Why not nurse question?

Thank you for the feedback.Im going to try and answer this question again.Im interested in neurosurgery,plastics,general and cardiothoraic (maybe).If I cannot get into surgery maybe Ill do emergency medicine or cardiology or neurology or a different medical speciality,I know one thing and that is that I enjoy the hospital environment more then more clinic based environments like gps,but for all I know my mind could change.Doctors in surgery I think correct me if Im wrong,can lead the surgery,carry out diagnosis and decide what course of action is best and has more responsibility which I enjoy while nurses only assist.Also if I wasnt a surgeon,nurses cannot diagnose,even though nurses play an important role andhace a vital role,I like the fact doctors can have a plan of action and diagnose and lead the treatment and also they know more about different diseases I think,but I think nurses probably know a lot of stuff too.Im bad at answering this question,any other tips on things I should say or avoid saying would be appreaciates.What do you think makes a good answer?

Firstly I would steer clear of committing to particular (sub)specialties when you're an applicant. On what basis are you saying you prefer hospital to primary care? Or theatres to clinic? Surgeons also spend time in clinic, on the wards, in teaching, management etc. It's not necessary to draw lines and decide what you are and are not interested in before you've even started.

It's also worth bearing in mind that nurses do not act in an assistant role. Surgical nurses, recovery nurses, scrub nurses etc are all performing their own role for which they are responsible - they are not assistants to the surgeons and surgeons don't have any managerial responsibility over them. A consultant surgeon's "assistant" is his or her juniors i.e. the registrar or senior house officer who is actually helping with the operation. I'm not saying this to be pedantic, but to try and get you to see that it's not a good idea to answer this question by talking in generalities i.e. "doctors are in charge and nurses assist".

It's a difficult question to answer for sure - perhaps a good technique would be to think about what a typical doctor (i.e. not a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon) does that particularly appeals to you, compared to a typical nurse (i.e. not a nurse endoscopist). At the same time you could also acknowledge that both roles allow for lots of development and further training, but explain that overall what you've seen on your work experience (give examples) and read about makes medicine a more appealing choice for you as an individual. It may also be worth thinking about the differences in medical student and junior doctor education and training vs nurses, but again without making it sound like nurses can't get further training or education after their degrees, as this is not correct.

At the end of the day the people who are interviewing you are doctors, so obviously they have made the choice to go into medicine instead of nursing. They're not looking to catch you out, they just want to see that you're not thinking about healthcare in terms of generalities or stereotypes.

Thank you for addressing my misconceptions.I made this decision on the basis that I never like going to the GP myself and dont like the environment feel and after volunteeri g at a care home for quite a while now I dont particularly enjoy community medicine but when I did work experience I very much enjoyed the environment and going on ward rounds and all the otger things I experienced.

I didnt mind clinics when I was on hospital work experience but I wouldnt only want to do clinics.In the hospital the fact there were ward rounds I liked how the doctor built a relationship with the patient as they reviewed them everyday for sone time and you could see the patient progressing and improving on some occassions.

What I liked about the doctor role is the dotor dealt with more patients whilst the nurse only built a relationship with a handful of patients at a time.I liked how the doctor planned out the course of action for treatment and analysed the results,but Im not sure maybe nurses do that too?Do doctors have a more in depth medical knowledge or is it about the same would you say?

Based on the kinds of questions you're asking, you need to do A LOT more research and get a lot more experience before you can possibly know whether being a doctor - or even working in health care (and what role you want to fulfil) - is right for you.

Thank you for addressing my misconceptions.I made this decision on the basis that I never like going to the GP myself and dont like the environment feel and after volunteeri g at a care home for quite a while now I dont particularly enjoy community medicine but when I did work experience I very much enjoyed the environment and going on ward rounds and all the otger things I experienced.

I didnt mind clinics when I was on hospital work experience but I wouldnt only want to do clinics.In the hospital the fact there were ward rounds I liked how the doctor built a relationship with the patient as they reviewed them everyday for sone time and you could see the patient progressing and improving on some occassions.

