General interview questions Flashcards
Tell me about yourself
My name is Nawasa! I was born in Bangkok, Thailand, but was rasied in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I did my undergraduate studies at New Mexico State University, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. After that, I moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico for pharmacy school.
Throughout my time in pharmacy school, my passion for oncology continue to grow and I also developed a newfound love for anticoagulation and ambulatory care. Currently, I serve as a Transition of Care Intern for the Anticoagulation Stewardship at the hospital I work at (the University of New Mexico Hospital). And this this has probably been one of my favorite and most rewarding role.
Outside of school and work, I love exploring exploring local businesses, n particularly coffee shops and farmers’ markets. I also love reading romcoms and watching anime when I have more free time.
Why you are interested in pharmacy?
My instrest for pharmacy began during my undergraduate years while working as a medical assistant. At that point, I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field but I wasn’t quite sure about the specific path I wanted. But it was really my encounter with patients facing medication-related issues that kinda sparked my curiosity. and learning how the same medication interated differently with patients based on thier unique body chemisty was really what intrest me about pharamcy.
and also throughout my undergraduate studies, I found myself really enjoying and loving chemistry especially ochem and biochem. So with all that combined it made me realized pharmacy offered the perfect mix of things that I am passionate about.. so chemistry, biology, and the desire to make a impact on others’ lives.
And also my older brother went to pharmacy school so he become a huge source of inspiration for me as well.
Why are you interested in residency?
So I am intrested and would like to pursue residency because.. althought four years of pharmacy school did provide me with a strong foundation, I feel it’s not yet sufficient for me to achieve the level of expertise I want to. My goal is to provide patients with the highest quality of care to the best of my abilities and I firmly believe that additional training through a residency is the key to achieving that.
Sometimes duirng school certain clinical aspects are challenging for me, and so I am very excited to gain more exposure and hands-on experience to help refrain my knowledge.
I also have a strong intrest in specializing in oncology so a PGY1 residency will help broaden my exposure to various clnical aspects but will also help lay a strong foundation for me to be successful as a PGY2 oncology resident.
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Lastly I am intrested in residency because I belive that it will benefit me greatly because it will exposue me to a wide range of clinical senarios, help refine my decision making skills and help enchance my overall competence as a pharamcist - all of which will help me in providing my patietns with the best care possible.
What has been your favorite patient care experience in pharmacy thus far?
One of my favorite patient care experiences was during my emergency medicine APPE rotations. This rotation was at Memorial Medical Center, which is a smaller hospital in Las Cruces, New Mexico. What made this rotation stand out was the high level of involvement that pharmacists played in the ED. Because the hospital was a bit smaller, it was truly an ‘all hands-on deck’ environment. So Everyone pitched in during patient care, and this created a more collaborative environment. I distinctly remember an instance where a patient came into the ED with a 5-inch laceration on his scalp and I found myself holding his wound together as the doctor was suturing it. Another moment was when I actively participated in administering CPR alongside a nurse during a code. These instances not only showcased the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration but also the active roles that pharmacists can play in these situations, and I thought that was really awesome!
Tell us about your most significant learning experience during pharmacy school. What made it so valuable?
One of the significant learning experiences during my time in school was participating in the P&T or (Pharmacy and Therapeutics) competitions through my local AMCP chapter. Although I initially had no experience in managed care, I decided to take on the challenge to push myself to learn something new. Participating in these competitions has contributed to my research and clinical skills and has helped me gain more self-confidence during presentations. Little did I know that these experiences would come back to help me. So Fast forward to my P4 year, I was given the wonderful opportunity to deliver a presentation on ABECMA to my hospital’s P&T committee. And being a part of my hospital’s milestone was so meaningful for me, especially given my strong interest in oncology. I credit the presentation’s success to the groundwork my team and I laid during the P&T competitions that we did through school. It helped me build a strong foundation and gain a better understanding of what P&T entails. This experience not only taught me about managed care but also highlighted the unexpected places where learning and growth can happen. It also reinforces the idea that sometimes, stepping out of your comfort zone is the best way to prepare yourself for unexpected yet rewarding opportunities.
How one challenges a proposed idea affects the quality of subsequent discussion. Describe a time when you challenged an idea in a way that promoted constructive discussion of alternative views. How did you do so? / **intervention question! **
During my inpatient anticoagulation APPE rotation, a patient was admitted for a recurrent DVT. The patient had been on rivaroxaban at home, and the attending physician considered this situation to be a DOAC therapy failure, the physician was also planning to switch the patient from rivaroxaban to enoxaparin upon discharge. So given that DOAC failure is relatively rare, I decided to conduct my own interview with the patient. During our conversation, I discovered that he had missed about three doses of his rivaroxaban. He reported to me that he was unsure as to why he was put on it to begin with. I reported this information to my preceptor and brought it to the attention of the attending physician. I explained my belief that this may not be a DOAC failure but rather a patient compliance issue. I also voiced concerns about initiating enoxaparin due to cost and potential challenges with self-administration of the injections. I recommended that the patient should continue with rivaroxaban and that, upon discharge, my preceptor and I would provide the patient with education and counseling. The physician accepted my intervention. This whole experience taught me about the critical role of proper information gathering, having a questioning mind, and the importance of patient education. This also provided me with extra practice and understanding of how to provide detailed counseling to a patient who may have lower health literacy.
