Specific Interview Question: Thoughts?

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Columbia22

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Scenario: Your best friend confided in you that she has an eating disorder. Where do you draw the line between telling someone and keeping her trust, knowing that her health is on the line? I was grilled on this question at a recent medical school interview by a physician, and I was just curious as to what you guys think. What would the doctor have thought to be a perfect answer? Any thoughts?
 
See if she can change on her own. Get her to counseling. If she resists, it's your responsibility to help her.
 
There?s no "perfect answer" to this kind of question. For the purpose of the interview, the interviewer is probably more interested in your reasoning and judgement than your answer. For the purpose of real life, you have to consider each person independently. People vary in their levels of trust. Sometimes you can convince someone to seek help on their own. Others will avoid the issue entirely.
 
You have to respect her autonomy and privacy. Ultimately, you can't force anyone to get treatment, especially not for something like an eating disorder. That said, you can try to talk her into it. The best physicians I know will sit next to their patient in a private, calm setting (maybe even handhold) and tell the person what the problem is, what needs to be done, and what will happen if they don't (nonthreatening, though). If your friend refuses, you can then look completely disappointed, deflated, etc. as you let them go.

Philosophy aside, there's the matter of practially answering the question. The important thing in answering one of these questions is to repaint the lines so you have a winning option. Your physician-interviewer purposely distorted the playing field by giving you the options "betraying her trust" vs. "getting her help", either of which are bad. Those aren't really the options. You're options include 'getting her help by keeping her trust'. In fact, 'betraying her trust' is likely to backfire, making 'getting her help' impossible.

When I had a question like this, I'd smile and say something like, "That's a very interesting question. [pause, looking thoughtful] I don't think those are the only two options. If I 'betray her trust', I'm likely to blow any chance of helping her. Her trust is precisely what will allow me to help her. That said, she's an adult who will, ultimately, make her own, autonomous decision. I would [describe plan]." The interviewer answers, "And what if that doesn't work, are you going to let her die?" To which the reply is, "Anorexia has a very high mortality. While we can take appropriate action, we can't save everyone. That she is my friend would, of course, make this very difficult to accept, but I might simply not be able to help her."

Best,
Anka
 
I had a similar question asked of me. What would I do if I found out a medical student friend of mine was using drugs? I said I would approach the friend privately and express my concerns and strongly encourage them to use the many resources available to medical students that need help. The interviewer seemed be satisifed with this.
 
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