MEGATHREAD - The Official 2014 Medicine Interview Preparation Thread

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use examples that you think are best, and highlight more qualities of doctors, and their role in the hospital, etc....

this could include the ones on your PS or others. Personally I would stick to the ones on my PS because the reason I put on there in the first place is that they are the best examples

Reply 221

isklikas

Do you think that they would expect from an International Student to know details about the NHS? Because, I know some stuff and I bought a book to become familiar, but no matter what, a British person will know more than I do, just like I do for the Health System of my country.

Reply 222

FlavaFavourFruit

Original post by isklikas

You're applying here so of course they expect you know some details about the nhs. It doesn't have to be thorough but as long as you can talk about something on the nhs eg GPs surgeries hours proposal, A&E crisis etc. it would suffice..

Reply 223

Joannywhite

Ok another question. Sorry it's quite long.

"Mrs Jones has signed a donor card indicating that she is willing to donate her body to science without notifying her husband and son. She gets into an accident and it is determined she is brain dead. The family doctor, who is on call that afternoon, reviews the chart and determines that she would be perfect for medical students to practice the removal of organs for transplantation purposes. The doctor then talks to the family to discuss the procedure and to confirm their consent. They oppose the procedure and refuse to allow the doctor to move forward. The doctor points out that Mrs Jones could be helping hundreds of people by educating the medical students and that technically consent has already been provided. The husband understands how beneficial the educational experience is but is too emotional to allow them to continue. The son, a medical student refuses because he knows the bodies are not treated with dignity, If you were the doctor, how would you proceed? Why?

Reply 224

Pittawithcheese

Original post by Joannywhite

I think this question is irrelevant given that even if you are on the donor register, your next of kin will still be approached to give consent. The donor card exists as a facility to communicate your wishes to medical professionals and family.

If the relatives don't give consent then to me the discussion is over. The body will not be donated. As a doctor it is immoral to put any pressure on families on the issue of donation, as they are so vulnerable at that time (plus the husband would legally be NoK in these circs, not the son)

(Edited as I have just checked the legal position, and although there is no legal right to overrule the wishes of the deceased, in practice organ retrieval will not go ahead if the family explicitly object)

Posted from TSR Mobile

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 225

FlavaFavourFruit

Original post by Pittawithcheese

I think this question is irrelevant given that even if you are on the donor register, your next of kin still have to give consent. The donor card exists as a facility to communicate your wishes to medical professionals and family, but consent is still required.

If they don't give consent then the discussion is over. The body will not be donated. As a doctor it is immoral to put any pressure on families on the issue of donation, as they are so vulnerable at that time (plus the husband would legally be NoK in these circs, not the son)

Posted from TSR Mobile

This is true, I saw an example of this at work a few months ago.

Reply 226

FlavaFavourFruit

Another question!

A man has been admitted into hospital. The rest of his family are in the waiting room(wife, 2 kids aged 16 and 12).
Unfortunately, the man suffers a cardiac arrest and dies within hours of being admitted.

The son has a GCSE exam tomorrow.

How would a doctor go about breaking the sad news? Does he tell the whole family.

(This is a real life example, although I didn't get to see what happened!)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 227

Pittawithcheese

Original post by FlavaFavourFruit

I believe I would tell the whole family. Even with the GCSE tomorrow, it is never appropriate to withhold the news of a death from close family members. They deserve to know as soon as possible after the event.

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Reply 228

FlavaFavourFruit

Original post by Pittawithcheese

Yup I agree. He can tell his exam officer of the extenuating circumstance. Many students have extenuating circumstances.

Reply 229

CasualSoul

Original post by Pittawithcheese

Hey

just wondering if the kids were like 7 or slightly younger do you think you would still break the news to all of them in the waiting room or do you think it would be better to do it in a different way and possibly tell the wife and accurately explain the details of what happened so she understand why you weren't able to save him and then try and explain it to the kids in a more simple way. This might give the wife a bit more time to react to the news whereas if you were to do it in the waiting room she might break down completely which could shock/upset the kids even more or would you say it is just better to break the news to all of them at the same time?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 230

Helenia

Original post by Joannywhite

You are muddling up organ donation with donating one's body to science. We would never allow medical students to perform organ retrieval for transplant, nor allow them to use an alive person (even if brainstem dead) for dissection/training.

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Reply 231

CasualSoul

What if the wife decided to speak to the doctor in private (i.e. without the children) to receive the news (she sends the children away to buy something from one of the shops on the ground floor) . She receives the news and is obviously distraught but you console her and talk to her etc so she eventually manages to compose herself as knows her children will be coming back to the waiting room any time now. Before they enter she tells you that the son has a GCSE exam the following day.

