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Why not nurse question?

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I don't think OP sounds uninformed. He/she's been given some excellent constructive advice in this thread.

It's easy to pick holes in anyone's answers to interview questions if you set out with that aim. I feel comments that OP "needs to do more work experience" are perhaps slightly unfair, bearing in mind he's an applicant.
(edited 6 years ago)
Thank you.I shall PM you more often.
Just a quick question, I know you said that it isn't a good idea to mention a specialty in your answers but I'm applying to UCL because they offer Paediatric Care or Neuroscience as the intercalated degree. I'm keen to work in paediatrics or neurology/neurosurgery so this degree of flexibility was why I applied there (along with the fact that GOSH is one of their teaching/partner hospitals). Should I mention this when asked why I chose their course?
OP I think you have demonstrated in this thread that you seem to be generally very well aware of what medicine entails including the question of medicine vs nursing, for an applicant, as suggested recently above.

My only suggestions are that you are able to put across your answers to standard questions like these more succinctly. You've written a lot of text above, but in an interview you may be the 10000th applicant they've seen and you'll want to be a bit more succinct. This can easily be done in pre-interview preparation in your own time.

Also, it's great that you want to do surgery, but for interview purposes I would put that to one side (unless specifically asked) or just add it onto the end of why you're interested in medicine. Reason being is that some interviewers may perceive it as being a bit close-minded as such an early stage. It's better to say that you've found ALL aspects of medicine that you've encountered so far interesting, but especially your surgical exposure. Just don't rule anything out!

Also, have a search for interview books for medicine. They can certainly help.
(edited 6 years ago)
Just checking! It's my first choice so I'm desperate not to ruin my interview on Wednesday!
To give you a bit more perspective on why people keep saying you really can't pin down your interests before you go in, as a final year student at the moment.

As an applicant, I got interested in doing medicine purely because I watched Scrubs and House on TV - and that's the truth. I had had a fair bit of contact with doctors growing up (through myself being ill as a child, and family members being ill when I was growing up), but it didn't really inspire me to become one or anything. I was always scientifically-minded, I loved a bit of problem-solving, wanted to be the "detective" figure, and really did want to help people. So following in the footsteps of J.D. and House seemed a good way to go. This is how I answered the "why medicine?" question, while like ecolier said, leaving out the stuff about TV hahaha.

I was most interested in: A&E, medical specialties (like cardiology, respiratory medicine, infectious disease, neurology and nephrology).
I felt neutrally about: surgery, of all kinds, anaesthetics/ICU
I thought I'd hate: dermatology, psychiatry, GP (this is where I did all of my work experience), and musculoskeletal medicine

Obviously I had no idea what working in any of these was like.

Now as a final year student

I absolutely LOVE: Psychiatry - turns out that psychiatric illness is completely fascinating; it's a patient population I can empathise very heavily with and I find building a therapeutic alliance with them rewarding; and you can make a big difference in their quality of life. Good work-life balance. Good understanding of a niche area of medicine. Unique set of skills. Good balance of ward and clinic work.

GP - huge variety of presentations requiring breadth of knowledge; lots of opportunities to manage undifferentiated illness (detective!!!); lots of things for you to take a special interest in (I can do my bit of psychiatry and bit of MSK and bit of derm right here!); you get to make good long-lasting relationships with your patients; great work-life balance; and I actually turned out to really like sitting in a clinic room all day as opposed to sitting about a ward repeating the exact same process on every patient 40x a day.

Dermatology - interesting pathology; impactful management; great lifestyle; $$$$$$$.

A&E - I ended up being right about this one. I'm a complete A&E junkie. I love working with acute illness. It's the most interesting part of medicine. And I literally get to play as a detective all day every day. Your management has direct impact on patients; you get to a great mix of brainy stuff and hands-on stuff. Only bad side is you often don't know what happens to your patients next (short contact time) and your lifestyle ****ing SUCKS. That's why I probs won't end up doing this; it has to really be the only thing keeping you going in life to be able to put up with the shitey shift pattern.

Acute Medicine - Didn't consider this before starting med school. Same reasons I like A&E. Acute medicine is kinda like A&E except it's the period immediately following that first four hours, which offers its own unique opportunities, skillsets and challenges which is rewarding in a similar but different way.

