My Western Interview from 2002

[Guest hmsdread]

Hey Everyone,

 

When I got home from my UWO interview last March, I wrote down all the questions I had been asked (or at least remembered), because my friend was being interviewed in April. Following a little bit of searching, I've recovered that sheet, and am going to post those questions here. I'm gonna keep them short, and assume you guys can get the jist of the question with little explanation. But if there is something you don't quite understand, just post and I'll try to expand. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

 

1. Why medicine (hope ya saw this one coming!)

 

2. Why Western

 

3. Medicine: Science vs. art

 

4. Medicine is very teamwork oriented. How do I work in a team.

 

5. Canada is made of a very diverse population. Discuss a particular group of people who may have "special medical needs".

 

6. I was given a scenario about a pregnant mother. Her baby had been prenatally diagnosed with spina bifida. Identify the options to the mother (ie. prenatal surgery, postnatal surgery, abortion) and discuss how I would counsel the mother with regards to the various options. (Note: they helped me a lot with this one, because I told them I wasn't too aware of the options up front. My faculty interviewer, a pediatric geneticist, ran through the options and told me to simply explore what I thought would be the pros/cons of each.)

Following my discussion of the options, they added on an additional part: prenatal surgery is the best option. The mother wants to have it, but it is not covered by provincial insurance. What do I do? (I really stumbled through this one; I didn't particularly like the question, especially the second part. But I was upfront with my limited knowledge, and I think that is what got me through.)

 

7. Discuss a leadership role I've had, and when/how I've made difficult decisions.

 

8. A patient comes to me, and demands a drug I know to be ineffective (ie. antibiotics for a viral infection). What do I do. The patient become belligerent when I refuse to prescribe the drug. What do I do. How would I handle a patient asking for narcotics if I suspected they wanted them for the wrong reasons.

 

9. What do I like to do with my time.

 

10. How do I keep my demands in check.

 

11. How do I think medicine will change in the future with regards to emerging technology, and what are some examples of that technology. How do I foresee myself using those technologies.

 

That's all I've got written on my little white sheet of paper... I really hope it helps, and maybe engenders some debate on the forum. Needless to say, there were other "smaller" questions throughout the interview, but the escaped my memory when I wrote everything down.

 

PLEASE remember that the interviewers know NOTHING about you... when you answer a question, talk about things you've done!!! Ie., to answer question #4 (teamwork), don't just make up a generic scenario - talk about how you were a member of a club, or how you interact with your co-workers. I know its hard, but for one day out of the year, you are allowed to toot your own horn. Just don't try to cover the string and woodwind sections too.

 

Good luck.

 

hmsdread

[Guest Ian Wong]

Just as an aside, if you wish to start a discussion on a specific question from the list given above (thanks hmsdread ) please start a new thread and title it according to the pre-existing scheme. ie. Mock 23: How do I think medicine will change in the future?

 

Thanks,

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

[Guest MayFlower1]

hmsdread,

 

It's great to see you posting here again. What a wonderful post full of thought-provoking questions. A few of the med students at UofO are holding mock interviews for a few of us today...I'm going to bring these questions with me.

 

Thanks,

 

Peter (aka PeterHill0501)

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Nice work hmsdread - I never wrote my questions down, and my interview being two years ago, I can't remember them. That being said, I will say I can remember being asked questions #1, #2, #3, #9, and #11.

 

I think you can essentially count on questions #1 and #2 being asked. They might not, but then again they're definitely a good place to start.

[Guest Beth]

Thanks so much for the questions hmsdread!!!

[Guest aneliz]

Here you go guys, this is what I can remember of my interview questions at UWO:

 

1. Why medicine?

 

2. What other careers have you considered and why do you think that medicine is the best choice for you?

 

3. What was a major decision you were faced with and how did you approach it?

 

4. Why Western? What is unique about Western's med program that draws you to it?

 

5. What are some of the major obstacles in identifying/treating women that have suffered abuse? How can you meet these?

 

6. Tell us how you deal with people...describe a major conflict and how you resolved it...looking back do you think that you should have taken a different approach? What about group work?

 

7. Scenario: you are a rural family doctor and an elderly patient comes to you complaining of headaches...you tell him to take aspirin because you believe that his headaches are inconsequential...he returns again and again and again demanding an MRI and other expensive tests and drugs...what do you do? What are the issues and how can you address the needs of the man?

 

8. Scenario: you are on call as a med student and the surgical resident that you are working with is obviously drunk...but refuses to admit that there is any problem what would you do?

 

9. Describe the pros and cons and ethical implications of xenotransplantation

 

10. Scenario: what would you do if you came to work one day and the building was surrounded by an animal rights protest?

 

11. You are taking care of an elderly patient who is essentially brain dead...but the family is refusing to accept this and demands that absolutely everything continue to be done for the patient...what would you do? What are your obligations to the family/patient/society?

 

12. What if the patient in the above situation was a child rather than an elderly person?

 

13. Tell us what you have done to contribute to your community in the last three months.

 

14. What medical specialty do you think you want to practice?

 

And that is all that I can remember...

 

At UWO they know NOTHING about you other then your name...it is up to you to incorporate anything you would like them to know about your life into your answers...because that is the only way that your 'well-roundedness' will show.

 

Personally, I thought that my interview had gone terribly...you can probably find my old posts from last year around somewhere and read my immediate post-interview stress...My interview was short...about 30 minutes...the intervierers challenged every answer and had no reaction/expression when I answered and the interview ended with "that's all we want to ask you." Just goes to show that you can't always judge how it really went by your gut feeling immediately after.

 

Good luck everybody!

[Guest Lactic Folly]

Wow, that's a lot of questions for a thirty minute interview!

How much of your personal/extracurricular stuff did you manage to work in? Would it be going off on a tangent if, for an ethical question, you described your experiences and how they would influence your approach to the situation?

(yay..more mocks )

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I think that is what I did - supported a lot of my answers with examples from personal life.

[Guest Emila]

Is there anyone else who could post their past interview questions here?

 

I know about interviewfeedback.com but there aren't that many questions from last year.

 

Thanks,

Emila

[Guest tirisa]

Thanks to both hmsdread and analiz for posting all those questions from last year. The scope of the questions certainly gives us a great idea of what and how much you can expect in a 30-45 minute interview. I also am really glad to hear that hmsdread's spina bifida question was facilitated so nicely by the interviewers. Is this often the case in such 'simulated scenario' questions??