Interview Questions/Answers for Healthcare
*Click
here (word) Click
here (pdf) for
examples.
*Click
here for questions and resources from the US
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Use these questions as a general outline to
prepare for either the committee interview
(medical and dental school applicants only) or
for interviews with the health professional
schools. It is important to practice
articulating your answers out loud with a friend
or tape recorder. Your responses should
generally be 30 to 90 seconds in length. When
being interviewed, applicants that do not answer
satisfactorily are generally asked a series of
questions that get at the issue! You want to
practice some general questions that you think
you will be asked (tell me about yourself), but
not to the point that they sound memorized.
General questions
● Why choose this
profession over some other career in health?
Dentistry? Public health? Nursing? Within this
profession, what field interests you most?
● What will you do
if you fail to gain admission this year? Will
you reapply?
● How would you
spend the interim year?
● Why were your
standardized test scores so low? Will you retake
the MCAT/DAT/OAT/PCAT/GRE?
● How will you prepare to improve your
scores the second time? How did you prepare for
the standardized admissions test the first time?
● Why is this school
of interest to you? Why would you choose it over
another?
● Have you thought
about our Problem-Based-Learning Program?
● What do you think
we should look for in applicants?
● Are you aware of
the level of difficulty in this school? How will
you handle the rigorous schedule?
● Which specialty
interests you?
● How do you plan to
finance your graduate education?
Personal/family questions
● Why did you choose
Wittenberg? Where is it?
● How many hours a
day do you study?
● How do you spend
your time outside of the classroom?
● Explain your
research. Do you enjoy it? What did you
like/dislike about research? Would you like
research to be a part of your career?
● What do you see
yourself doing both personally and
professionally in 5 years? 10 years?
● What are your
personal strengths and weaknesses
(positive/negative qualities)?
● What is the
hardest thing you have ever done? Why was it so
difficult?
● What is your
biggest regret? What would you do differently?
Thought questions
● If you made a mistake as
a health care practitioner which caused
permanent harm or death to your patient,
how would you deal with the patient? Family? How
would you handle the mistake personally?
Professionally?
● You just delivered
a baby that has Down's syndrome. The child is
having problems breathing and needs to have a
simple operation to take care of the problem. If
the child does not have the surgery, he will
die. The parents ask you not to save their son.
What are the legal issues involved?
● What are the
ethical issues? What do you do?
● What do you think
of mercy killings in the wake of a disaster such
as Hurricane Katrina? patient?
● Describe a
conflict you observed between a health care
practitioner and a patient. What did you get out
of that experience?
● What would you do
if you saw one of your fellow students cheating?
What would you do in your residency if one of
your colleagues came to work with alcohol on
his/her breath?
● What are your
thoughts on euthanasia? On abortion? On fetal
tissue research?
● If you were the
President of the United States, what would you
do to improve the health care situation in the
U.S.? (Or what do you see as the positives and
negatives of the President’s health care plan?)
How does this situation affect your profession?
● What changes in
medicine do you think will affect your
profession?
● What are the
greatest problems facing American medicine?
● Do you think that
health care practitioners make too much money?
Why or why not?
● How will you
handle a patient who cannot afford to pay for
your care?
● What do you
dislike about the field of medicine as a whole?
● Tell me about your
experience in a medical setting. What did you
like/dislike?
● How would you pass
along bad news to a family?
Sample Allopathic/Osteopathic/Podiatric
School Interview
● Why do you want to
study medicine?
● What do you see
yourself doing in 5 years both personally and
professionally? In 10?
● Tell me about your
experience in a medical setting. Research?
● What will you do
if you fail to gain admission to medical school
this year? Will you reapply? How would you spend
the interim year?
● How do you plan to
finance your education?
● What do you
dislike about medicine?
● Describe the
current movement in health care management. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of our
system?
● If you made a
mistake as a doctor which causes permanent harm
or death to your patient how would you deal with
the patient? Family?
● An elderly man is
in the hospital on life support. He has two
sons. One son wants his father taken off life
support, and the other wants to continue
support. There is not a signed living will, and
your patient has been in a coma for a month.
What would you do?
Sample Dental/Optometry/Pharmacy School
Interview
● Tell me about
yourself.
● Why did you choose
this instead of medicine, physical therapy, or
social work?
● What do you like
about this profession? Dislike?
● Tell me about your
health related experience. What kinds of things
were you able to do?
How does the current health care situation
affect our profession?
A patient comes into your office that
desperately needs a procedure not covered by her
insurance. She is a single mother with three
small children, and cannot pay for the procedure
out of her pocket. What would you do?
● What do you see
yourself doing in 5 years both personally and
professionally? In 10?
● What will you do
next year if you don't get into our program?
Will you reapply? How would you spend the
interim year?
● Upon examination
of a 50 year old male patient, you determine
that he has gonorrhea in the mucous membranes of
his mouth/eye. His wife is one of your best
friends, and you now suspect that he has had
extramarital activity. How much information
would you divulge about your finding to his
wife? Do you encourage her to get a checkup with
her physician?
Sample Veterinary School Interview
● Tell me about
yourself.
● What are your
strengths and weaknesses (positive/negative
qualities)?
● Why do you want to
study veterinary medicine?
● Tell me about your
experience in a veterinary setting. What did you
like most? Dislike?
● What do you think
is the greatest challenge of veterinary
medicine?
● What careers are
out there for veterinarians apart from the
typical small animal practice?
● What do you think
about the current genetic engineering taking
place in stock animals?
● A father comes in
with a dog that has just been hit by a car, and
his son is crying uncontrollably. The father
would like the dog to be put to sleep, because
he did not want it anyway. You can easily set
the broken leg and the dog would be 100% within
2 months. What do you do?
Sample Occupational Therapy/Physical
Therapy/Nursing/Physician Assistant Interview
● Tell me about
yourself.
● Why do you want to
enter this profession?
● What experience
have you had with a(n) OT/PT/Nurse/PA?
● Why were your
standardized test scores so low? Will you retake
the GRE? How will you prepare to improve your
scores the second time? How did you prepare for
the GRE the first time?
● What do you hope
to gain in you personal life from this
profession?
● What type of
people do you foresee as difficult patients and
how will you handle those patients?
Nurse or PA: A nurse has worked in a hospital
for several years. She begins to notice that one
particular doctor has made several mistakes in
diagnosis over the last several months, but has
not done any serious harm. What should she do?
● OT/PT: A physician
refers a patient to you with specific
instructions to treat osteoporosis. Upon
assessing the patient, you disagree with the
course of treatment suggested by the physician.
What would you do?
● What do you see
yourself doing in 5 years both personally and
professionally? In 10?
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