Things I feel neutrally about:

Anaesthetics/ICU - I've always been a physiology nerd, so anaesthetics fits me well. It's got lots of practical sides to it. I like the idea of being the proverbial master of the airway. And it's kinda cool to be a literal life-saver. ICU interesting as it's like a mix between anaesthetics and acute medicine. But I dunno if I like this one enough to do it as a career, but I did really enjoy it.

Radiology - their life sounds so god damn lit.

Things I absolutely hate:

Surgery - I never imagined how tedious, boring and mind-numbing operations actually were. God forbid, I'll insist on having any procedure I have to have done on me under GA just so I never have to spend a single waking moment inside a theatre beside a surgeon ever again. It's a shame, because the diagnosis and medical management of surgical problems is actually pretty interesting. I don't think I'll mind working surgical wards too much as an F1/F2. But surgery itself is so mindnumbingly dull that I've avoided it as much as possible during medical school, and I'll continue doing so after I graduate.

Most medical specialties - interesting pathologies, interesting management plans, boring job. Endlessly rounding all day and then fiddling with medications for your chronic population? No thanks. Most of the ones I thought I was interested in pre-medical school I actually ended up hating so much in medical school. Inc. neurology (sorry écolier! :wink:)

Paediatrics - *****y lifestyle; kids suck.

O&G - how anyone likes it is beyond me.



So you can see how my actual interests ended up turning out almost exactly the opposite from what I thought they'd be when I went into it!! So be careful not to judge books by their cover: everyone else is right that you have no way of figuring out what you're actually interested in until you've worked the jobs.
Very informative thank you :smile: What medical school do you go to if you don't mind me asking?

Original post by Hype en Ecosse
To give you a bit more perspective on why people keep saying you really can't pin down your interests before you go in, as a final year student at the moment.

As an applicant, I got interested in doing medicine purely because I watched Scrubs and House on TV - and that's the truth. I had had a fair bit of contact with doctors growing up (through myself being ill as a child, and family members being ill when I was growing up), but it didn't really inspire me to become one or anything. I was always scientifically-minded, I loved a bit of problem-solving, wanted to be the "detective" figure, and really did want to help people. So following in the footsteps of J.D. and House seemed a good way to go. This is how I answered the "why medicine?" question, while like ecolier said, leaving out the stuff about TV hahaha.

I was most interested in: A&E, medical specialties (like cardiology, respiratory medicine, infectious disease, neurology and nephrology).
I felt neutrally about: surgery, of all kinds, anaesthetics/ICU
I thought I'd hate: dermatology, psychiatry, GP (this is where I did all of my work experience), and musculoskeletal medicine

Obviously I had no idea what working in any of these was like.

Now as a final year student

I absolutely LOVE: Psychiatry - turns out that psychiatric illness is completely fascinating; it's a patient population I can empathise very heavily with and I find building a therapeutic alliance with them rewarding; and you can make a big difference in their quality of life. Good work-life balance. Good understanding of a niche area of medicine. Unique set of skills. Good balance of ward and clinic work.

GP - huge variety of presentations requiring breadth of knowledge; lots of opportunities to manage undifferentiated illness (detective!!!); lots of things for you to take a special interest in (I can do my bit of psychiatry and bit of MSK and bit of derm right here!); you get to make good long-lasting relationships with your patients; great work-life balance; and I actually turned out to really like sitting in a clinic room all day as opposed to sitting about a ward repeating the exact same process on every patient 40x a day.

Dermatology - interesting pathology; impactful management; great lifestyle; $$$$$$$.

A&E - I ended up being right about this one. I'm a complete A&E junkie. I love working with acute illness. It's the most interesting part of medicine. And I literally get to play as a detective all day every day. Your management has direct impact on patients; you get to a great mix of brainy stuff and hands-on stuff. Only bad side is you often don't know what happens to your patients next (short contact time) and your lifestyle ****ing SUCKS. That's why I probs won't end up doing this; it has to really be the only thing keeping you going in life to be able to put up with the shitey shift pattern.

Acute Medicine - Didn't consider this before starting med school. Same reasons I like A&E. Acute medicine is kinda like A&E except it's the period immediately following that first four hours, which offers its own unique opportunities, skillsets and challenges which is rewarding in a similar but different way.

Things I feel neutrally about:

Anaesthetics/ICU - I've always been a physiology nerd, so anaesthetics fits me well. It's got lots of practical sides to it. I like the idea of being the proverbial master of the airway. And it's kinda cool to be a literal life-saver. ICU interesting as it's like a mix between anaesthetics and acute medicine. But I dunno if I like this one enough to do it as a career, but I did really enjoy it.

