Medical school interviews

Motivation for medicine

M: medicine combines scientific application with the priviledge of providing compassionate care

E: GP work experience.Patient came in for test results, also had operation approaching. GP didn't only give medical advice but also responded with empathy and reassurance,

R: Both held equal value in supporting the patient

R: highlighted time contraints placed on doctors. Not every consultation is treatment and diagnosis, empathy consultations also needed, increases demands

F: expectations confirm my desire, requires sustained resilience to provide compassionate care with clinicl knowledge to improve patient wellbeing

Answer structure

Motivation

Experience

Reflection

Realism

Future

Why doctor over other healthcare proffessionals

Breadth of knowledge able to be gained

Able to understand how the human body functions as an interconnected system and the mechanisms of disease. Attracted to challenged of integrating this knowledge to develop differential diagnoses and determining appropriate management plans

Nursing: does require extensive clinical knowledge but focuses on skills for patient care, clinical monitoring and health promotion

Feel my interest aligns more closely with understanding the pathophysiology of disease across different specialties and applying this to diagnosis and management

Particularly appreciate being able to develop a broader understanding of disease before having the opportunity to pursue a speciality in greater depth

Pathophysiology definition

Study of how disease or injury changes the normal functions of the body at the molecular, cellular, tissue and system levels

Why medicine at Glasgow

Main reason — creates an integrated approach to studying medicine

Learning scientific foundations alongside clinical exposure

New spiral curriculum -> concepts are revisited and explored in greater depth, consolidate understanding/increased confidence in understanding. Appreciation of how different areas of medicine connect

Interested in elective opportunities, the COMET scheme and to explore medicine beyond a curriculum. Rich clinical exposure. Strong interest in health inequities - which is included- after completing an EPQ

Why medicine at Birmingham

Early clinical experience -> experience general practise early in the course, getting early understanding on e.g managing uncertainty

Experience a variety of clinical environments -> experience of both primary and secondary care, important as for patient's needs to be met needs to involve several different healthcare professionals

Large and diverse city. Patient's health influences by a range of factors like socioeconomic factors, culture and access to healthcare. Appreciate why doctors need an awareness of the community that they treat, to adapt their communication & care, individualised. Learn how to do

Why medicine at Leicester

Gain a strong understanding of human anatomy to understand how body functions, carry out clinical examinations safely.Full body cadaveric dissections, 3D understanding of body structures

Early clinical experience-> recognise all these more skills that doctors need as well as clinical knowledge and how to implement these through communication for most effective patient care

Learning through a combination of academic study, clinical skills sessions and patient interaction-> understand medicine from different perspective -> build confidence in knowledge and ability to treat

Why medicine at Keele

Small group case based learning - being able to be comfortable with a group of people to discuss and develop knowledge. Enable me to think critically, explain my reasoning and lean from others perspectives.

Opportunity to gain experience across different healthcare settings from different locations. Patient health influenced more than just their condition but socioeconomic factors, finances and living environment. Understand how drs can have an awareness of this and how to adapt communication based on the individual

Overall, collaborative teaching approach and emphasis of understanding patients within the wider healthcare system. These will help me to become an adaptable, compassionate dr

Reflecting on skills/ experience question structure

STARR

Situation, task, action, result, reflection

Teamwork - care home volunteering

S: new dementia resident remained unsettled/distressed during their first week due to loneliness. Talked to resident one on one, listening to their concerns. (Responded with EMPATHY)

T: Discussed this with various staff members of the care (adapting COMMUNICATION when changing who speaking to)

A: arranged for more one to one care for patient and more collaborative activities for participation

R: Patient became more comfortable in the home and formed a closer relationship with some staff and other residents

R: working with various others, with different roles, different perspective each listened to/valued equally to form the best patient centred decision

Teamwork -rubies dance company

S: teaching my schools dance club of varying ages. Younger student with learnign abilities struggled with the choreography

T/A: discussed this with my co student-teacher and decided on new method of how to teach her

instead of teaching choreography in a long section -> together broke it down into smaller sections and used more visually representation of the dance over verbal

R: student picked up choreography quicker, felt more comfortable and confidence increased

R: with both opinions contributing was able to design a mechanism fitting for that individual student for best outcome

Teamwork reflection in medical field

MDT- different perspectives from different roles within the healthcare team for best patient outcome

Communication - rubies dance company

Jess Cordell STAR

Altered communication method from long verbal instructions to shorter visual instructions

Time management

S:Teacher of school dance club, outside school extracurricular activities of dance, year 12 mocks

T: had to organise extra rehearsals to teach the dance group for our approaching show, attend regular evening classes and having increased revision time for mock exams

A: reflected on the importance of each commitment both academics and skills developing to understand why I needed consistency in each.

