Residency Interviews

Question 1

Why are you interested in emergency medicine?

Answer 1

Throughout my whole life anytime someone was hurt there was no doubt that I was the one that I was the one who was going to help them. There was no hesitation.

Then once I got my EMT license and experienced a taste of what REAL emergency medicine was like, that really fortified it for me, there was no turning back. I fell in love with:

• Never knowing what will happen next
• Variety of patient populations
• Variety of pathologies
• Structure of shift-work in the ED allows me to go home to and spend time uninterrupted with all of those things in life that balance out your time in the ED
• **Compare with Notes App

Question 2

Walk me through your background

Tell me about yourself

Answer 2

• I am a soon to be Midwestern University- Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine graduate who first started working in EMS in 2005. I bring a lot of experience to the table and I’m looking for a residency program that can meet me where I am and challenge me through the next steps of my career.
• I grew up in and currently live in the Chicagoland suburbs
• There was trouble at home and when I was 19, I got custody of my sister
• I had done mostly restaurant work until I needed a job that could provide consistent income
• Which is where I feel like medicine found me rather than the other way around. I got my EMT license.
• And paramedic school quickly followed, then promotion to EMS Coordinator, before getting the urge to go back to school and further advance my career
• That was when I transitioned into the ED where I could have a schedule of set days rather than the 24on48off I was doing on the ambulance
• It took me a really long time to complete my undergrad because I was really just doing the best I could at the time while I was working full-time and schooling part-time
• After earning the Bachelors in Medical Humanities at Benedictine University, my sister had started college herself
• That allowed me the freedom to really pursue medical school. I completed a quick Masters in Biomedical Sciences at Midwestern University as a refresher because at that point it had been a long time since my first biology courses and to demonstrate that I can handle the rigors of full-time graduate level courses
• Through medical school I’ve been using my free time to explore leadership opportunities as well as opportunities to incorporate my previous humanitarian work with a medical career
• Which brings me to your program because I really enjoyed/liked/saw how/faculty’s commitment to education. The residents all expressed genuine happiness with being a part of the (school) team.

Question 3

Info about Jess

Answer 3

Custody at age 9
Started college 2015
Graduated 2019 from Columbia College Chicago
Broadcast Journalism
Age 25 now

Question 4

Why are you interested in this program?

Answer 4

I was first drawn to this program by its reputation of producing well-trained physicians

Community setting and variety of training sites will best prepare me well for a career in any setting

I am interested in (school) because I had a great experience during my rotation with you.

I appreciated the collaborative environment amongst residents and approachable attendings whose commitment to education really came through

I like that the residents weren’t limited in number or acuity of patients

I have a whole adult life established here in Chicagoland and genuinely love this city. If given the choice, would much prefer a program here that allows me to stay in Chicagoland.

Question 5

What strengths will you bring to this residency?

What do you bring to the program?

What makes you a good ED physician?

What sets you apart from other applicants?

Answer 5

I wouldn’t have gotten even close to where I am today without my commitment to hard work and incredible resilience but…

I’m an older medical student with a breadth of experience. So I am beyond the days of being unreliable and have no doubts about what I’m getting myself into by choosing emergency medicine

Thanks to my work history, I’ve had to work with people from all walks of life and education levels. I’m really exceptional at communicating with patients and thrive in a collaborative teamwork environment.

And finally, I am no stranger to difficult situations, so I’m not easily intimidated when things are going wrong

Question 6

What is your greatest weakness in your qualifications for this residency?

Answer 6

Pizza joke But seriously,

I would say that my greatest weakness in my qualifications for this residency are probably my board scores. Although I improved percentiles from the first to second tests for both COMLEX and USMLE, in retrospect, I still waver on whether or not I should have dedicated my focus on my rotations or studying for boards.

I know that there is still so much about medicine that I need to learn so this year I’ve been incorporating different forms of study into my daily routine like podcasts (EM:RAP, EM Basic) during my commutes to create more study time in my day.

