How do you answer these questions?

[Halaljello]

here are a few from interviewfeedback.com...

If you had a breast cancer patient who could not afford a suitable treatment, what would you do?

If the 14 year old daughter of one of your colleagues came to you as a patient requesting birth control, what whould you do?

I you had a patient with a questionable diagnosis and you had a test which you felt was medicaly nessicary but was not covered by the patients insurance/HMO, would you "fudge" the diagnosis to get the test covered?

How would you deal with dishonest physicians/colleagues outside of med school (knowing some of your classmates cheated, etc in classes)? Ex: when patients ask for referrals.

What would I do if a patient came to me with diabetes who was overweight and smoked and I counseled them and they came back 6 months later heavier?

uff!!... i havent had experiences even close to what some of these questions ask for... anyone know how one should approach these kind of questions and provide a good solid answer?

thanks!!

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[muonwhiz]

I claim no special expertise, but here is my take on some of these questions.
1. If my patient could not afford suitable and appropriate treatment I would attack the problem on 2 levels: a) research available sources of funding, including charitable foundations, government resources (city, county, state, federal), contact interest groups such as the Susan G. Komen Foundation and other breast cancer awareness groups. b) I would approach the persons in mamnagement of the group that I was in practice with (including but not necessarily managed care) to attempt to make arrangements to provide the care on a reduced cost or pro bono basis, assuming that there were no positive results from a above.
2. Many states have laws which address the issue of parental notification re minors seeking birth control, abortions, etc. As a physician I would be required to follow the dictates of such laws, and would so inform the patient at the time the request was made. I would then ask the patient how she wished to proceed in light of that knowledge.
3. I would not "fudge" the diagnosis, since doing so is generally considered to be actionable fraud in most states and certainly is the case if federal sources of income are implicated. Many doctors who have done this have sadly found out the consequences as they lost their licenses and some went to jail.
4. Dishonesty in medical school among students would probably be covered under the policies of the institution and some medical schools have honor codes. All physicians are governed by the Codes of Ethics in the states where they practice. My actions would be governed by the set of regulations that I was obliged to follow at the time. In school, if I saw an instance of cheating (and was sure of what I saw) I would first speak to the student, explain what I saw and ask if there was any reason that I might be mistaken in what I saw. If not, I would urge the student to speak to the professor or other person(s) in charge of such, and if they did not do so within a reasonable time thereafter (and I was required under the code) I would be obliged to report it.
5. If the patient was non compliant after the first counseling session, I would advise the patient again and seek to find out if there was a special circumstance or problem in complying that I could assist with. If the patient continued with non compliance I would counsel that the proposed treatments could not work without same and advise the patient to work with another physician or refer him out.
Hope this helps!

 

[drchrislareau]

"...ahem...well, that's an interesting question. I haven't really thought a lot about that. I think the more I could find out about the patient the better I would be able to help..." (stalling for time until the next question)...ahem...in cases where I don't have a lot of experience I think, as a physician, I would rely heavily on the advice of mentors and senior physicians who may have experienced exactly the same situation..." (keep stalling until they ask you a question you are actually qualified to answer).

 

[melancholy]

Jeez, these are some great questions to ask.. they really make you think, but that is the whole point of asking interview questions I think. I feel like the interviewers ask these sort of questions to..
- see how the interviewee handles him/herself when asked a difficult question/put in a stressful situation
- see how the interviewee analyze/think through the question
- gauge the ability to look at the question from different points of views
- feel out how honest and confident the interviewee is in his/her beliefs

To me, how the question is handled is just as important as the answer itself. That being said, for certain ethical questions that pre-med/medical students may not be able to answer sufficiently, I would probably ask someone more experienced in the medical profession before your interviews or explain your train of thought in your interview.. concluding that you would not be able to sufficiently answer the question yet. If they still are pressing you for an answer, pick a reasonable one and back it up. You'll do just fine and it seems like you're prepping for it as well. Good luck!