Questions Flashcards
Why Do You Want to Go to Medical School?
- Academic interest in human physiology, pathology etc.
- Wanting to help people and alleviate pain
➥example: taking up a job in the home care sector
➥example: volunteering (Red Cross, ISoc food
drive) - Opportunity to gain knowledge from many disciplines (i.e. pharmacology, epidemiology, biochemistry, psychology) and be able to apply it to solve problems
Pros and cons of euthanasia (using AUTONOMY)
PRO
➥patient has the right to decide what happens to their body
CON
➥patient may feel pressured to opt for euthanasia in the case of a terminal illness so they lose autonomy
Do you think panel interviews or MMI circuits are better for assessing potential medical school applicants?
INTRO
➥Panel - two or more people who are responsible for asking all the questions
➥MMI (multiple mini interviews) have multiple interview stations lasting a couple of minutes
➥candidate rotates around stations and has a different interviewer for each one
➥MMIs are used more but some unis still use panel
BODY
PANEL PRO
➥candidate can build rapport with interviewers
➥interview can be a discussion rather than an interrogation and make the candidate at ease
➥lets candidate go back on previous questions if they feel as though they’ve forgotten a point
PANEL CON
➥limited in types of questions that can be asked e.g. no group or roleplaying tasks
MMI PRO
➥assesses different types of communication (succeeds where panel has its limitations)
➥candidate gets a fresh start at each station
MMI CON
➥maybe difficult for students who prefer discussions and building a rapport
CONCLUSION
➥two different types of interviews for selecting candidates for med school
➥both have pros or cons
➥useful for research to see which one selects better doctors
➥panel good for rapport; mmi good for assessing different types of skills
➥prefer panel interviews as they give a holistic view of the candidate and their motivations rather than a fragmented and potentially biased view of the student based on the tasks
What would you do if you didn’t get into medicine?
I would try again and in the meantime gain real world experience through a job, particularly in one related to the healthcare and social care sector.
I would also try to get volunteering posts as well so I can still help out in the community.
If I couldn’t get into medicine at all, I would do a related healthcare degree such as nursing or midwifery as ultimately, I am interested in patient care.
Why not become a paramedic/nurse/midwife/etc. instead of a doctor?
• Doctors are responsible for deciding what treatment the patient receives.
• Nurses deliver the treatment, but the doctor decides what the treatment is.
o This is a large responsibility on the doctor’s part and nobody else however, I feel as though I am prepared to take on this responsibility. PROVIDE EXAMPLE
• Team leader
o EXAMPLE: Care coordination, as I am responsible for leading and supervising carers in order to provide quality care towards the many vulnerable adults we look after. I am responsible for ensuring the carers know where to go, how to conduct care according to the client’s personalised care plan and to resolve any issues that may arise promptly and appropriately.
o I understand that this is a huge responsibility and that as part of the MDT, doctors are responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly.
Pros of a medical career
• Applying scientific knowledge in order to care for people.
• Combining theoretical learning with social skills to provide sufficient care.
• Provides a large amount of opportunity for learning and personal development. This allows career development as there are so many different branches of medicine, research and academia, pharmaceuticals or even public relations.
• Problem solving exercise – intellectually stimulating.
• Communicating complex scientific ideas with a patient who may have little to no understanding of medicine – enables me to think carefully about what I am going to say and to make sure that I provide correct and relevant information to the patient.
o Being able to simplify complex ideas is a good sign that you have understood this idea yourself and so doing this would be a great learning exercise as well.
• A stable career and one held in high regard.
o But with this, there is still a big responsibility, particular for good professional conduct.
• Satisfaction that I have made a difference in somebody’s life.
o From speaking to medical students and doctors myself.
• HEAVILY RELIES on teamwork.
Cons of a medical career
• Long training and hours required (medical degree, foundation years, specialty trainings) – which means you need to be committed to go down this career.
• Rotating between day and night shifts and at different hospitals.
o May be difficult on family/friend relationships, they may not understand the system you have stuck in.
• Debt from the degree with relatively low starting wages for junior doctors.
• More administration
• Studying for exams all the time
• Might not always be interesting.
• As well as the NHS is at its job and how useful it is, is not a perfect system. There are wasted hours, cancelled clinics and uncertainty.
o This means that medicine is not great if you want a routine 9-5 job, when you are starting off.
• NHS can be hierarchical with this disadvantaging medical students and junior doctors BUT this is changing with movements (e.g., Hammer It Out by Simon Fleming). This will take time though.
• Some patients don’t always behave in the way you expect or want them to but it is something that you will have to deal with as a doctor.
How have the BAME community been disadvantaged by the pandemic?
In the first month of the pandemic, 95% of NHS Doctors who died of COVID-19 were from BAME backgrounds.
Only partially explained by health conditions, age and socio-demographic factors.
BAME staff are more likely to report experiences of discrimination, which may translate to these staff less likely to speak out about their concerns or request.
Formal disciplinary processes are more common amongst BAME groups in comparison to their white counterparts, which could be a reason for a fear of raising COVID-19 related concerns or asking for safer alternatives.
How did the NHS respond to BAME’s struggles during the pandemic?
NHS Employers published guidance for NHS organisations to ensure appropriate measures are taken to mitigate the risk of COVID-19, which includes taking in ethnicity into account.
A bespoke health and wellbeing offer, which includes rehabilitation and recovering, for BAME colleagues is being created in addition to various existing resources.
Over £4M has been provided by UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research to fund six new research projects that will investigate the links between COVID-19 and ethnicity.