How do you manage your time?/ How is your time managment skills?
I would say I can manage my time fairly efficently. I like utilizing both electronic and hardcopy planners and I have kinda of a systematic approach to organizing my tasks. Each day, I would wite down a to-do list in advance, which helps me plan for the day. I also like to prioritize my task and make sure I get the most important thing done first.
I also find that I do well at limiting distractions to help me better utilize my time and be proactive. To do this I typically like to put my phone away and have a clean space to work in. I also found that having quiet jazz music in the background helps me concentrate better!
I believe my effective time mangemnt skills is showcased success in balancing school commitments, my role as a pharmacy intern, and my active participation in volunteer work and being able to fulfill my leadership responsibilities within different organizations on campus.
With so many other candidates, why should we pick you?
I believe I would be an excellent fit for your program due to my strong academic performance and moreso my extensive experience as an inpatient pharmacy intern for the past three years at the UNM Hospital. I give my hospital a lot of credit in provding me with the training it did - I would say our intern program is pretty robust and has given me many opportuniteis to work in many different fields including transition of care, anticoagualtion, and internal medicine. Other than the various clinical settings that I had the opportunity to be exposed to, I also have expereinces in working on different research projects and P&T presentations through both school and my intern job. I think these expereinces has really provided me with a well rounded skill set that will support me thoughout residency.
I also have a strong passion for continuous education and I am commited to learning and self improvement becasue I believe that I can gain a level of expertise that will help me provide the best possible care for our patients.
I would say I am also very friendly and I love building meaningful relationships with my peers and preceptors so I would be very easy to get along.
I also bring in a sense of diversity to the community, I am fluent in Thai, so I believe that my language proficency can help contribute to creating a confortable enviroment for our thai population.
Having worked in a hospital in New Mexico, I am accustomed to serving diverse populations, including underserved communities and we also have a large Hispanic population. This experience aligns well with the patient demographics at Harris Health, and I am confident that my cultural awareness and language skills other assets will make me a good candidate for your program
Why UW Medicine?
So I picked UW Medicine for a couple of different reasons. UW Medicine has a multi-disciplinary, integrated academic medical setting which I belive to be the best type of learning enviroment for me. My current hospital UNMH is also a teaching hospital and I give them so much credit for a lot of my successes and knowlege that I’ve gained throughout the years of being there. So I would love to continue my education at another strong academic hosptial.
I also had the wonderful opportunity to work with one of your previous resident, Dr. Traci White during one of my APPE rotations and she told me so much about your program, how wonderful and friendly the culture was and how robust your program was - she especially emphazied oncology - which is my passion and what I eventually want to specialized in. So when she told me about that I looked into the program and saw just how well rounded your curiculum and rotations. I was really surpised to see how many different rotations there are in both the acute care/ inpatient side VS ambulatory care side and I thought that was very wonderful and how your program would give me such a strong foundation to excel as a clinical pharmacist. Your program is also affiliated with Fred Hutch so I thought that would be such an exciting opproitunity to be able to do rotations there also.
And lastly one of the many other reasons why I am drawn to your program was when I talked to your team during Midyear! veryone there to be very kind and welcoming. And I also noticed a huge ethnic diversity at your program! So for me, being non native the inclusive enviroment really helped provided me with a kinda of a sense of belonging - that’s defineily another huge factor as to why! Feeling conformatble in my envirmoment really goes hand in hand with my ability to learn and grow.
What are your three strengths?
- One of my greatest strengths is my love for learning and having a continuous learning mindset. I see every experience, whether success or challenge, as an opportunity to new knowledge and skills. I dont shy away from opportunites even if they are outside of my comfort zone and I see all expereinces as a way to help me grow.
- Another strength of mine is my empathetic nature. I find it really easy for me to put myself in other people’s position and understand where they are coming from. I find this strength of mine has helped me build and maintain strong positive relationships and help enchance team collaboration. With patients I find an easier time making hem feel comfortable and it helps build trust with my patients as well
- Another strenght of mine is time management - I find that I am able to utilize my time wisely and be productive when I need to be. I credit this to my many planners that I have - which may be excessive but it gets the job done! I like using both electronic and hardcopy planner and if the task is urgent I prioritize it on sticky notes and plaster it on my wall because i will see that. When i am also working on somwthing important I will typically have my phone away from me so it will be charging on the other side of my room so I dont feel the need to look at it or go on the internet.
