Shuffle your interview practice

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

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

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?

Describe a time when you felt excited. What happened?

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

What is your opinion on doctors being suspended or facing consequences based on their social media posts?

In Ontario, patients will soon be able to read the medical notes their physicians write about them. What are the implications of this change?

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?

Describe a time when you had to be a follower.

Why do you want to go into medicine?

A friend who on the basis of religious beliefs is anti-abortion has just had an argument with their daughter who is pro-abortion rights and is asking you for advice on how to handle the situation what would you do?

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?

Describe a time when you many have lost your temper.

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?

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

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

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).

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

What would you hope to achieve as a physician?

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?

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

What responsibilities do physicians have in informing the general public about topics related to medicine?

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

What is your greatest weakness?

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 made sacrifices to excel at something (can be any activity).

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

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?

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?

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.

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

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

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

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

A physician picked up a car accident victim from the street and brought him to the ER in his car. He did not want to wait for an ambulance because the patient’s condition was critical. Physical examination in the ER reveals quadriplegia. Is the physician liable for this consequence?

Tell me about the best day of your life.

Discuss one extracurricular experience where you had an impact on another individual?

Describe a difficult decision that you had to make.

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

Tell me about the last time you were upset.

Imagine you were an attending physician who overheard med students complaining about how a resident had treated them badly. What would be your responsibilities in this situation and what would you do?

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

If you were a med student and you are working with a resident who has been nothing but nice to you. But you saw them yelling at another resident, how would you react?

Imagine you were a medical student and you observed a resident making rude remarks about a patient in the team room to the other residents. How would you act?

Describe a time when you had to be a leader.

Describe a time when you learned something new.

What are some difficulties faced by physicians during the pandemic?

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

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?

Imagine you are a resident and you had a patient that came in with a medical reason that was causing them lots of pain. You have properly given them narcotics according to the guidelines, however, the next day they still are complaining of pain. How would you handle this situation?

What are some pros and cons to health system family medicine models that pay based on how many patients the family doctor sees?

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are your thoughts on universal basic income?

Is there a policy at an institution or organization you were a part of that you disagreed with? If so, why?

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?

With AI slowly creeping its way into the healthcare field, what are three pros and three cons of AI in medicine?

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?

What are some pros and cons of a three-year family residency program?

If you were a doctor and you had a patient that was unsure about getting their children vaccinated due to things they had read online, how would you counsel them?

Describe a time when you were scared.

Why do you wish to attend our medical school?

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?

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

What is something in your life that you are not proud of? Why?

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

From your file, I can see that you have a lot of experience doing 'x experience'. Please describe your strategy with 'x'. What is the most important lesson you learned?

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

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

Imagine you were a third year clerk working in a clinic with an attending. Clerks are supposed to be released from clinic at 5pm. However, the clinic is running late and it's already 5:30pm. What would you do in this situation?

When do laws deviate from ethics?

Describe a time when you disappointed your parents/grandparents.

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

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

What health issue within our province are you most passionate about? Why?

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

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?

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?

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

Tell me about a time you handled interpersonal conflict.

Let's say you are a physician and your clinic is already running late. You see one of your patients who has been struggling recently and would require a longer appointment time to sort out their problems. However, your clinic is already running late and other patients are waiting. What are the ethical implications in this situation and what would you do?

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?

Certain hospital services like deliveries in obgyn after midnight get paid more compared to other times of the day. What are the implications for these types of payment policies?

Describe a time when you improved on a weakness.

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?

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 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?

Describe a time when you stood up for someone.

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

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

Describe a time when you felt ashamed.