What I liked about the doctor role is the dotor dealt with more patients whilst the nurse only built a relationship with a handful of patients at a time.I liked how the doctor planned out the course of action for treatment and analysed the results,but Im not sure maybe nurses do that too?Do doctors have a more in depth medical knowledge or is it about the same would you say?

Thanks


Look, I don't plan on going into GP either so I'm certainly not here to recruit anyone into general practice (or any other specialty ). All I'm saying is that until you've actually worked in an environment and carried the responsibility which goes with it, you can't realistically claim to like or dislike it.

It's a good thing to have interests and ambitions early on, and perhaps you really would make an excellent hospital physician one day - I'm just saying it's good to keep an open mind and not pigeonhole yourself early on. Working in the hospital environment is very different to studying in it as a med student or doing work experience in it, which is one reason why a lot of medical students who are set on hospital specialties start work and decide actually they are far happier and more successful in the community (which doesn't necessarily mean GP by the way).

We've all seen it before, so we're just trying to help you understand so you don't come off as yet another naive applicant in your interview.



It's not the same. We do learn a lot more about medical science and clinical medicine than nurses do. But that's because they're busy learning nursing (something I have next to no academic or practical knowledge of).

The interviewers just want to see that you're answering the question based on evidence which goes beyond TV tropes of doctors and nurses i.e.:

"Doctors are in charge" - yes, of other doctors (to an extent) - not anyone else.

"Doctors know more" - yes, our university education and postgraduate education is longer and more in depth than a nursing degree, so we do know more about clinical medicine, but this is self-evident. You're basically stating the obvious by saying that doctors know more about doctoring than a non-doctor. But that's not to say that a nurse can't gain further education or knowledge in his or her chosen field.

You're not incorrect in what you're saying, it's more the technique of presenting it at the interview so it doesn't come off as very black and white "doctors are x and nurses are y". Just keep bringing it back to what you saw on your work experience and why that appeals to you as an individual, whilst stating that you're aware that both roles allow for lots of further education.

Out of interest what speciality are you thinking of choosing?

Thank you for your help,it is quite eye opening.

I think my problem is,I cannot articulate my thoughts well and keep digging holes for myself,I agree ,I need to present my arguments better.

In the hospital the fact there were ward rounds I liked how the doctor built a relationship with the patient as they reviewed them everyday for sone time and you could see the patient progressing and improving on some occassions.

What I liked about the doctor role is the dotor dealt with more patients whilst the nurse only built a relationship with a handful of patients at a time.

What you describe makes no sense. GPs built a relationship with patients as they see them for years and they can watch their patients getting sick and subsequently better over the course of their careers. GPs often care for generations of families building a really unique relationship that most hospital doctors can only dream of. Of course you can have Mr Smith come to your heart failure clinic for years and then you get to build some relationship as well, but your heart failure specialist nurse will know Mr Smith much better than you.

When it comes to the wards, I am not sure if you noticed that doctors often rely on nurses for information about their patients as it's the nurses who spend the whole day with them and know about their symptoms and their needs. Doctors come for 10-20 mins (depending on how complex the case is), review, make a plan and then only ever intervene when something happens. Once you get past foundation and SHO level, you will be seeing the patients even less as you will be most likely only called to do urgent reviews.

At your stage it is perfectly reasonable to not know everything about medicine, but you need to avoid trying to throwing random specialities in and belittling nurses job. It is very likely that you will have a senior sitting on your interview panel and telling her that her job is limited to assisting doctors in surgeries may piss her off.

I think the best approach to nail medical school interview is to avoid any specific details when it comes to questions like these. Unless you are certain you know very well what a nurse does or you have an extremely good reason to want to do particular speciality, don't mention any of that. Keep it generic.
On my interview I got asked why medicine and not law if I am basically good in both sciences and humanities and my answer was simply 'because I like sciences better'.