Radiology - their life sounds so god damn lit.

Things I absolutely hate:

Surgery - I never imagined how tedious, boring and mind-numbing operations actually were. God forbid, I'll insist on having any procedure I have to have done on me under GA just so I never have to spend a single waking moment inside a theatre beside a surgeon ever again. It's a shame, because the diagnosis and medical management of surgical problems is actually pretty interesting. I don't think I'll mind working surgical wards too much as an F1/F2. But surgery itself is so mindnumbingly dull that I've avoided it as much as possible during medical school, and I'll continue doing so after I graduate.

Most medical specialties - interesting pathologies, interesting management plans, boring job. Endlessly rounding all day and then fiddling with medications for your chronic population? No thanks. Most of the ones I thought I was interested in pre-medical school I actually ended up hating so much in medical school. Inc. neurology (sorry écolier! :wink:)

Paediatrics - *****y lifestyle; kids suck.

O&G - how anyone likes it is beyond me.



So you can see how my actual interests ended up turning out almost exactly the opposite from what I thought they'd be when I went into it!! So be careful not to judge books by their cover: everyone else is right that you have no way of figuring out what you're actually interested in until you've worked the jobs.
Original post by Anonymous1502
Very informative thank you :smile: What medical school do you go to if you don't mind me asking?


Edinburgh ^^



In my experience, the fiddling that gets done in derm and psychiatry happens in the context of other therapeutic interventions OR has a more obvious effect for benefiting the patient.

On paper, I should like neurology. It's a mainly problem-solving based field where you deduce the diagnosis mainly from your history and exam. That's awesome. In reality tho, I felt like I was just looking at a jigsaw puzzle and trying to figure out what piece is missing, and then once I find what piece is missing, I'm like "Ok. That's my job done. Smell ya later guys". :redface:
I just don't find neuro patients very interesting (a pre-requisite for me to enjoy the detective work); and I don't really find the management of neuro conditions particularly rewarding or interesting (you've got progressive bulbar palsy? yea tough luck there pal). Sorry hahaha.
Hmm we'll just have to agree to disagree here. :tongue:

You have listed one of the worst disease there is, in our specialty. It's the same for malignant melanoma!

Remember our specialty is advancing at a phenomenal speed. It may well be only a few years before the first MND / dementia drugs come online.

In my personal opinion, psychiatry may well one day (long, long long way away) become a sub-specialty of neurology too. Because after all, we look after our functional patients, so what's the difference? At the end of the day all psychiatry patients have some sort of neurological condition, which manifests as a psychiatric disorder. Why should they be treated differently?

(For example, see: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/03/radical-new-approach-to-schizophrenia-treatment-begins-trial)


Totally agree on this one! Personally can't wait for the next age in psychiatry and functional neurology. It's just gonna make psychiatry even more interesting to me. :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:
Reply 29
Original post by Anonymous1502
Apparently it is often asked in medical interview why you want to be a doctor not a nurse,so I thought about ti and I came up with this answer: because I am interested in surgery and nurses cannot perform surgery.Is this answer right,or too vague or mean?If you were an interviewer what would you think of this answer??


I got this exact question at interview too! (It might have even been the first ever question I got asked in my first interview ever...) And I was completely unprepared for it :K:

I can tell you that all the advice on this thread has been on point. Literally if I had got there first I would like to think i would tell you half the stuff ecolier et al said.


The one big thing that no-one has told you (and the main reason I felt the need to add to what's already been said) is that no.1 you have to be your most enthusiastic self! I put that word in all the formats so that you read it more than once.

There were interviews I failed and the interview I succeeded - the main difference being I went in with the aim of being as enthusiastic as possible in the latter.


A lot of the ideas you have come up with are actually good answers. It's how you deliver them at the interview. Think about the qualities of who you would want to be your doctor. They tend to be someone who comes across as not arrogant or hostile, who is open-minded and who is optimistic/enthusiastic.

P.S. A great advantage of being your most enthusiastic self is that it is very hard to come across as arrogant or hostile. Try it in conversations with your friends next time and you should feel how hard it really is to say things with that effect. Enthusiasm is one of those rare things which is wholly attractive and it doesn't matter what application you use it in it is one of your most useful skillsets!

That's all from me, good luck in the year ahead! :wink:

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