Question 7

What 3 adjectives best describe your personality?

Answer 7

1) Reliable
2) Multitasker
3) Genuine

Question 8

Tell me something about you that is NOT in your application

Answer 8

It’s really important to me to remain in Chicagoland for my residency and applied to Franciscan because I truly believe that I can be successful there

Question 9

What is the last book you read?

Answer 9

I actually am so glad you asked that because I just started a book and it brings me so much joy to finally be reading something for leisure

The Body Keeps Score by neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker

It’s about how sleep affects every aspect of our physical and mental well-being

Question 10

If you could have lunch with anyone living or dead, who would it be, and why?

Answer 10

My dad

He died in 2012 and he was one of my greatest cheerleaders. It would really give my heart a big hug to see him again.

Question 11

What questions do you have for me?

Answer 11

I am a feedback learner so I was wondering how the residents are evaluated?

What do you feel like your program does really well?

Misek/Brill- Research Predictors of Psychiatric Boarding have you noticed any changes since COVID? Are they getting these patients out quicker? Are they taking longer to admit patients?

Question 12

Career goals or where to you see yourself in x years

Answer 12

I would like to work with patients in the emergency department as long as possible

Even since being on the ambulance I’ve seen so much technology incorporated into the practice and I’m excited to see what that will look like throughout my time in medicine. Does it look like something we bring to the bedside like an ultrasound? Is it care we bring with us to the patients like those mobile CT scanners?

Question 13

Why did you choose your medical school?

Answer 13

I ultimately chose Midwestern because I was very interested in osteopathy. I loved the thought of having that as another tool to treat my patients.

And at the time, I was still providing a home for sister so it was important for me to maintain the stability of not being too far.

Question 14

What was your favorite rotation?

Answer 14

Oh, hands down EM. All of them.

It has always been a warm welcome home to be back with my people. The comradarie and teamwork in the ED is like nowhere else in healthcare.

Question 15

What was your least favorite rotation?

Answer 15

It really surprised me but my least favorite was my psychiatry rotation.

The majority of the work and schedule and coworkers were all great but…

Because of my personal background and time within the court system advocating for youth rights, I found myself in a few situations during my rotation where I had some serious internal conflicts with the work we were doing and I was able to decide pretty quickly that psychiatry was not where I belonged.

Question 16

Why not psych?

Answer 16

I think that a psychiatric emergency and ongoing psychiatric care are two very different things to manage.

In an emergency, it is easy to keep someone safe for the short-term.

However, ongoing safety will depend on infinite factors and requires a really in-depth dive into a patients life to tease out where the problem truly is. And even when you find it, as in the case of a toxic parent, there may not be much a psychiatrist can do if the parent is not their patient.

Question 17

Tell me about your research experience

Answer 17

• I don’t have any formal or published research with my name on it but I jumped onto one project 2 years ago to help a colleague with data collection as she expanded her previous work on the effects of diversity on resident and medical student wellness into the field of emergency medicine.
• The responses were in the form of a nationwide electronic survey and after a few rounds of distributing the link, we still didn’t have enough responses to have significant results but the initial data that we were getting back was pointing us toward an association between mental health disorders and the perception that the racial demographics of medical training programs are not representative of the communities served. And a clearly direct correlation between witnessing discrimination during training and thoughts of quitting the program.

Question 18

Tell me about your volunteer experiences

Answer 18

Oh wow. I’ve done so much. It’s hard to know where to start.

Before medical school I had done mission trips in the Dominican Republic and the Philippines. And then I got to medical school and wanted to do , and see, and experience everything that I could so I signed up for everything that didn’t interfere with school. And most recently, I’ve been working to complete my diving experience to get signed up with Diveheart in Downers Grove, IL which is an organization that helps people with disabilities and PTSD get into scuba diving. Depending on person’s abilities, you might have to physically do the swimming and monitoring of gauges for them or moreso in the PTSD cases they just use the time underwater like a weighted blanket to feel a sense of safety.

