9/15/2024

• MMI-style

• 3 questions
   

Question 1: What does cultural competency mean to you? Do you think someone can ever be fully culturally competent?

• Follow up questions:

  • Why is cultural competence important in the healthcare setting?

  • What are some tangible steps that you think medical students, residents, and physicians can take to become more culturally competent?

  • What are microaggressions? Where do you think they come from?
     

Question 2: Dr. Smith recommends homeopathic medicines to his patients. There is no scientific evidence or widely accepted theory to suggest that homeopathic medicines work, and Dr. Smith doesn't believe them either. He recommends homeopathic medicine to people with mild and non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches because he believes that it will do no harm, but will give them reassurance. Consider the ethical problems that Dr. Richard's behavior might pose. Discuss these issues with the interviewer.
 

• Follow up questions that were asked during the course of our conversation:

  • Is there is a place for naturopathic care in medicine today?
     

Question 3: Talk about a time where you accomplished something that you were proud of. How will the personal traits you developed from accomplishing this goal benefit you during medical school?

• Follow up questions that were asked during the course of our conversation:

  • What are the things you did to “step up to the role?” (in reference to his answer to the initial question)
     

Feedback:

• Don’t spend too much time on thanking me for sharing my question—it’s a nice gesture but remember that you only have a few minutes in each MMI room to converse with your interviewer. Make every second count!

• In general, I felt like the initial answer to the question was very vague. You mention your appreciation of culture, wanting to expand your knowledge of cultures, how cultural competence is good, et cetera, but remember that the goal of the medical school interview is to learn more about you. Why is culture particularly important to you? How do you plan to learn more about different cultures? While you still answered the question, hitting these more reflective points are what make you stand out to me (and whoever is interviewing you) as an individual

• In answering the above questions, you refer a lot to general, nonspecific examples (Ex. The first follow up question, to which you discussed Jehovah’s witnesses as a whole). Your answer would be a lot stronger and more tangible if you could use an example from your own life. I would recommend preparing a small story bank before your interview. By this, I mean preparing a brief document with some particularly impactful stories that highlight different facets of yourself. For example, a story about a time where you faced an ethical dilemma, a story about a time you demonstrated cultural competence, etc. The goal is not to memorize a script, but to have a few mental shortcuts that you can use to avoid the blanking-out feeling when you’re racking your brain for examples.

• During question two, it was pretty clear that you were using a template to answer the question (ex. STAR, methods for answering Casper questions, etc.). While this doesn’t affect the content of your answer, it just comes across as a little bit less genuine

• During question three, some of the wording felt a bit overconfident. You shared a great story in how you started from the bottom of the practice and worked your way up, but it would be more appealing if you were humbler rather than describing yourself in ways such as “indispensable to the practice”

• Try to organize your answers before answering the questions. While answering question 3, the answer got a bit confusing as you went back and forth between talking about your proudest achievement and the traits you exhibited. As soon as you enter the MMI room, I would recommend restating the question to the interviewer, especially if you’re blanking on the question. It buys you a few seconds of time to continue thinking, and also gives your interviewer a chance to correct you in case you misunderstood the question