R: was able to allocate appropriate time to each task and completed all to the best of my ability

R: important to maintain consistency in responsibilities. Mirrors balancing e.g extracurricular commitments and clinical placements when in medical school

Management/ leadership

S: member of my schools student leadership team as head of a school year (13)

T: helped to plan and run an afterschool event put on by my school in the summer term

A: (worked with my follow TEAM), discussed fun activities for students and how to feasibly execute these. Was able to discuss with my year, asked feedback questions to coach them to think further into most feasible and fun event. Communicated back to student leadership team

R: through leading the students through their discussion, allowed them to develop on their own ideas and learn how to think critically

How do doctors use management/leadership

Manage patient care, guide MDTs

Realities of medicine (Adam Kay's 'This is Going to Hurt' Public perception

- public perception of professionals having all the answers when in reality healthcare relies on MDTs and consulting others.

Leads to effect of feeling inadequate, burnout and imposter syndrome

Patient identifies realities -> leads to lack of trust, less acceptability of healthcare e.g less vaccines

High stigma of doctors -> patients feel shame, restrict the information they tell doctors due to fear of judgment, less likely to seek care

Give a conclusion in your answer

Positive perception from COVID

Media highlighted doctors dedication and resilience through surgeon/doctor media coverage

Public support/gratitude meant doctors felt supported

Improved morale and improved patient care

Winter pressures - beds and ventilators

Ventilators in NHS in winter -essential for patients struggling to breathe

Due to: spike in respiratory illnesses in these months e.g Covid-19 and pneumonia, high bed occupancy that exceeds safe threshold (best evidence states this at 85%, increased risk of hospital-acquired infections & delays. Since 2010, this has been breached. Winter 24/25 95%)

Patient care:

NHS 4 hour A&E standard - requires 95% patients to be admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours. Since collapsed

Patients end up being cared for in corridors

Long waiting times - find up to date stats

Ethical considerations with winter pressure/shortages

1. Resource allocation (equitable access)-> allocate limited be numbers daily between different specialities. Main aim to provide all patients with equal access to healthcare.

2. Prioritisation -> healthcare staff must triage patients based on clinical need. NHS commitment to prioritising care for those who need it most urgently

3. Privacy and Dignity -> maintaining this is vital in healthcare (difficult to maintain in at capacity)

4. NHS workers bare ethical responsibility to maintain quality of care

Solutions for winter pressures and shortages

Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 25/26 - sets out how urgent and emergency services should be improve over following 12 months:

- 78% of A&E patients seen within 4 hours

- 45 min ambulance handover standard

- category 2 ambulance response times cut to 30 mins

In all areas where performance has deteriorated badly in winter 24/25:

-reduce acute bed capacity

- invest in ambulance services and tackle handover delays

-expand virtual wards so patients can receive hospital-level care safely at home, freeing physical beds

-social care investments -> patients feel better supported to be discharge into the community, reusing medically fit bed occupancy

Small work experience example of shortages

S- patient was late to their consultations

T- was able to discuss and manage the issue that the patient came in to discuss but patient then started to ask about knee pain they had been having

A-Dr offered empathy to the patient but in the end had to tell him to make a separate appointment as lack of time to discuss the issue in depth.

R- Dr has a duty of care - possibly not being fulfilled if telling the patient they can not be treated at that moment, but then the most effective care that the patient deserves can't be rushed at risk of error/take up time from another patient receiving their rightful care

Staff shortages - get more info on this

Increased waiting times, compromised care quality, overburdened staff

Communication - observed in GP work experience

S- Diabetic nurse annual routine check of patient

T- type 2 diabetic patient who regularly smokes

A- gave professional advice and emphasised medial reasoning as why stop smoking. Broke down medical terms into a way that the patient would understand and most likely take the advice

R- nurse needed an understanding of the patient in order to communicate their advice most effectively. New patient would be unwilling to change, so used a calming tone and tried to give benefits the patient would want - communicating and understanding patient as an individual

R- doctor had to understand the community they are treating - deprived, smoking common

Surprise from work experience/clinical exposure

P: multifaceted nature of medicine

E: shadowing diabetic nurse, was surprised by the number of procedures involved in routine check of a diabetic patient. Weight, feet, blood pressure.

