How specific should a patient story be?
Specific about your actions. Vague about identity. Leave out names, rare combinations, and anything a listener could use to find the person.
Practice theme
Residency program interview
Practice a residency interview: a past example, a patient you took care of, and an ethics problem.
What to practice
- A behavioral example with your actions separated from the team's
- A patient story that does not identify anyone
- What you noticed, whom you called, and what you learned
- An ethics problem with more than one reasonable concern
- What you want to learn in the program, said specifically
Questions we wrote
Practice questions, not a prediction of the real round.
1. Tell me about a time you had to deliver difficult news to a teammate.
Follow-up: What sentence did you actually use?
2. Tell me about a patient you took care of. What was your role, and what changed?
Follow-up: What did you leave out of the chart or the handoff on purpose?
3. Describe a moment you asked for help sooner than your pride wanted.
Follow-up: What told you it was time?
4. An ethics problem: a family asks you to hide a result from the patient. How do you think it through?
Follow-up: What would you not promise while you are still a trainee?
5. Tell me about a disagreement with a senior about the plan.
Follow-up: What did you do if they did not change course?
6. What do you want from the years in this program, besides a diploma?
Follow-up: What kind of feedback is hard for you to hear?
A structure to try
- Setting in a few words, with no name and no rare detail
- Your role, stated honestly
- The action you took
- Who else was involved
- The lesson, in one sentence
Can I describe a treatment plan as if I were already independent?
Say what you did inside your role and who supervised the decision. Do not invent authority you did not have.