Shuffle your interview practice

Who is your mentor?

It sounds really bad. You are on an airplane and after you have taken off for a 4-hour flight, a baby sitting right behind your seat starts to cry. As time goes on, even while you have earphones, the screams don’t stop. The parent accompanying the child keeps trying to quiet the baby down but to no avail. For every passing minute, the screams get louder and louder. What do you do?

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

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?

Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news.

What are some ways to reduce healthcare inequalities in Canada?

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

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

Choose a health care debate and discuss both sides. Which side do you agree with most?

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?

Describe a time when you had to be a leader.

Have you ever doubted whether medicine is right for you?

What is one major healthcare issue that you believe needs to be addressed in the Canadian healthcare system?

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

Have you considered other careers besides being a physician?

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

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?

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

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

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 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?

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

Explain our Canadian health care system at a level appropriate for a high school student to understand.

Tell me about the last time you were upset.

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

Describe a time when you asked for help.

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?

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?

Why do you want to be a doctor?

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

Describe a time when you were scared.

What is the most important issue facing health care today?

How would you deal with the death of a patient?

When do laws deviate from ethics?

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

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

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

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

What is your opinion on medicine and research?

What are your thoughts on universal basic income?

What about our school appeals to you in terms of your medical education?

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

A drug formulary is a list of generic and brand name prescription drugs covered by your provincial health insurance. With a finite provincial budget, how would you determine which drugs should not be included in the drug formulary (not covered by health insurance)?

Tell me about the best day of your life.

Describe a time when you felt excited. What happened?

Describe a time when you learned something new.

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

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?

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

Describe a time when you made sacrifices to excel at something (can be any activity).

What role do genetics and genetic testing have in the Canadian healthcare system?

What is one currently feasible change you could make to improve the condition of indigenous and rural healthcare?

People infected with COVID-19 variants are experiencing a spectrum of symptoms with some suggesting that it can be compared to the flu or common cold. Some believe that the risk of vaccination side effects (e.g. inflammation of the heart) may outweigh the risk of contracting COVID. Discuss your stance on vaccination decision making when factoring side effects and contracting the disease.

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?

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

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?

Mistakes can occasionally go unnoticed, with parties involved remaining unaware that anything wrong ever occurred. Do you think it is ever appropriate to keep a mistake private? If so, when and why?

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?

Your friend tells you that he wants to take an "Introduction to Spanish" course to boost his GPA even though he is a native Spanish speaker. Native speakers are not allowed to take the course. What do you tell your friend?

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?

What is the Jordan principle? What are some long-term benefits of this principle to a child’s life?

Describe a difficult decision that you had to make.

How would you go about convincing a parent who does not want to vaccinate their newborn?

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?

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

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?

Why do you like our school over other schools?

A 14 year old boy is diagnosed with a terminal illness. What should the physician do in this scenario?

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

Describe a time when you improved on a weakness.

Describe a time when you felt you were treated unfairly. What did you do about it?

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

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?

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?

During your shift, you notice your preceptor is intoxicated. What do you do?

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

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.

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

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?

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?

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

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

Tell me about a time you handled interpersonal conflict.

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?

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

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?

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

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

Have you ever almost quit something but then changed your mind? Why? What did you learn?

What is your favourite quote and why?

Can you tell me why a physician must also be a good collaborator, and provide examples?

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

How has technology improved healthcare?

Describe a time when you were wrong about something very important.

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

Physicians are using social media to grow their network, showcase their lifestyle, and share medical tips and tricks. What are some positives and negatives of this increased exposure of physicians on social media?

Public celebrity cases like the recent Depp vs. Heard case have shown how powerful and biased the ‘Court of Public Opinion’ can be. What kind of effects do you think public opinion can have on the legal process, if any? Do you think that certain court cases should be kept private and out of public view? Why or why not?

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

What role should privacy play in telemedicine and electronic health records?

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