interview questions about health policy

[osar92]

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just wondering...

how many of you were asked questions about health care and health policy in your interviews?? How much do the interviewers expect us to know about that kind of stuff? also, how did you guys prepare for those questions??

thanks in advance for any help
🙂

 

[DrMom]

Interviews vary a lot, but I didn't get any questions about this even though I have a masters in it.

I would have some working knowledge, though. Read newspaper and internet articles about current health policy & health care issues so that you'll be ready to come up with some coherent opinions if asked.

 

[DW]

a great book to read for personal edification is Delivering Health Care in America, by Shi and Singh. its a nice summation of the US medical system. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0834217643/102-4665321-4272149?vi=glance

see if your library has a copy of it, not just for interviews, but if you want to know the basics of healthcare, its a good read 🙂

also, think about getting the daily report from www.kaisernetwork.org. all your daily health policy related news delivered to your email account

 

[ironey]

I got asked what I thought about a recent nurses strike . . . . and had to elaborate on my views of orgainzed labor for 10 minutes.

Other than that, I didn't get many questions about health policy.

 

[Cydney Foote]

Check the interview bank at SDNinterview feedback section -- it's a great prep tool and I've found it's a pretty accurate prediction of what questions you can expect. Some colleges are big on policy and ethical questions (Albany Med College comes to mind), others not so much.

Your personal background can also elicit healthcare policy questions. Last year I worked with two Canadians and in every single one of their interviews they were asked to compare healthcare policies in the US and Canada.

When you're asked questions like this, though, you're not supposed to be an expert. You do need to convey that you are reasonably intelligent and relatively thoughtful. You can get a lot of the information you need by boning up on newspapers and current magazines. If your looking for specific topics, another resource is the University of Washington's HeatlhLinks. Some material is limited to UW folks, but there's an amazing amount of stuff available to the general public.

 

[exmike]

Another resource for health policy is the kaiser family foundation

www.kff.org

that site was immensely useful in public health school

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Originally posted by DrMom
Interviews vary a lot, but I didn't get any questions about this even though I have a masters in it.

That's probably WHY you didn't get many questions on it. They didn't want to touch you with a ten-foot pole! 😛

I have a master's in health economics, and I didn't get as much as you might expect, either. I did have some people ask me what to do about the health-insurance crisis. Overall, probably only half my interviews even brought it up, and I certainly didn't get grilled on it.

A lot of the online news sources have health pages--try to keep up with those.

 

[SolidGold]

Another good resource for those interviews is www.publiagenda.org

It helped me out with some background info on topics that were discussed during my interviews.

 

[mef007]

I had 9 interviews and every single one asked me what health policy issues I thought needed to be addressed in the next few years. I guess they targeted me b/c i have a master's in health policy and management....some schools brought up specific topics--malpractice/insurance, troubles for academic medical centers, uninsured, etc.--others just asked me in general and then I would usually start talking about the uninsured or something... I think its good to have an opinion on these general issues, so that you can at least have a few intelligent ideas to add in case they ask you these questions. I think as long as you have an opinion and you are able to state it in a clear way, interviewers will typically back down and ask you something else--unless you want to continue the conversation (at least that was my experience)

anyway, good luck!

 

[aleezay]

Also, pay attention to the news in terms of the Dems and Reps and their views on this stuff. The Dem candidates for prez have been revealing their healthcare plans of late.

 

[lola]

i was asked in probably 2/3 of my interviews. mostly they just wanted to know what i thought of the current health care/insurance situation in our country. i really dreaded these questions and would have preferred to talk about ethics or practically anything else!

 

[CRAZYTERP]

I suggest reading the American Journal of Bioethics. I believe it is published through UPENN and it had a lot of good info. I think they send out weekly/monthly updates via email.

I went on 6 interviews and was only asked twice about health care/insurance. The first time was at my first interview at UMD and my interviewer didn't really ask me directly. Instead he asked me to tell him why I would not go into medical school. I really had no answer but after 15 mins of going around in circles I finally realized he wanted me to talk about healthcare.

Personally I thought it was a real shady way for him to get me to say I don't want to be a doctor bc insurance is taking all the money away. I didn't say that but he tried to cajole it out of me. I was definitely turned off by this even though the rest of the interview was fine. Later I found out from friends that he is a great guy just a ball buster every now and then.

I would say just read up on as much as you to be ready to talk about anything in normal conversation. I woudln't stress too much. Most of the interview is getting to know more about your past.