E: surprised by the different areas of anatomy that is all interlinked to explain one disease/contributes to explain one disease.Interesting to learn of why each of these checks are important/information missed if one of the checks wasn't done

F: as a medical student, will enjoy learning of anatomy and the diseases which involve multiple parts of it

NHS ten year plan

- published in 2025 aiming to reform NHS so it meets healthcare needs and remains long term sustainability

Three main aims

- shifting care from hospitals into communities

- moving from analogue to digital services

- focus more on prevention rather than treating the illness once it has developed

Describe an 'ageing population'

More people live with multiple long-term conditions and need coordinated, continuing care

Define 'fragmented services'

Poor coordination between hospitals, GP, community services and social care often leading to duplicated work load and gaps in care

How should we reduce pressure in hospitals/ shifting care from hospitals to communities

10YP: develop a neighbourhood Health Service with MDTs, (expanding neighbourhood healthcentres + community services),better communication between community services and health professionals, develop more suitable care in patients homes

Means

-Patient may receive help earlier before a condition becomes serious

- community care is more convenient and less disruptive o hospital attendance

- better co ordination may reduce unnecessary appointments, admissions and investigations

- MDTs can address several aspects of a patients needs together

- supports people with long term conditions to stay independent

Challenges:

- local services need funding, facilities, staff, equipment to maintain demand if services are being moved out of hospitals - also requiring effective communication and information sharing between teams

- patients with complex needs may require specialist treatment

Analogue to digital/should AI replace doctors

- development of NHS app into access point for healthcare,introduce single patient record to support coordination, use AI to assist with administration and clinical decisions-making, expand remote monitoring & improve digital healthcare tools

Means:

- faster access to information, advice and appointments

-less time spent on repetitive administrative tasks, better continuity when patients move between services

-earlier recognition of deterioration through remote monitoring

Risks:

-older people, disabled people and people without reliable internet may struggle using online services

-may be issues securing sensitive health data - maintaining PRIVACY/CONFIDENTIALITY

-AI systems trained on unrepresentative data may perform less well for some groups

-digital access must no replace face-to-face assessments that are necessary or compassionate communication

Sickness to prevention- is prevention better than cure?

- reduce smoking and vaping, tackle obesity, improve children's health, improve access to vaccinations and screening, expand mental health support to children and young people

Achieved through working with schools, local authorities,employers and other organisations

Means:

Improves quality of life and health life expectancy, reducing demand for costly treatment overtime. Reduces health inequalities if interventions reach disadvantaged communities

Challenges:

- benefits take years to become apparent

-people don't have equal opportunities to make healthy choices

-public health interventions must balance individual autonomy with protecting population health

Summarise 10YP answer - conclusion

Combines prevention, integrated care and innovation

Success depends on effective implementation,a supported workforce, sufficient resources.

As a future doctor, i would need to adapt to new technologies while maintaining patient-centred care,proffessional accountability and compassion

What are the separate levels of healthcare implemented in the NHS

Primary care is the patient's first point of contact with healthcare professionals and can be sued to treat manage and prevent illness. (E.g GPs, walk-in centres,opticians)

Secondary care- occurs when more specialise treatment is required and occurs via referrals

(Diagnostic tests and imaging, maternity services)

Tertiary care- provides advanced treatment (e.g open heart surgery or cancer treatment)

Quaternary care-rare health conditions (involves experimental medicine and clinical trials)

How do separate healthcare levels allow for effective treatment

Patients can be streamlined to the appropriate level of healthcare to be directly seen by the relevant healthcare professional.

Transfer from one level to another allowing for continuity of care.

GP work experience- observed examples of primary care and the vast range of issues that can be treated - saw patients with rashes, muscle pain in wrist.

Importance of taking a history

S/T- GP work experience, 60 year old patient with a rash on his arm

A- when GP was taking a history and found the patient had worked in coffee farming in Africa when he was younger.

R- Dr concluded that the rash was due to sun damage and was able to offer moisturiser treatment

R- History was the most vital part of this diagnosis, due to its uniqueness to each patient is vital to record and understand for diagnosis

Four principles of medical ethics

Autonomy, beneficence, non maleficence, justice

Autonomy definition and example

Respecting a persons right to make their own informed decisions about their care -> e.g a patient declines a proposed treatment after receiving appropriate information

Beneficence

Acting to benefit the patient

E.g considering which treatment is most likely to improve the patient's health

Non-maleficence

Avoiding or minimising harm

E.g considering the potential risks and benefits of a treatment

Justice

Treating people fairly and considering equitable access to healthcare

Answer structure for ethics

Clarify-> establish what's known and what's uncertain

Assess risk-> consider if anyone may be in immediate danger

Protect-> take reasonable steps to protect the person at risk

Escalate-> involve appropriate senior professional or safeguarding lead

Maintain confidentiality

Reflect

- mention the main ethical principle in the scenario, consider perspectives and way both options

- always provide a conclusion

List priorities when maintaining professionalism

Patient safety, honesty and integrity, respect, appropriate communication

Health inequalities

EPQ

Geographic distance->

financial barriers, socioeconomic factors

Waiting times & delays