Shuffle your interview practice

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?

Tell me about the last time you were upset.

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

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?

When do laws deviate from ethics?

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

One of the patients hands you a basket of baked goods and wine for the holidays as a gift. What would you do?

Describe a time when you felt ashamed.

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

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?

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 felt you were treated unfairly. What did you do about it?

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

Compare and contrast between public and private health care.

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?

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?

What do you think is the biggest "problem" with the Canadian medical system? How can we fix this?

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?

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

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

Imagine you were a medical student and now you observed a resident behaving rudely with a patient. What would you do?

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

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.

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

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?

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

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?

In Ontario, pharmacists are able to prescribe certain medications to patients now. What are some pros and cons of this change?

What would you hope to achieve as a physician?

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

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

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 had to say “no”.

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?

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

What are some ways to reduce healthcare inequalities in Canada?

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?

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?

Who is your mentor?

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?

What is the most important issue facing health care today?

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

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 the difficult parts of being a physician?

Describe a time when you many have lost your temper.

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?

Why do you want to go into medicine?

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

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

How has technology improved healthcare?

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 some difficulties faced by physicians during the pandemic?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

Tell me about a time you handled interpersonal conflict.

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

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

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

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?

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

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

Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news.

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

Have you considered other careers besides being a physician?

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

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?

Describe a difficult decision that you had to make.

How would you deal with the death of a patient?

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

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 your favourite quote and why?

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

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

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

Why do you want to be a doctor?

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?

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 doubted yourself.

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?

What is your opinion on medicine and research?

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.

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 had to be a follower.

Tell me about the best day of your life.

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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?