They enter and on seeing the doctor they are curious about their dads condition. The mum witholds the news from them and doesn't tell them that he has died but just something along the lines of ' he is just very ill at the moment'. The kids then ask you what the state of their father's condition is ..what do you do?

Okay so I haven't really worded that well :rolleyes:

but would you just reinforce what the mum said i.e. he is really ill because you can't exactly tell them that he is dead even though that is the truth as the mum clearly does not want them to know yet?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 232

Joannywhite

Original post by Helenia

I understand your point but I didn't create the question. I just found it on a website and decided to share.

Reply 233

Hudl

Original post by FlavaFavourFruit

Another question!

If you had £5m, would you decide to fund 1000 hip replacements or fund 100 cancer-curing treatments?
Explain in detail :colone:

I would think hardly and research into what is needed in the Uk mostly at the moment.

My first option which is more favourable to me is the 100 cancer-curing treatments, this is because the more money funded into this area the greater the possibilities of finding a cure. I would choose cancer because it will benefit the UK and the world in the long term as this advancement will enable a cure to cancer for people all over the world NOW and forever more. Whereas 1000 hip replacement is highyl beneficial to the people who will receive it and will improve their health now but in the extra years gained in receiving new hips thousands of people would would have developed hip problems. 1000 hip replacement although feasible as you will see the impact of your money straight away. Cancer research is for the better of millions of peolpe saving lives.

My second option would be to use the 5m to do 500 hip replacement and 50 caner research treatments :P :biggrin:

Reply 234

Hudl

Original post by aldanyh

"Are you more of a leader or a follower?"

In my personal opinion I would say I am a leader as it tends to be in my nature, I actively taking a dominant role in any scenario as I believe my analytical nature and ability to utilise the skills of other people within the team is very very unique.

( I would give an example )

I would then say however I am able to follow and listen to instructions when needed as I do not know all and being human will need to be lead in certain situations.

Reply 235

Hudl

Original post by frogs r everywhere

Do you guys agree with the Secretary of State for Health -Jeremy Hunt. It is rather common sense to have foreign patients from the EU and beyond to pay for using our National Health Service. Statistically, only around 16% of foreign nationals (residing outside the UK) that use the NHS pay for its service.

What are the positive and negative implications if international students/tourists were to come to the UK, use the NHS and get charged due to their immigration status? Do you agree with this, or do you propose a more holistic approach?

I think its right to an extent to make migrants pay for their own health care due to the abuse of the NHS system in the past. This would also bring in money which we can use to further develop the NHS and start on research on new advances.

However I would say that we should not act in the policy where migrant patients will not be treated unless a payment is acknowledged as this would go against our primary purpose as a doctor to help.

This could however cause a lot of problems as a separate division will be needed in the NHS to obtain and retrieve money from migrant patients who owe money.

Reply 236

Helenia

Original post by Joannywhite

I understand your point but I didn't create the question. I just found it on a website and decided to share.

Wherever it's from, it's a bad question and I doubt any UK medical school would use it in interviews as the whole situation would be entirely illegal.

Reply 237

Joannywhite

Original post by Helenia

Wherever it's from, it's a bad question and I doubt any UK medical school would use it in interviews as the whole situation would be entirely illegal.

Ok then, that's fair enough.

Reply 238

Rx_Sarcasm

Original post by AhmedDavid

I read that question as would you rather use the money to perform 1000 hip replacements, or treat 100 cancer patients, rather than funding the research of cancer.
Apart from the fact that the oncology and orthopaedic departments probably have different budgets, it's still a complicated issue. I guess it depends on how much each treatment affects the patients life, and it's cost effectiveness. For example after the hip replacement, will most patients return to a similar standard of life as what they had before the injury, and what's the recovery process like? Whilst the cancer therapy is stated to be curative, how severe are the side effects, will the treatment have any consequences, what's the number needed to treat (ie how effective is it?) And what's the expected life expectancy after treatment?
Also hip fractures are fairly common in the elderly population, how common is the cancer we're treating, and what type of patient will typically have it (if it's young patients, will that make you more inclined to treat them? If it's a rare cancer, will we even treat that many patients a year?)
Really I'd need a lot more evidence and information before I made this decision!

Maybe I'm thinking too much into this though?
One of the things nice uses to evaluate whether our not new treatments should be used is the QALY (quality adjusted life years).
http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/features/measuringeffectivenessandcosteffectivenesstheqaly.jsp
Really though I'm not sure the two examples are really comparable, and they should be considered separately, though I guess that's not an option for this question!

Reply 239

Joannywhite

Original post by Helenia

Wherever it's from, it's a bad question and I doubt any UK medical school would use it in interviews as the whole situation would be entirely illegal.