Kansas City university of medicine and biosciences – Page 3

Alrighty! You asked and I’m delivering. Actually you didn’t ask but I’m delivering anyways.

You welcome.

Residency interviews are a bit different than medical school interviews. It isn’t trying to convince someone why you want to do medicine and why you have the determination and persistence enough to succeed as a doctor. No. You’ve already done that.

You did your time. You’ve shown you can make it through medical school.

Now it is about trying to find a program that fits well with you and if you fit with them. Sure, some places weight board scores heavily. NRMP director’s report tells you how residency programs tend to weigh/prioritize your application responses. [Go to page 10 on this report; there are multiple charts you can look at for this information.] Other data from the match site itself is available for you to look at as well. But overall, doing a sub-I/audition can make or break your ability to get an interview especially if you try and get along at that institution.

They want to know typically more why you want to do that specialty. Sometimes why that program, but mostly why that specialty. Can you show you are passionate enough in the way you answer/speak about the specialty? Other than that, questions can range to nitpicking apart your application to just wanting to get to know you to see if you are a reasonable and likable person. Remember, you are about to work with these people very closely for 3-5 years (in most cases, unless you do neurosurgery…). They need to know you are a hard worker, can take direction and be taught, and get along well with others. Can you handle when people get upset? Can you take direction from a resident above you in their training even if they are younger than you in real life?

All of these questions are things that need to be answered when a place is interviewing you. Again, residency is more about the fit between you and the program. Whereas med school was more about can you succeed if we take a chance on you.

What an Interview Day Looks Like:

I have asked a few students to tell me how their interview days were across a few specialties. In general, it seemed like medicine interviews were longer days with many more individual interviews, whereas surgery tended to be shorter days/interview times and with either less people or you would interview with many people in a room with you.

These responses are based on the average/overall from several interviews during their application cycle. Each interview likely ran different, even if only slightly. Please take this into consideration with their responses.

From someone applying ENT:

Interviews were usually 30 minutes maximum.
If you did an audition it could be as little s 10 minutes for an interview
In this case, residents also interviewed by hosting breakout rooms. This individual had interviewed with a chief and/or two junior residents this way as well

From someone applying Ortho:

Interview day usually lasted 3 hours to half a day.
An average of 5 interviews the day of with different people, one of which was a chief resident or another senior resident

When I applied general surgery:

My shortest interview was 10 minutes. My max interview was 45 minutes.
2 of my interviews (as these were virtual) had myself and several people all in another room or connected from different rooms. There were a range of residents present on my interviews (including chiefs) and several faculty members and the PD.
The one place where I interviewed in person, I had 3 separate interviews ranging from 10 minutes to 30 minutes.
One interview had second years available for us to answer questions about the program in-between people interviewing.

Internal medicine (from several students):

Some places gave an itinerary for the interview day
Interview days on average seemed to be half a day or somewhere between 4-5 hours.
Range of interviews from one student: 2-8, another: 3-5, and another: 2-10.
Interview times with individuals would range between 15-25 minutes amongst the answers given.
Some students also attended morning report and noon conference on their interviews.

Number of Interviews Per Specialty for Successful Match:

Now, this doesn’t mean you won’t match if you don’t get this many interviews. This is just the average. I have personally known cases where someone has only had ONE interview in their specialty of choice and had matched there. They worked their ass off at that audition, but they matched with only one interview. It is possible; it is just not the norm or commonality.

I only had 3 interviews for general surgery. Again, I am a DO, and I had shitty board scores. 2/3 interviews were at places I auditioned at. One was a DO specific program in my home state.

Probability of U.S. DO Seniors Matching to Preferred Specialty by Number of Contiguous Ranks

Specialty	80% Chance of Matching	90% Chance of Matching
Anesthesia	6	9
Dermatology	6	8
Diagnostic Radiology	6	9
Emergency Medicine	6	8
Family Medicine	4	6
General Surgery	9	11
Internal Medicine	4	6
Interventional Radiology	7	9
Neurology	4	6
Neurosurgery	20
OB/GYN	9	12
Otolaryngology	7	9
Orthopedic Surgery	6	8
Pathology	1	5
Pediatrics	4	5
PM&R	8	12
Plastic Surgery	No data available	No data available
Psychiatry	8	10
Vascular Surgery	3	4

Data provided to me by my school’s residency coordinators. Not sure how up to date this is.

Prepping:

So, just like with every other interview you need to prepare. Again, just like my medical school interview, I didn’t do a ton of prepping. Because let’s face it….. I like to fly by the seat of my pants. However some people spend an entire week prepping.

