Ethics Book for Interviews

[nychila]

I've been searching for a concise book on medical ethics in preparation for interviews. This topic hasn't been heavily discussed on SDN, but questions on ethics do seem to be the most scary. Anyone have any suggestions?

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[mimelim]

I've been searching for a concise book on medical ethics in preparation for interviews. This topic hasn't been heavily discussed on SDN, but questions on ethics do seem to be the most scary. Anyone have any suggestions?

You do not need to prepare for ethics questions. Every question on an application or in an interview serves a purpose. They are not looking for a canned, "correct" answer. They are looking for how you respond to a non-standard question AND what you think about an ethical dilemma. You can't 'prepare' overnight for that kind of question. To be 'good' at responding to ethical questions you need only read, pay attention to the world around you and maybe spend some time discussing current events with others around you.

 

[kpcrew]

I was asked 0 times about ethics
The most important questions are probably "why our school" "why medicine" "can you tell me more about this in your application"

 

[nychila]

You do not need to prepare for ethics questions. Every question on an application or in an interview serves a purpose. They are not looking for a canned, "correct" answer. They are looking for how you respond to a non-standard question AND what you think about an ethical dilemma. You can't 'prepare' overnight for that kind of question. To be 'good' at responding to ethical questions you need only read, pay attention to the world around you and maybe spend some time discussing current events with others around you.

I'm thinking that as a future physician, it will be crucially important to have a good understanding of medical ethics regardless. I noticed that a number of schools have changed their interview style to MMI, which presents many questions on ethics, which are often difficult without a good understanding of the topic.

Which books would get me the most up to date, starting with just a concise introduction to medical ethics?

 

[Oxygen206]

I was asked ethical questions at 2/3 interviews. Site below is a great resource.

http://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/toc.html

 

[mdambitions]

I found this attachment very informative for medical ethics issues, but a friend of mine thought it was far too in depth for interviews. The ethics questions she received were much more general life situations.

Good Luck!

 

[NickNaylor]

Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decisions in Clinical Medicine is the go-to ethics text. It's easy to understand and pretty short - you could knock it out in a week easily. That would be my suggestion for a more fundamental kind of preparation.

(sent from my phone - please forgive typos)

 

[nychila]

Those are great resources - thanks everyone.

Has anyone used Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction or Medical Ethics for Dummies? I can get easier access to those two books. Thanks in advance.

 

[link2swim06]

I'm thinking that as a future physician, it will be crucially important to have a good understanding of medical ethics regardless. I noticed that a number of schools have changed their interview style to MMI, which presents many questions on ethics, which are often difficult without a good understanding of the topic.

Which books would get me the most up to date, starting with just a concise introduction to medical ethics?

Don't worry you will have formal course working involving ethics in med school.

Interviewers aren't expecting you to know the exact answer, rather they just want to see your thought process and confidence in your answer.

 

[Narmerguy]

Those are great resources - thanks everyone.

Has anyone used Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction or Medical Ethics for Dummies? I can get easier access to those two books. Thanks in advance.

I bought that book...I like it. I haven't been to any medical school interviews so I can't comment on how well prepared I'd be for that. I imagine the goal is just to show logical consistency and some intellectual depth. This book should be fine for us.

 

[BurritoBandito]

While i would agree that traditional interviews have a low probability of ethics, MMI's do not. I had two MMI's and about a quarter of the questions were ethics. But like many others here said, they dont want a canned response; they just want to see your opinion and whether you can back it up. A question could be about unhealthy doctors and whether they should be able to practice. i.e pulmonary specialist who smokes.

Its hard to prepare for these type of questions cuz a lot of them you hadnt even thought about prior to the interview. You cam prepare a little by googling practice MMI questions as well as going to the interview section of SDN and look at the question that interviewers as your fellow sdn-ers.

 

[BurritoBandito]

^sorry for the typos. Damn iphone.