My most meaningful volunteer experience though was probably at Old Irving Park Community Clinic. It was really that experience that opened by eyes to not having to travel thousands of miles from home to find people in need of help. They’re everywhere around us and in every community.

Question 19

Tell me about a time you had to make a tough decision

Answer 19

It was a tough decision for me to commit to medical school. I was essentially a parent with a mortgage and my heart was pulling me towards a path that would require me to leave my job occupy an inhuman amount of my attention. Without having a safety net in the world, that was a really difficult decision I had to make. I had some long hard introspection discussions with myself and ultimately decided that this was something that I needed to do.

Question 20

Imagine you witnessed a colleague behaving inappropriately. What would you do?

Answer 20

I would confront them privately about the behavior and escalate my concerns if I thought the behavior was not safe or illegal

Question 21

Thoughts on future of medicine or specialty

Answer 21

I’m really excited to see what new technology science comes up with for us to be better physicians.

I think that the road ahead of us in fixing the healthcare system is going to be long hard filled with potholes and detours but will ultimately get better at every step.

I think that in terms of the job outlook, emergency physicians will be as resourceful as they are everyday and find or create niches to practice where there is a need like anesthesiology did with treating chronic pain when they experienced something similar. Emergency physicians will always be needed everywhere and the projected need for them will bounce back.

Question 22

Have you had any disappointments/ stressful situation throughout your medical education?

Answer 22

I think that my biggest disappointment in medical school has come In my some of my rotations where I have come across antiquated forms of teaching from rude criticism, to condescending comments, to attendings behaving like because I’m a student that everything I say is wrong even when I’m not. I just think that those kinds of attitudes and teaching styles aren’t effective and don’t foster strong trusting relationships.

Question 23

How would you feel about moving so far away?

Answer 23

Moving away from an established life and support systems here in Chicagoland will be hard but my background is one of resilience and I’m ready to embrace whatever adventure the next steps in my career bring.

My husband is from the (state, city area) and we have visited the area several times. We’ve had so many excited talks lately about the prospect of relocating to be closer to family.

Family there? Vacationed there?

Question 24

STAR Model for telling stories

Answer 24

Situation (background)
Task (trying to do)
Approach (highlight qualities)
Result (efficiency improved, patients treated, pos feedback, skills learned)

Question 25

Tell me about a difficult patient

Answer 25

Sure! So this patient was one that I encountered while I was working on the ambulance. He was an elderly gentleman with a history of dementia and we were called to the nursing home to bring an altered patient being violent with staff to the ER for a psychiatric evaluation. As soon as we entered the unit he was on, and still without a view of our patient, we could hear him yelling obscenities at staff and other residents. As we approached, we saw him fighting off and biting at any staff member that came near him. With a lot of patience, I was able to convince him that I wanted to help and he begrudgingly agreed to be transported. In the ambulance, his frustrations resurfaced and I was so grateful that he didn’t think to undo his own seatbelts and that he agreed that he might get cold if his arms were out from under the blanket I put on him. It was impossible to get any vital signs or blood sugar readings from him. We arrived in the ED in the same fashion that we had found him, shouting and swatting at people. I never saw this patient again, but encountering him was an exercise in the basics of scene and team safety as well as understanding that individuals can have an infinite amount of responses to the situations going on inside and outside of them so we cant take patient behavior personally. This gentleman calmed down when he felt like someone was on his side as we delivered him to the hospital. I think that the biggest asset in dealing with difficult patients is making them feel seen and heard.

Question 26

Tell me about a time that highlights your communication skills

Answer 26

Sure!

Question 27

Your most memorable patient

Answer 27

Would have to be the one I wrote about in my personal statement.

Question 28

Most interesting patient

Answer 28

Would have to be the one that I presented at the NorthShore/Swedish EM Residency Conference.

