Moral questions

[taylor92107]

I was told that when interviewing, if the situation arises where an interviewer asks you a morality question (i.e. the classic.....a 14 year old girl walks into your office and wants an abortion..bla..bla..bla..what would you do?) you can basically refuse to answer. I think it wold be pretty stupid to refuse to answer. Any tips on how to go about answering such a question?

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[MDmiracle]

Answer the question honestly. Be prepared to back it up with why you believe the way you do and don't back down. I think that the interviewers don't really care what you believe as long as you have thought about it and have valid reasons. They will probably try to change the situation slightly to see if you will change your mind, Don't! Even if in your practice you would don't do it in the interview, they want to see that you can stick with something. Good luck.

 

[Amy B]

Don't even listen to the person that told you to refuse to answer. That would be very very bad for you to do.

Think about your answer before you open your mouth, and after you answer don't change your mind and start waffling back and forth. Say what you think and then shut your mouth. There is no right or wrong answer.

 

[mamitch4]

Don't get too caught up in giving a specific answer... i.e. "I would definitely not give her the abortion.."
Try to identify issues involved: obligation to follow the law (keping in mind that many laws vary from state to state), the need for counseling for and communication with parties involved, etc.
Ethical situations are never cut and dry, and when given an outline of a situation in an interview you don't really have the whole picture and can't be expected to give a definitive answer. Interviewers want to see that you can think through the situation and consider everything you need to consider.

 

[NDESTRUKT]

read an ethics book - they present MANY case studies on ethical situations including almost all the ethical questions that get asked. they outline the normal procedures that are done at hospitals these days to address the aforementioned situations.

there's a website from University of Washington School of Medicine that i read...i forget the link but it was very helpful...same as reading a small book on it. maybe try and google for it?

 

[osteo emt]

dat website be: http://eduserv.hscer.washington.edu/bioethics/topics/index.html

just give me a shout out and a merry christmas and we'll call it even!!

 

[drlexygoat]

With the moral questions, I'll second the notion that it's important to identify the relevant issues at hand in coming up with an answer. Talk to the interviewer about how religion, family values, mental wellbeing, etc, would play into how you would treat a patient. Then state your answer based on those factors.

I was asked about a mentally incompetant patient at an interview. I commented on legal issues, other family members, religious preferences, etc. Really helped paint a good picture.

Anway, don't sweat it too much. Just be consistent!

 

[Darth Vader]

Just be wishy-washy, and be sure to talk about both opposing views highlighting agreeable positives and negatives on both views. Whatever you do, don't take a strong stance for or against the issue. These questions are perfectly legal btw. It's questions asking you what your religion is, what your marital status is, etc that are technically illegal, but sometimes arise because of interviewer ignorance or because you mentioned it in your app at which point it becomes fair game.

 

[RockandRolldoc]

I remember I was asked at an interview the classic question about the 8 year old Jehova's Witness who needed the blood transfusion or else he was gonna die.... The parents refused to sign the order for the transfusion... what do you do?

Without hesitation I said that I would transfuse the patient and that I would have no qualms about appearing before a judge and telling him that I chose to save the life of a child that could not speak for himself in light of his parents religious beliefs...... Any of you who have read my views on religion and values in my other posts know that I was well behaved with that answer despite being true to my beliefs. I wanted to replace the word parents with "selfish, wacko, snake-handlers"... but that might have been excessive .

Anyway, i was accepted two weeks later..... Just answer the question based on your beliefs but try to remain relatively stoic about it.

 

[scubadiva]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23597&highlight=moral

This is an old thread, but it deals with the topic that some of the current students faced during their interview season.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=91860

This is the link to what I read to prepare for my interviews. I think it helped because I've been accepted. A difficult feat for someone like me who always puts her foot in her mouth .