secondary question

[xoomn]

hey guyz,

how do you answer those secondary questions that ask you to describe what you see yourself doing in ten years. I don't know what to put. Exact question from MCV "In a few sentences, describe the practice you envision yourself participating in ten years from now."

 

[Kermie]

Do you see yourself in private practice? clinic? large research based hospital? Do you see yourself specializing or are you interested in primary care? What type of patient population do you want to be working with? Are you interested in academic medicine, research or strictly clinical? Etc....

Basically just explain where you see yourself and why it would be a good fit for you. ADCOMs by the way know that you will probably change your mind, but they want to see if you have put some thought into it.

 

[chopsuey]

Also bear in mind that ten years from now....you might still be training!! for example, i'm interested in MD-MPH...that means that i won't get an MD for 5 years. Then, let's just say i do a peds residency...that's another 3 years. Then i decide to do a subspecialty...and we're definitely talking at least 2 years. That's 10! So, just kind that in mind.

Also, don't bring up anything that you don't want to discuss in your interview. For example, if you don't feel comfortable talking about your family plans for the future or marriage, religion, etc., don't discuss them. They're not allowed to ask you questions about these topics unless YOU bring them up first, which you would be doing here.

I kept mine general in terms of what residency, etc., I would choose to pursue. I discussed how I would use my MD-MPH in the real world (I have some specific ideas on what I want to do with it) and also how I would bring back what I learned to my patients in my "normal" clinical practice. now, this is a debatable point, but I was told never to say explicitly which field I want to enter (i.e. neonatology, pediatric neurology) unless I temper it by acknowledging in some way that my interests might change as I go through med school/rotations. I don't want to argue about this, but thought I would offer it up as advice I was given numerous times by various advisors and, above all, docs who do interviews at med schools and at hospitals for intern selection committees.

hope that helps. good luck!!!