Mock interview question on treating patients of a different culture

[dcguthrie7]

Hi guys,

I did a mock interview at my state school and came across a couple cultural questions I had a hard time answering. This was a MMI, and I wanted to post the questions and see what you guys come up with and maybe these will help you brainstorm for future interviews. I don't have a lot of experience with diverse cultures, and the mock interviewers appreciated my attempt to answer and my honestly when I exposed this fact.

1. You take a job at a cherokee reservation, and many of the people use cherokee medicine. How would you integrate their native and traditional medicine when working here. What implications or considerations are there? What must you consider before going out there?

2. You are treating an elderly man that speaks no english, you found out he has a terminal cancer. His life could be extended with treatment. His daughter has been translating your conversations, she doesn't want you to tell him about the cancer. What do you do? (I thought I answered this well, but when I got the email feedback it seems I didn't do as well as I had thought)

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[yanks26dmb]

Hi guys,

I did a mock interview at my state school and came across a couple cultural questions I had a hard time answering. This was a MMI, and I wanted to post the questions and see what you guys come up with and maybe these will help you brainstorm for future interviews. I don't have a lot of experience with diverse cultures, and the mock interviewers appreciated my attempt to answer and my honestly when I exposed this fact.

1. You take a job at a cherokee reservation, and many of the people use cherokee medicine. How would you integrate their native and traditional medicine when working here. What implications or considerations are there? What must you consider before going out there?

2. You are treating an elderly man that speaks no english, you found out he has a terminal cancer. His life could be extended with treatment. His daughter has been translating your conversations, she doesn't want you to tell him about the cancer. What do you do? (I thought I answered this well, but when I got the email feedback it seems I didn't do as well as I had thought)

How did you respond to #2?

 

[dcguthrie7]

I stated that I would try to find out why she didn't want her father to know and explain to her that as his physician, I would be required to disclose all of his health information to him. I also stated that I would at first use a hospital translator to ask the man if I am allowed to disclose his health information to his daughter, since she was translating. I wouldn't be sure if she would tell him the truth even if we agreed to tell him, so I would need to use a hospital translator for that as well. For a mock MMI, they want you to talk for 8 minutes and I ran out of stuff to say, so he kept prompting me with questions although I don't remember too much more specifically.

 

[dcguthrie7]

I guess my answer wasn't GREAT, but I didn't think it deserved the low score that he gave me. Was my worst station.

 

[IslandStyle808]

Hi guys,

I did a mock interview at my state school and came across a couple cultural questions I had a hard time answering. This was a MMI, and I wanted to post the questions and see what you guys come up with and maybe these will help you brainstorm for future interviews. I don't have a lot of experience with diverse cultures, and the mock interviewers appreciated my attempt to answer and my honestly when I exposed this fact.

1. You take a job at a cherokee reservation, and many of the people use cherokee medicine. How would you integrate their native and traditional medicine when working here. What implications or considerations are there? What must you consider before going out there?

2. You are treating an elderly man that speaks no english, you found out he has a terminal cancer. His life could be extended with treatment. His daughter has been translating your conversations, she doesn't want you to tell him about the cancer. What do you do? (I thought I answered this well, but when I got the email feedback it seems I didn't do as well as I had thought)

It is perfectly fine to think about these scenarios as to how you might approach them in real life (maybe you want to learn more about how physicians deal with these situations). However, it is rather pointless to speculate an appropriate response since you will most likely never see these two scenarios again. You should try to treat these questions like MCAT passages. Know a systematic way of tackling them, but realize you may never see them again. MMIs will introduce scenarios which you have never seen before and will most likely never anticipate to see how you think on your feet. Try to find practice MMIs online and keep doing new problems every practice round.

FYI: be careful of posting these online since schools may have a confidentiality clause (told during interview day) that MMI scenarios should not be discussed.

 

[medickdb]

I stated that I would try to find out why she didn't want her father to know and explain to her that as his physician, I would be required to disclose all of his health information to him. I also stated that I would at first use a hospital translator to ask the man if I am allowed to disclose his health information to his daughter, since she was translating. I wouldn't be sure if she would tell him the truth even if we agreed to tell him, so I would need to use a hospital translator for that as well. For a mock MMI, they want you to talk for 8 minutes and I ran out of stuff to say, so he kept prompting me with questions although I don't remember too much more specifically.

And that's why you try to avoid using family to translate in the first place.

I think your answer was appropriate.

 

[dcguthrie7]

It is perfectly fine to think about these scenarios as to how you might approach them in real life (maybe you want to learn more about how physicians deal with these situations). However, it is rather pointless to speculate an appropriate response since you will most likely never see these two scenarios again. You should try to treat these questions like MCAT passages. Know a systematic way of tackling them, but realize you may never see them again. MMIs will introduce scenarios which you have never seen before and will most likely never anticipate to see how you think on your feet. Try to find practice MMIs online and keep doing new problems every practice round.

FYI: be careful of posting these online since schools may have a confidentiality clause (told during interview day) that MMI scenarios should not be discussed.

I know thanks- I changed the questions a bit to post on here. but you get the main ideas from my re write

 

[VanEman]

I guess my answer wasn't GREAT, but I didn't think it deserved the low score that he gave me. Was my worst station.

I'm stunned that they gave you the score. I like the fact that they did, though it really makes you wonder what they think the "right" answer is.

 

[dcguthrie7]

it was a MOCK interview, a practice one that they do for their own undergrad students, so they provide feedback. Really helpful for prepping for real interviews though