Shuffle your interview practice

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?

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?

Describe a time when you disappointed your parents/grandparents.

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

Can you tell me why a physician must also be a good collaborator, and provide examples?

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?

What is your favourite quote and why?

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

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

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

What is your opinion on doctors being suspended or facing consequences based on their social media posts?

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?

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?

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

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?

Some medical schools have a preference for selecting medical candidates from certain geographical locations. What are your thoughts about such selection policies?

Describe a time when you had to be a follower.

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

Social media platforms have been restricting content that is deemed discriminatory and offensive. What do you think about these practices?

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

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

Describe a time when you felt ashamed.

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?

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?

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

Aside from the Medical Expert role, select another CanMED role and discuss why you think it is the most important one for a physician.

Describe a time when you improved on a weakness.

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?

Discuss your perspective on shifting the COVID-19 crisis from a pandemic to an endemic. What are the positives and negatives? Who stands to benefit and face harm as a result of such a decision? What do you think is the best course of action going forward?

What would you hope to achieve as a physician?

Describe a time when you many have lost your temper.

What role has the internet played in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

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

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

Tell me about the last time you were upset.

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?

Describe a time when you had to deliver bad news.

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.

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?

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?

Describe a time when you were scared.

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

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?

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

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?

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

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?

Why do you wish to attend our medical school?

What problems lie at the intersection of indigenous people's relationship with government operated healthcare in Canada and rural communities?

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

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?

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?

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

You are a physician and you have been treating a patient in the hospital for several days. How would you handle this situation?

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

What are the difficult parts of being a physician?

Tell me about the best day of your life.

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?

Choose a health care debate and discuss both sides. Which side do you agree with most?

What are some ways to reduce healthcare inequalities in Canada?

Systemic issues exist in the provincial health care system. Discuss one of them and how you would address it.

Bill-C7, which amended the Criminal Code to permit MAID for individuals whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable, was recently passed in Canada. What impact do you think this will have?

Have you ever doubted whether medicine is right for you?

Why do you like our school over other schools?

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

You are a student in an advocacy group. You feel like another student in that group routinely dismisses the ideas of others and is often stuck in their own perspective of what is best. Do you say anything? If so, what do you say? What would you do if they left the advocacy group as a result of your discussion?

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?

Have you considered other careers besides being a physician?

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

Describe a time when you stood up for someone.

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

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

Describe a time when you had to be a leader.

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

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?

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?

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

What is your opinion on medicine and research?

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

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

Why do you want to go into medicine?

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

Who is your mentor?

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

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

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

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 role should privacy play in telemedicine and electronic health records?

Describe a time when you helped someone in need.

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?

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?

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

Tell me about a time you handled interpersonal conflict.