Things you should do:

Review your personal statement/familiarize yourself with it
Review your application. What did you put on there for experiences? Do you remember your scores? What did you put under about me/what you like to do?
Look into the program you are applying at. While some of your interviews may be at programs that you randomly applied too, make sure you get the underlying gist of the program. You will need this to ask questions. They may also ask you why that program.

I’ve had questions asked about all of these to me. So at least review what you put. It won’t hurt to refresh your memory and give you good ideas of things to talk about. Some of my interviews were very by the book like this and they straight up asked me to confirm things/expand on my application what I put. Some really just asked me random things/wanted to get to know me.

I have put some links that I used to prep. There were definitely curveball questions at one site that I wasn’t expecting and no amount of prepping would have helped.

Common Interview Questions

110 Residency Interview Questions

100 more Residency Interview Questions

A common thing I was asked was to explain my poor board scores and how I planned to improve my scores in residency. Some places just wanted to know I had thought about a plan to improve. Since my board scores were my weakest part of my application, this one was asked at 2/3 places I interviewed at.

THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT BE ASKED:

Yes, actually. There are things that they cannot ask you (but try to anyways because they are pricks) and shouldn’t ask you. I found a blog post interviewing another physician on these types of questions and different ways you can answer them. This post/blog is very woman-centric but the information in this post is very good.

Here is a study done on what questions were asked and the percentage that was asked. Very interesting read. Titled “Potentially Discriminatory Questions During Residency Interviews: Frequency and Effects on Residents’ Ranking of Programs in the National Resident Matching Program.” Honestly, I would have picked a shorter title but whatevs.

Tracking Interviews:

As a suggestion from another fourth year, she recommended keeping an excel sheet/google sheets document with dates of your interviews and zoom links. Along with other information. This way, you don’t need to panic trying to find the one email in your inbox with all this information on it. You can also organize it in a way that makes sense to you.

Additionally, if you are lucky enough to get multiple interviews or more than you feel you need, you do not need to take all of them. Make sure if you did auditions there you do try to interview with them (as you did take your time to go to their program). But if you feel you have too many or there are programs that you threw your application into the wind at and just aren’t feeling it, you are able to decline their interview offer.

Wardrobe:

At this point you should know how to dress professionally. NOT BUSINESS CASUAL LIKE WHEN YOU WORK AT AN OFFICE. Needs to be a suit and tie for men. And a suit and/or appropriate work dress with suit blazer for women. Women should wear nylons or tights if wearing a skirt/dress. Otherwise, I think you can figure this out.

In Person vs Zoom?

So, I preferred zoom just because I didn’t have to travel back to a location that I did a rotation at and it was easier. I had a slip-up with one of mine due to time changes and let me tell you I was glad I was already home. Straight up threw on a blouse and suit jacket and left sweatpants on. You know… classy.

Zoom will save you money on traveling and time. But if you are able to get an interview while rotating there in person I do think in person is the best way to gauge a program. You get to physically feel the room and how things are going. Plus, while there you’ve either been working there or visiting there and you get an idea of the program and people itself. Hard to do over zoom.

Call Schedule

Make sure you ask about this. It is appropriate to know several things since you will be a resident there. If the call schedule seems wayyy to hectic maybe not the program for you. You are gunna be run down and tired as a resident. No need to make your life harder if the call schedule is insane.

How often do you have call?
Do you have a post-call day? Or are you expected to work the entire full workday following call?
Is call based on nights vs weekends, is it a full 24 hours, etc.
Do you have a buddy system for first years?
How many teams are you responsible for during call?

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR PROGRAM

These questions are by far going to change based on location/program/and specialty. These were mine. You can add/delete/change things for yourselves and obviously you need to ask questions that will work for you and your specialty. Again, this is just to help you out if you are stuck. I do recommend if you are rotating there you will come up with questions while you are there so make sure to have a list. If you get offered an interview, ask the most pressing questions you want to know during the interview. Usually 1-3 are fine per person/group of people. The rest ask the residents.

what % of graduates that pursue fellowships get accepted?
any global health opportunities?
How frequent are residents required to travel to other cities for rotations? (If they have other locations this is something to ask).
what opportunities are there to practice my skills outside of the OR? I.e. skills labs?
what are you doing to improve the program?
what advice to you have for me to succeed in this position?
early intra-operative experiences?

Hope this was helpful and good luck. Cheers!

