughts on it.

How would you go about suggesting to a family member that they get vaccinated if they are anti-vaccine?

When do laws deviate from ethics?

Tell me about the best day of your life.

What do you think are the long-term benefits of the Jordan principle, for the indigenous community on a population level?

You are a family physician. You notice bruises on your patient, a 10 year boy. What would you do?

You are a doctor working ER intake during a particularly busy shift. What do you do?

What role has the internet played in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Recently truckers have gathered to form a convoy in protest of certain decisions made by the federal government. What are your thoughts on this demonstration?

Who is your mentor?

Describe a time when you had to be a leader.

You are a medical student. Another medical student, Sam, invites you to a study group with three other students. At the study group, you find that the students are using real cases from their clinical rotations. When you ask Sam about this, they explain that the group removes always patient identifiers and that they feel that current cases are a great way to learn medicine.What considerations should be made in this situation? Would you say anything further to Sam? Are there any other actions you would take?

Our health care system is supposed to be comprehensive, but it does not cover many services offered by optometry, dentistry, nutrition, and other components of health. What is your opinion on this and what is your solution to improve it?

You say you enjoy helping others. There are many other careers other than medicine where you can do that. Why medicine?

Lord Byron stated “always laugh when you can, it is cheap medicine.” What does this quote mean to you in terms of how you will pursue your career in medicine?

Describe a time when you found that you had “too much on your plate”.

Bill-C7, which amended the Criminal Code to permit MAID for individuals whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable, was recently passed in Canada. What impact do you think this will have?

During your final exams week, your grandmother calls and tells you she feels lonely. What would you do?

Do you think physicians should lie or withhold the truth from their patients, even if its for the patient’s own good? What are some benefits to telling the truth?

Describe a time when you had to be a follower.

Most Canadians have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Why do you think some Canadians are choosing not to get the vaccine?

Describe a time when you stood up for someone.

Why is support for physician work life balance important for the care of patients?

Describe a time when you did something wrong.

Experimental medicine can introduce hugely effective new methods of treatment for pathologies that previously could not be treated. Do you think experimental medicine research should be done with children? Why or why not?

During COVID-19, the Maritimes created an "Atlantic Bubble". What do you think about this decision by public health?

Tell me about a time you handled interpersonal conflict.

What is your opinion on medicine and research?

Compare and contrast between public and private health care.

What is the biopsychosocial model of medicine and what role does it play in the field of medicine?

Why do you want to be a doctor?

What are your thoughts and feelings on reflecting your life during the COVID pandemic?

What do you think health inequality means? What does health inequity mean? Have you ever felt treated unfairly in your own life?

Tell me about the last time you were upset.

Dr. A is an exceptional surgeon, with by far the best surgical outcomes in the country. However, Dr. A is also highly prone to inter-professional conflict and is frequently disrespectful to patients, hospital staff and students. Do you think exceptional results justify problematic behaviour? If Dr. A threatened to quit in response to any required professional-development or sensitivity training, do you think that this would do more harm than good to patients? Why or why not?

Have you considered other careers besides being a physician?

What are the three qualities you believe would make you a great physician?

You are a physician and you have been treating a patient in the hospital for several days. How would you handle this situation?