"Now that you have seen our program, how do YOU think the program can become better?"

 

As your interview is coming to an end, the interviewer throws THIS question at you.

"Now that you have seen our program, how do YOU think the program can become better?"

That's right, the interviewer is asking you, dear applicant, to use your critical thinking skills, identify the shortcomings in the program and offer suggestions. 

But remember you need to be careful in your recommendations and not insult the program or the hospital.

How do you handle this tricky question? Your responses now.

Here are 4 possible answers. These examples are just to get you thinking and you would need to customize these answers to the specific program where you are interviewing.

In general, I would suggest that these improvements be directed only for educational purposes.  That is, do not tell that the program would do better if the hospital had the ability for LVAD or TAVR.  Small community hospitals will not be able to provide that level of care and are very likely to transfer patients needing intense treatment to a larger referral center.

 

1. Simulation center (or simulation lab).  Many university hospitals have a simulation lab for medical students and residents to try out a code situation or intubation.  Some sim labs also have standardized patients to allow you to learn certain communication skills such as end of life discussions. Such sim labs add immense value to your medical education and communication skills to work seamlessly in a team. So if the program that you are interviewing at does not have a sim lab, ask if there are any plans to open one. The cost to setup a sim lab to develop the scenarios, rooms and technology can be prohibitive - in that case, ask for standardized patients (not much investment needed) to learn important communication skills.

 

2.  Fellowship programs.  If there is no fellowship program (or a fellowship program that you are interested in), suggest to your program director to start a fellowship. For example, in a busy hospital with a couple of subspecialty fellowships, if it does not have endocrinology fellowship, suggest to the program director that given the number of patients and learning opportunities available, fellowship in endocrinology would certainly add value to residency training.  You can even get more fancy with the fellowship recommendation. If for example they have a cardiology fellowship, you can say that patient have an electrophysiology fellowship or a heart failure fellowship. Or if there is any other fellowship that you have interest in such as palliative care fellowship, do make it a point to bring it to the program directors attention.

3.  Point-of-care ultrasound training.  Some programs have started point-of-care ultrasound training but do not really offer a certification.  If you are interested in learning point-of-care ultrasound skills, talk to the program director or suggest to the program director about having a structured point-of-care ultrasound rotation to allow you to be certified and trained in ultrasound. 

4.  Medical students rotating in the hospital.  Having medical students rotating allows you to develop or enhance vital teaching skills.  So if there are no medical students, suggest to the program director about having medical students by developing an affiliation with a medical school.

Do share your thoughts in my facebook group and I can comment on your response. Plus, you can see other's responses too. 

That’s all for now. Hope you like this post. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Join the mailing list or my facebook group and check out Ed4medus.com to learn more about personalized services to help you get into a US medical residency program.

Photo credit for image in post: 

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQYz2iBpJ3uRbzo9acoUSt9yQOBzefL6pLkMrFuelAvenEi7ea1

https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/simulation/images/homepage-images/clinical-sim-550-310c1.jpg

https://gme.medicine.uiowa.edu/sites/gme.medicine.uiowa.edu/files/gme-fellowship-bb-transmed.jpg

https://spocus.org/resources/Pictures/images-2.jpeg

"If not a doctor, what would you be?"

 

Many a times, I am sure you have been told that medicine is a very noble profession. I am sure this is valid even today, though some may argue that medical practice is now run more as a business. Nevertheless, what would you do if this profession did not exist? What would you do if you just had no way of becoming a doctor? What other profession would you consider?

Here are THREE examples: TWO are from online interviews that I chose to include because of the very high quality responses - responses from other applicants were also very exciting, but for lack of space, I have not been able to include those in the current post. May be I will include them in a future version of the post. The third example is from my own personal experience.

Make sure you watch the video clips to get a feel for the interview. 

These examples are taken from 2 online practice interviews that I performed at ed4medus.com. Click on the links below and see the 2 video clips. You can also read the transcript of these interview clips. (Identity of the applicants have been withheld to ensure confidentiality). 

                Video: Teacher Video: Archeologist         

GM: “Well, I would love to be a teacher. I love to teach people and many times I have got feedback that I am a good teacher. In my medical school, we used to have a small group and my fellow used to tell me different topics which were difficult to understand. I used to first learn and then I used to teach them because they thought that I am a better teacher. And many times such topics which were really tricky ones in which simply we had to cram a lot, I used to teach them and they really found that it was useful to them. So soon, my juniors also approached me and I had a small tutorial group in my med school. And me along with my two other fellow colleagues - we were the three main teacher who used to teach the juniors and our batchmates also -  small topics which ever they felt they needed help with. I think I would be a teacher.”

AR: Back in the days, because I was a curious child, so I wanted to be an archaeologist. You know __ is in the Mediterranean coast and we have the second largest amount of Roman and Greek rows in the entire Mediterranean basin.  So back in the days, I was very curious about going to all the old cities and archaeological sites and spending hours with my family.  My brothers and sisters did not like it. So I would just go down, explore the caves, see how ancient civilization took settlement in this country and tried to build something.  I guess it was the curious side of me - that desire for me to understand how who we are and how we came from going back to our ancestors. I wanted to do this, but my aunt was really happy when I ended up not doing it and ended up doing medicine. I guess both share aspects of curiosity and the need for continuous discovery and working on it being a researcher. I would have done it I think and I guess I am still interested in it. I still love reading about archaeology and anthropology as well.

Dr Ed: If not medicine, I would really like to be a musician and play the piano. Music has been a passion of mine. I started learning the piano when I was in middle school but I had to give up playing music because of needing to spend more time for studies. What I find interesting is that many of the traits in music are similar to what is required in being a successful physician. Just like you have to practice, practice, and practice to play a beautiful song, one has to keep learning medicine by revising, reviewing and revisiting medical conditions and learning from each patient to add to his or her experience. So, the more you practice, the better you become and that also applies to being a great physician. Practice can sometimes be long and hard but the fruits of success and the beautiful music that comes with practice is amazing. In the same way, saving even one life or helping out a patient really makes the practice of medicine very worthwhile. You have to be able to play as a band otherwise if you play out of tune, then you can spoil the song. Similarly, while taking care of the patient, one needs to work in a team and collaborate with other consultants and nurses to deliver the best outcome for the patients.

So there you have it. When answering this question, make sure you explain the similarities between medicine and your passion outside medicine. This demonstrates high level of thinking and self-reflection.  

How should you not answer this question? Avoid controversial occupations (from the medical point of view) like being a bartender or owning a cigar shop (you may choose to do those after residency). 

Do share your thoughts in my facebook group and I can comment on your response. Plus, you can see other's responses too. 

That’s all for now. Hope you like this post. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. Join the mailing list or my facebook group and check out Ed4medus.com to learn more about personalized services to help you get into a US medical residency program.

Photo credit for image in post: 

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/5a/d9/735ad9eabb1b3b03f09d9fcd8b4d5b59.jpg