Samantha Baxter, OMS-II

Participating in an international outreach trip as a medical student who just completed her first year seemed a daunting prospect at first. Pathology had barely been introduced into our curriculum and pharmacology was as unfamiliar to me as a foreign language. I worried that I did not have enough of a knowledge base to be very helpful to the people of Masara, Kenya. Armed with my physical exam tools and a suitcase full of medications, I joined eight other students at the Bonyo’s Mama Pilista Clinic to help serve the community to the best of our ability over the course of our 18-day stay in Kenya.

After arriving in Kenya, we were struck by its beauty and the kindness of the people welcoming us to their country. The lifestyle was so relaxed that it gave us a chance to adjust without the pressure of overcoming jet lag. Our first day at clinic was a Monday, giving us a few days to review our exam skills and OMM treatments that might be useful for the population of patients we would encounter in the upcoming days. The excitement of being able to work with real patients kept me from sleeping the first few nights. I could hardly believe that in a few short days I would be able to make a difference in the lives of the people around me. As an osteopathic medical student, I was acutely aware of the differences in culture between myself and those from Kisumu, and therefore tried to soak up as much Luo (the local dialect) as possible before my first day. Morning runs to Lake Victoria gave me a chance not only to keep myself well-rounded but also the rare opportunity to glimpse locals at their jobs and the natural beauty of a lakeside city.

The thing that struck me the most about my time in clinic was the simple victories that medicine affords not only the providers, but also the patients. Every day that we saw patients was the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life. Over the course of our trip, we welcomed over 500 patients. The experience that stood out to me, was an older woman who came in too weak to stand. A neighbor who spoke English sat by her side, patting her hand and translating back and forth as I asked her about her symptoms and performed my physical exam. The simple kindness this neighbor displayed spoke of the strong bonds present in the community. My patient had collapsed outside three days before and had since been unable to eat or drink anything. All her symptoms pointed to malaria, so I admitted her to the clinic after her rapid test came back positive and helped the nurses start her on fluids and treatment. The next time that I saw her was the next morning as the nine of us were completing rounds with the doctors, nurses, and clinic director. Where she once was quiet and barely responsive, she turned to survey all of us from her cot. I asked her, with the help of a translator, if she was feeling better. She took my hand and told me “I feel much better. Thank you so much for helping me.” Those simple words were the greatest gift that I could have asked for. Later that day, my patient was up and walking and came to sit next to me during a short break. A translator helped me to understand more about her and her daily routines. The emphatic gesturing during her stories and the bright smile she wore warmed my heart. A day before, this woman was barely able to lift her head in response to my prompting, and now she was telling me about her family. Like many people, I chose to pursue a career in medicine from a desire to help others, but up until this point I didn’t realize just how large an impact doctors can have on their patients. What seemed like a simple solution to a clear problem to me made a world of difference to her. That experience is one that I would not have been able to have if I hadn’t chosen to go on an outreach trip with DOCARE.

At an opportunity to attend church in Masara we were introduced to the community. The welcome that we received and the gratitude we were shown demonstrated how important this mission was to them. Some of the members of the village would not have been able to receive care without these trips to the clinic. I walked from the church back to the clinic hand in hand with some of the local children, a few of which I had treated myself. Their excitement to show me their games and houses made me smile and appreciate my surroundings even more. These were real people, with real problems, that came to the clinic at their lowest asking for someone to help them. Each day we shared chapati and tea for lunch with the translators and learned about their hopes and dreams. Every experience in the village and the clinic taught me to appreciate the patient as a whole person in a way that I am not sure I would have learned without the opportunity to take this trip. I learned the importance of a kind word and gentle touch to make a connection with someone who is scared and doesn’t understand what is happening to them. That kind of experience can’t be taught. It is part of the art of medicine.

I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to participate on this mission to Kenya. My perspective was forever changed by the small difference in the lives of the people of Masara that nine American students were able to make. Though I have always been interested in global medicine and outreach programs, I could not have predicted what a profound change it sparked in me. I learned the importance of meeting your patients halfway and treating them not just as a case, but as a unique individual. The necessity of working as a team with limited resources brought all of the student doctors closer together and demonstrated how a unified approach is invaluable to medical care. It is my hope that I will one day be able to return to Masara as a practicing physician and be able to once again donate my time and skills to help the wonderful members of the village and community of Masara.

Hey ya'll! I wanted to share an essay/perspective that my BFF did after we went to Kenya together! This is a couple of years old, but still amazing. Thanks to her for this awesome piece and allowing me to post it on my blog.

Cheers!

Tag: Kansas City university of medicine and biosciences