MMI self harm answers?

[Distancea]

Hey premeds,

I have been having this question for a couple of months but cannot seem to find anything about it. When given an ethical case sometimes you as a participant have the option of helping someone by risking your safety or spending your money (this is what i meant by self harm). Do you think this is frowned upon by the MMI markers or just something that can sometimes be when a life is in danger.

2 cases that come to my mind:

1) Your friend asks to use the residents only gym at your apartment complex.

 ^{^}There are multiple things you can do one of which is to offer to pay for your friend's gym expenses elsewhere.

2) You knock on a door and hear footsteps and a thump (presumably the person has fallen on the floor). There might be fire or some other hazard.

^{^} Here, again you do the usual stuff of calling the emergency services and such, but is it okay to also say that "After looking for potential dangers and making sure that the environment is safe I would try to gain access into the house".

As you can see both of these involve some risk to the participant (me) at the advantage of saving lives or making your friends happy. What do you say?

Thanks in advance.

[GoneFishing]

I don't know about the first, but for the second case, "after looking for potential dangers .. etc. " is standard first-aid instruction, so would seem a reasonable answer, particularly if one were trained in first-aid.

[MedP111]

Definitely depends IMO. I personally think saying "I'll pay for my friend's gym fees elsewhere" is a cheap answer. You can't just throw money at a problem to make it go away. What if you're not too rich yourself? What if you have multiple friends like that? What if your friends have multiple money-related problems? You realistically won't just use up all your savings to solve these problems (and if you do, I'd argue you're being foolish).

The second scenario is very different. I think it's a fine answer so long as you make it clear that you're examining risks on your end as well and can weigh the trade-offs.

It's easy to think that the evaluators want you to be all altruistic and self-sacrificing, but trying to fit this mold can mislead you into giving answers that aren't true to you. Importantly, I think it's okay and perfectly natural to show that you care about yourself as well (duh). When evaluating the stakes, don't leave out those that concern only you. In short, "self-harm answers" are fine so long as you're not pretending to be a saint who would do anything to help others without consideration of your own well-being and needs. The latter would come off as reckless, short-sighted and/or insincere.

But that's just my two cents, and I haven't even done my MMIs yet so maybe I'm completely off the track.

[Calopee]

21 hours ago, MedP111 said:

Definitely depends IMO. I personally think saying "I'll pay for my friend's gym fees elsewhere" is a cheap answer. You can't just throw money at a problem to make it go away. What if you're not too rich yourself? What if you have multiple friends like that? What if your friends have multiple money-related problems? You realistically won't just use up all your savings to solve these problems (and if you do, I'd argue you're being foolish).

The second scenario is very different. I think it's a fine answer so long as you make it clear that you're examining risks on your end as well and can weigh the trade-offs.

It's easy to think that the evaluators want you to be all altruistic and self-sacrificing, but trying to fit this mold can mislead you into giving answers that aren't true to you. Importantly, I think it's okay and perfectly natural to show that you care about yourself as well (duh). When evaluating the stakes, don't leave out those that concern only you. In short, "self-harm answers" are fine so long as you're not pretending to be a saint who would do anything to help others without consideration of your own well-being and needs. The latter would come off as reckless, short-sighted and/or insincere.

But that's just my two cents, and I haven't even done my MMIs yet so maybe I'm completely off the track.

I totally agree.