Medicine

MMI ethics stations for practice

Updated 2026-10-19

Practice three original MMI stations on a near-miss, a ward disagreement, and a mistake you disclose.

Overview

These three stations are practice scenes written for this page. They are not a school bank, a past circuit, or instructions for a real ward. Each one asks you to notice a small event, say who is affected, and name a next step you could actually take as a student. A speech about caring is not the step.

Read the card twice before you talk. The first pass finds the people. The second pass finds the moment that already happened and the moment that has not happened yet. In a near-miss, the harm was avoided. In a disagreement, the harm is the room getting smaller. In a mistake you caught, the harm is what grows if you stay quiet. Keep those differences in your first sentence so the actor knows which scene you are in.

Plan for one station at a time. About two quiet minutes, then a conversation that fits in six to eight minutes. Stop when the step is clear. Do not add a second scene from your own week unless it is one sentence and you have already answered the card.

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The near-miss

A near-miss is a reach that stopped. The bag was wrong, then the right bag was chosen, and nothing was given. Your job is not to narrate a disaster that did not occur. Your job is to decide whether silence protects the nurse, the patient, or only your own comfort.

1. What did you see, in one sentence that does not add a consequence that did not happen?
What they are checking: A useful opening names the reach and the correction, and it refuses to invent an injury.
Follow-up: Which detail would you leave out if the patient were still in the doorway?
2. Whom do you tell first, and what do you want that person to do with the information?
What they are checking: The reply should pick a person who can act, and a request that is smaller than a lecture.
Follow-up: What do you do if that person is the nurse who made the reach?
3. How do you talk about the moment so the nurse can hear it without being called careless in public?
What they are checking: Listen for a private place and a sentence that describes the action rather than the character.
Follow-up: What do you refuse to promise about whether anyone else will hear?

Conflict on the ward

Two colleagues disagree in front of a patient about a walk. You did not write the plan, and you do not get to award the argument. You can change the temperature of the minute you are standing in.

1. What do you say in the room before either colleague wins, and whom are you looking at when you say it?
What they are checking: A strong reply includes words for the patient and a pause that lets the argument leave the bedside.
Follow-up: What do you avoid saying while the patient can still see your face?
2. Once you are in the hallway, which disagreement is yours to name, and which one belongs to the people who own the plan?
What they are checking: The useful split is between the public tone and the clinical decision you are not allowed to make.
Follow-up: What would you still bring up if both colleagues told you the patient had not noticed?
3. How do you describe the patient's view of that minute without guessing at their diagnosis or their fear?
What they are checking: Notice a report of what you saw, such as watching and going quiet, rather than a story about what they must have felt.
Follow-up: Which guess would you cut if you only had one sentence left?

Owning a mistake

You wrote a reading on the wrong line and you fixed the line before anyone acted. The correction is not the whole task. The other half is telling the person who is responsible for you, in words that match the size of the error.

1. What is the first sentence you say to the person supervising you, and what excuse do you leave out of it?
What they are checking: The sentence should name the wrong line and the correction, and it should skip a story about how busy the hour was.
Follow-up: What changes if you only noticed the next morning?
2. Which fact about the chart would make the mistake larger, and which fact would keep it at the size you already fixed?
What they are checking: A useful answer names a condition, such as someone already copying the line, without inventing that it happened.
Follow-up: How do you ask whether anyone copied the line, if you do not know?
3. How do you ask for a way to check your own charting next time without turning the conversation into a request for comfort?
What they are checking: Listen for a concrete check, such as reading the line back, rather than a promise that you will simply be more careful.
Follow-up: What help are you willing to accept, and what help would waste the supervisor's time?

What you say next

The stations share a shape even though the rooms differ. You saw something. You choose a person. You say a sentence that person can answer. Then you stop. If you stack all three stations into one speech, none of them gets a decision.

1. Which of the three cards is hardest for you to start, and what makes the first sentence stick?
What they are checking: The useful part is the obstacle in your own mouth, such as not wanting to embarrass someone, tied to a sentence you would still say.
Follow-up: What would you write on a card so you remember that sentence under pressure?
2. How do you tell a classmate the difference between reporting a near-miss and gossiping about a colleague?
What they are checking: A clear reply names the purpose and the audience, and it names one detail you would not repeat in a lounge.
Follow-up: What do you do if the classmate wants the story mainly because it is dramatic?
3. When would you involve the patient in the conversation, and when would you keep the repair away from the bedside?
What they are checking: Notice a reason tied to the scene, such as the patient already watching an argument, rather than a blanket rule for every station.
Follow-up: What do you say if the patient asks you which colleague was right?

Leaving the station

The last half minute is where a station grows a second speech. You already named the step. Repeating your values does not make the step stronger. If a fact is missing, say the fact and decide with what you have.

1. What will you leave unresolved, and what step will you take anyway?
What they are checking: A useful close names the open question and the action that does not wait for it.
Follow-up: What would you write down before the next door opens?
2. If the actor asks you to promise that no one will be upset, what do you say instead?
What they are checking: The reply should refuse the promise and still offer the sentence you will actually use.
Follow-up: How short can that refusal be without sounding cold?

Mistakes to avoid

Turning a stopped reach into a story about a harm that never arrived.
Taking sides in a bedside argument as if you owned the plan.
Hiding a corrected chart line because the correction felt like enough.
Naming a colleague's character when the sentence only needs the action.
Promising a patient, a nurse, or a supervisor an outcome you do not control.
Importing a personal anecdote that replaces the card in front of you.

Are these the stations a school will use?

No. They were written for practice on this page. A live circuit will hand you a different card. The shape can travel: what you saw, whom you tell, and the sentence you will say.

Should I use a formal ethics vocabulary?

Use an ordinary idea, such as honesty or keeping harm from growing, and tie it to the card. A list of textbook names with no step sounds borrowed.

What if I freeze after the quiet minutes?

Say the smallest true piece you have, even if it is only who was in the room and what you saw. Then ask for the card to be repeated if a word is missing. A pause you name is easier to watch than a pause you disguise.

Can I mention a real shift?

Only as a single sentence after you have answered the card, and only if you strip names and places. The actor cannot push on a story that leaves the station.

How is this different from a panel interview?

A panel spends time on your path. A station spends time on one scene. Practice the scene until the step is sayable, and leave the tour of your application for the panel.

Practice questions written by Round Rehearsal. Not any employer's actual questions.

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