Shuffle your interview practice

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?

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 did something you were not proud of.

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

Describe a time when you felt excited. What happened?

Who is your mentor?

Describe a difficult decision that you had to make.

Have you considered other careers besides being a physician?

Describe a time when you had to be a leader.

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

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

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 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?

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

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?

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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

Describe a time when you disappointed your parents/grandparents.

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?

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?

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

How has technology improved healthcare?

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?

Describe a time when you doubted yourself.

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?

Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news.

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?

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

What are your thoughts on universal basic income?

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

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?

What is the most important issue facing health care today?

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

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

Have you ever doubted whether medicine is right for you?

Describe a time when you improved on a weakness.

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

When do laws deviate from ethics?

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 do you want to be a doctor?

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

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

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

Discuss your perspective on how social media is being used in the context of medicine.

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?

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

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

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

Compare and contrast between public and private health care.

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?

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?

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

What are some difficulties faced by physicians during the pandemic?

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

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

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

Describe a time when you asked for help.

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?

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

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

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?

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?

Why do you wish to attend our medical school?

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?

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

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?

Tell me about the best day of your life.

Why do you like our school over other schools?

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

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

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

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

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

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 role should privacy play in telemedicine and electronic health records?

Describe a time when you had to be a follower.

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

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