What are your 3 weaknesses?
- One of my weaknesses is my proficiency in certain clinical skills and knowledge domains, particularly in fields like infectious disease and cardiovascular health. These more complex topics definitly present a learning curve for me. So i try to ask my preceptor if I could focus more on these topics during topic discuss. And so this is one of my reasons for wanting to pursue a PGY1 - 4 years of pharamcy school did set a strong foundation for me but I believe that I would benefit from more clinical based training to be able to reach the level of expertise I want to be able to deliver the best care for our patients. I see residency as the ideal platform to bridge any knowlegde gaps and refine my clincal skills to help me become a well rounded clincal pharamcist.
- Another weakness of mine is public speaknig and .. interviews. Sometimes I would get nervous and sometimes my thai and english would just get mixed up and come out all at once and it’s a mess but I’ve been working hard on that before every presentations or interviews I would like to practice practice practice typically with my family or a close freind and they would give me some pretty awsome feedbacks to help me. I think with this, is just practicing, the more I preactice the better I feel. So I try to practice a lot.
- Another weakness of mine is that I sometimes take a bit longer to catch up with the new electronic changes at the hospital. I am not the most tech savvy person so it takes me a while to get use to new system changes, typically what helps me with this is I love asking questions and so I would ask our techs or pharamcist who have been working more often than I have to see if they can help me - I also like wirting things down to help me remeber for the future.
Why Harris Health?
So I picked Harris Health for a couple of different reasons. Harris Health has a multi-disciplinary, integrated academic medical setting which I belive to be a wonderful learning enviroment for me. My current hospital UNMH is also a teaching hospital and I give them so much credit for a lot of my successes and knowlege that I’ve gained. So I would love to continue my education at another strong academic hosptial.
And also The fact that Harris Health offers a PGY2 in oncology aligns perfectly with my aspirations and goals to eventually being a clinical oncology pharamcist, and if given the chance I would love to early commit to harris health to continue my clinical experiences here.
And upon talking to your team during Midyear! veryone there to be very kind and welcoming. And I also noticed a huge ethnic diversity at your program! So for me, being non native the inclusive enviroment really helped provided me with a kinda of a sense of belonging - that’s defineily another huge factor as to why!
And of course regarding the actual program itself, I appriciate that your program has a required longitudinal anticoagulation rotation. So I am also working at my hospital as an anticoagulation transition of care intern, and I find myself really enjoying this field so I;m def excited to be able to continue to larning more about the topic as well as continue my involvement with anticoag. And aside from anticoag, I also noticed that your program also included crit care and ED as a core rotation which is def unique because most programs I have seen will only offer them as electives. and of course I am also intrested in the HIV/AIDS and oncology electives as well.
There are so many learning opprotunites at Harris Health!
Tell me about a stressful event that happened during an APPE rotation, what happened and how did you deal with it?
A stressful event that occured was during my emergency medicine APPE rotation. So Initially, I hadn’t planned to take this rotation as it was definitely outside my comfort zone. I prefer having time to think and plan recommendations, which is not always the case in the ED. However, I decied to challege myself and try something new.
The ED I was assigned to was at a smaller hospital, so this really did created an all hands on deck type of senario - the pharmacist were very much involved in the action as I like to call it. During on of the code blues we had, we reached the scene before many other staff members. My pharmacist was occupied preparing medications, so a nurse pulled me in to perform CPR. This was my first CPR expereience which defiently caugth me off gaurd
Despite the high-stress situation, the nurse did an excellent job of keeping me composed. She gavesupport by counting with me o make sure I was okay and that I was giving proper compressions. This unexpected challenge, although stressful, was defiently managed well with the assistance and encouragement from my coworkers that was there.
Tell me about a time you worked on a project/ what was the outcome?
I recently worked on a project focused on my research poster, which looks into the appropriate use of anticoagulation in patients with multiple myeloma based on the SAVED score. The SAVED score is a VTE risk prediction model specifically designed for patients multiple myeloma
The primary objective of my study was to assess whether the thromboprophylaxis strategies for multiple myeloma patients at our cancer center, the UNM Cancer Center, align with the SAVED score. Additionally, we aimed to observe any VTE-related outcomes in these patients.
This project is my baby :). I initiated it from scratch, and I collaborated with my preceptor during my second APPE rotation. The process of creating this project from the ground up was not only helpful for me to be able to see a project from start to finish but it was also super fun. I had the opportunity to formulate my own research questions, conduct the chart reviews and at then at the end being able to put all the data together and see everything laid out at the end on a poster really just made me so happy.
If you were a drug, what would you be?
Fluoxietine (Prozac) - SSRI:
I’d choose to be Prozac - bringing a bit of sunshine whenever someone is down, promoting mental well-being, and helping people navigate through the ups and downs.