It was a young adult female with recurrent urosepsis

She came in complaining of flank pain and had been getting kidney stones since childhood. In the ED we found, that she had pyelonephritis and and numerous obstructing nephroliths. It was uncommon to see a young adult meeting sepsis criteria, so I found it interesting to dive into her case to say that she would likely benefit from metabolic testing to discover the cause of her stones.

Question 29

Conflict with a team member

Answer 29

Use personal statement story

Question 30

Tell me about a time you worked well under pressure

Answer 30

The ED that I worked in did not have a traditional triage so as our census increased, they were looking for solutions to more appropriately allocate resources. One of those solutions was a “paramedic greeter” who functioned as a first line of triage.

Question 31

How do you handle stress?

Answer 31

In the moment, I focus on the things I can control and in the long term I make sure to use my free time to balance out the stress. I spend time with loved ones and find relaxing or fun things to do.

Question 32

Tell me about an obstacle you’ve had to overcome

Answer 32

Trying to build my life while supporting another

Question 33

Most difficult challenge you’ve dealt with in medical school

Answer 33

I think that protecting my mental health has been a challenge for me in medical school.

My historical coping mechanisms for stress had been to deal with it by working even harder to ensure the desired outcome and in the beginning it was hard for me to realize that when I’m at maximum capacity for working hard, skipping sleep to study even more will not produce the results I’m looking for

Question 34

Tell me about a time when you failed

Answer 34

Very early into medical school and honestly, at this point, I don’t even remember what course it was in, but I failed my first exam and studied even harder for the next one, and then failed the second too. I met with the professor and explained that I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. What it came down to was that I wasn’t studying as efficiently as I needed to in medical school. The habits that had successfully carried me through decades of education thus far werent enough. I paired up with come classmates and together we helped one another adapt to the academic transition to medical school

Question 35

Tell me about a mistake you made

Answer 35

…

Question 36

Tell me about a time when your performance was criticized

Answer 36

During my OB rotation I was in a C-section where my role was to hold the bladder blade. There was a prolonged extraction and my arm was getting tired. I switched arms to continue my traction. This assisting physician immediately told me that the bladder blade is held with the other hand. So I switched back to my still tired hand. It didn’t last long before having to switch again. This time, she asked if something was wrong with my hand. I said, “no, just giving it a break”. To which i was told that my arm wouldn’t get so tired if I had better posture. After the surgery, the assisting attending had left the hospital so I consulted with the leading attending for that case who had been present for the criticism to ask if there is a different position I should have been standing or holding the blade to improve my performance. He said absolutely not, I would have done the exact same thing you did. Still not satisfied, I brought it up to the attending who had originally criticized my performance the next day asking if she had any suggestions for better positioning in the OR. She said no that tough love is just how she teaches.

From this interaction, I learned that there are just as many ways of practicing medicine as there are physicians and that a disagreement doesn’t necessarily mean that one of them is wrong.

Question 37

A time your integrity was tested

Answer 37

I had a coworker once who could not get enough overtime during a time where the company was calling us in the morning to stay home or sending us home early when it was slow so people were losing hours.

Then one day we needed extra help and the charge nurse asked me to call in the one person who loves overtime to come in. I didn’t think it was right to have employees not meeting full-time hours on the justification that labor costs were too high for our productivity when we’re allowing one person to work 100 hours per week. I declined the request to call just this one person and told her that I would be willing to send a mass text invitation to everyone. This turned into a new department policy of offering additional hours to everyone so that employees can make up lost hours if they so chose.

Question 38

Tell me about a difficult ethical decision you’ve had to make

Answer 38

Indian lady wants a female physician

Question 39

Thoughts on COVID

Answer 39

I think that COVID really opened the world’s eyes to the risks we were taking on a daily basis.

And historically, pandemics have been triggers for advancement and I don’t think that COVID will be any different. COVID really added fuel to the mRNA vaccine progress, we’ve had the chance to explore areas that relying on technology in medicine can be successful, and it created the conditions for workers to start fighting for their rights.