Reading for interviews

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LAman10

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Hey all,

so this might be a bit premature, but what kind of stuff should we be reading in order to prepare for interviews? I know that they tend to ask some public health, health policy, and/or ethical questions, so having a solid foundation in those areas is probably a good thing. Are there any good sites or reading material that basically covers the really important health topics that have been going on the last few years?

Alternatively, would anyone simply suggest some good reading material that would be good preparation for interviews?

And if no one can do those things, can anyone tell me what subject areas I should start reading up on? i.e., should I start reading about Obama's plan? or about genetic enhancement? or about abortion? or what?

Thanks a lot, and good luck to all who are applying this cycle!
 
I found Bodenheimer's "Understanding Health Policy" and "Clinical Ethics" by Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade to be two really good books to read in preparation for the interview season.

With regard to preparing for current issues questions, see the policy and commentary sections of the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. Other useful tools are to browse online news sources like NY Times regularly and keep an eye out for current medical news stories.

Another thing to be sure to do is check out the SDN interview feedback for schools you are applying to. Copy paste the questions into a separate document, print them all out, then sit down and try to verbally put together a response.

Also think about how you would answer high-yield interview questions like: Why do you want to become a physician? Why MD and not nursing or PT? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What have you learned through shadowing or volunteering? What would you bring to the incoming class? What do you do for fun? What books have you read in the last year? Where do you get your news from?

Once your readings are complete have your friends quiz you on things like Obama's plan (arguments for and against), the problem of the uninsured and underinsured in america, challenges facing the health care community, the dwindling numbers of physicians going into primary care, stem cell research etc ... it's one thing to have done the reading, it's another thing entirely to be confident enough with the facts to be able to form cogent arguments under pressure.

Good luck! 😀
 
Wow great response LaTortuga 👍 - very helpful for some fun summer reading!
 
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imer said:
Skim this material - http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/toc.html

I actually got an identical Q out of this at my Michigan interview - interviewer thought it was "best answer she ever heard" - ( ethical dilemma - should I have told her I read it the night before? Truth is I was too nervous to think that clearly,although I'm sure it would have been another interesting thing to talk about)

Anyway, sailed through any situational interview after looking over this, but I had many more questions about my app than these type. Anyone else have a lot of these situational? I interviewed at many top 10, fwiw.
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i would say like mostly app/activities/background some random/why this school/questions very few ethics, altho there were some. 30 min to an hour goes by fast.
 
witness23 said:
i would say like mostly app/activities/background some random/why this school/questions very few ethics, altho there were some. 30 min to an hour goes by fast.
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how about healthcare stuff and issues in medicine today?
 
yea you will face them i'm sure. understanding health policy is a good book for the basics, but most of the questions will be on your activities
 
Read a good newspaper every day (you can read them online for free or for a small fee). I'd recommend NY Times or Wall St Journal. If you'd prefer a weekly dose, try The Economist (a British news magazine that has good coverage of US policy issues). Use the online search function to find the stories on health policy. NY Times has a "health" section on its menu and within that has policy as a sub-section. Wall St. Journal has a different editorial viewpoint than that of the NY Times and makes for an interesting justaposition. There are a variety of opinions among physicians and you are entitled to your informed opinion, too.
 
Check out "The Medical School Interview" by Jeremiah Fleenor. I used it and it definitely helped out. More importantly, as already mentioned, check out the SDN Interview Feedback page. It's priceless.
 
sc1085 said:
Check out "The Medical School Interview" by Jeremiah Fleenor. I used it and it definitely helped out. More importantly, as already mentioned, check out the SDN Interview Feedback page. It's priceless.
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Yeah that book is really good. I have a copy. I think it would be useful later on, say, for residency interviews as well.
 
wow, good stuff guys. thanks a lot! If there was ONE book you would definitely recommend, what would it be? (i.e. what's the "gold standard" interview tips book?)
 
Check out this book and see what you think. "How To Succeed At the Medical Interview" by Smith and Meeking. It looks promising. If you want a non-medical interview book, just go to amazon.com and search "interviewing". There is a ton of stuff there, many with good ratings. Hope this helps.
 
LAman10 said:
wow, good stuff guys. thanks a lot! If there was ONE book you would definitely recommend, what would it be? (i.e. what's the "gold standard" interview tips book?)
Click to expand...

The above-mentioned book by Jeremiah Fleenor. It's short so it's a good read.
 
Wow, this is great advice!

Any ideas on MD/PhD interviews?
 
Thanks everyone for all this information. It's really helpful.
 
Print out your amcas and make sure you keep updated and refreshed on any topics you expressed interest in or experience with.
 
ok now that I have interviews, I'm coming back to this page and I have a couple questions:

1) what ethical dilemmas are high yield? (euthanasia, abortion, stem cell research... anything else?)

2) my school doesn't do mock interviews. I'm comfortable answering questions, but I just wanna know if my answers are good (for the "why medicine?" or "tell me about yourself" questions). the last thing i wanna do is formulate a crappy answer and use it for all my interviews. what do you suggest? if I read that jeremiah fleenor book, would it give me some good info on waht kind of an answer to give?

3) as far as preparation goes, how are you all preparing?? I'm just reading up on health care stuff and the schools where I'm interviewing and thiking about what strengths I want to highlight in the interview


ugh, maybe I need to go through an interview before I start flipping out haha... oh well, that's next week!
 
LaTortuga said:
I found Bodenheimer's "Understanding Health Policy" and "Clinical Ethics" by Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade to be two really good books to read in preparation for the interview season.

With regard to preparing for current issues questions, see the policy and commentary sections of the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. Other useful tools are to browse online news sources like NY Times regularly and keep an eye out for current medical news stories.

Another thing to be sure to do is check out the SDN interview feedback for schools you are applying to. Copy paste the questions into a separate document, print them all out, then sit down and try to verbally put together a response.

Also think about how you would answer high-yield interview questions like: Why do you want to become a physician? Why MD and not nursing or PT? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? What have you learned through shadowing or volunteering? What would you bring to the incoming class? What do you do for fun? What books have you read in the last year? Where do you get your news from?

Once your readings are complete have your friends quiz you on things like Obama's plan (arguments for and against), the problem of the uninsured and underinsured in america, challenges facing the health care community, the dwindling numbers of physicians going into primary care, stem cell research etc ... it's one thing to have done the reading, it's another thing entirely to be confident enough with the facts to be able to form cogent arguments under pressure.

Good luck! 😀
Click to expand...

Wow. Thanks! You are amazing! I just ordered those two books used on amazon (only $6 🙂).
 
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