I had an interview on Wednesday and think it went very well. Thanks to all who have posted advice in this thread; some of it was very helpful. In particular, I did some weight lifting and cardio the night before my interview to burn off some stress and ate a big meal about an hour before I was scheduled. To offset post-prandialism I downed a big latte.
Q&A was pretty typical, I felt.
Clinical took me by surprise a bit, but I knew it was a possibility.
A lot of the questions were about material I haven't had to study in a long time, so I was honest and prefaced my answers by saying I'd look up most of my recommendations to be sure. Clinical questions included: a case about an elderly woman with COPD/asthma and pneumonia (what would you give her?, how would you treat her?, what bugs would you worry about?, etc); a case about opioid use in cancer pain (pt is concerned about addiction, discuss the case); and a case about anti-coag (10mg warfarin to a frail elderly woman on amiodarone).
I think I did well on the clinical questions, but I was very rusty. I HOPE they are looking for reasoning/critical thinking skills and not necessarily "the one right answer".
When I got the chance to ask MY questions, I asked what sets apart a residency candidate and how they would measure the success of a resident. They seemed surprised by my questions and I got the feeling the other interviewees hadn't asked good questions/any questions.
One of the current residents said they had some interviewees who locked up under pressure or had communication difficulties (ESL maybe).
For this location, it seemed like rapport and fitting in with the current group were there top priorities for a candidate.
I also did not get the feeling that they were trying to make the residency as hard as possible.
Thanks.
