What is it that draws you to this profession? What need does it fulfil? What do you want to achieve in the medical field? These types of questions will assess your desire to become a doctor and your views toward the medical field.

Example Question:

You are currently a student completing your final VCE exams. You’re not quite sure whether you want to go to university as you aspire to be a concert pianist – your parents however, have different plans for your future. In spite of your career aspirations, your parents want you to study medicine.

1. How would you go about telling your parents that you don’t want to do medicine?
2. Do you think it is right to do medicine because your parents want you to?
3. What do you think are the right reasons for wanting to do medicine?
4. What are the potential repercussions of pursuing a career that you do not want todo?
5. What will you choose to do – pursue your career or please your parents?Why?

Leadership and teamwork are crucial elements of practice in the medical profession. As a doctor, you’ll play a key leadership role that involves problem solving, decision making, and coordinating the efforts of others.

Example Question:

In 2007, the American Family Physician Journal published an article exploring the issue of physicians as role models, using a scenario in which an obese physician is offering nutrition and exercise counselling to his obese patient. According to the author’s research, patients have more confidence in health-counselling advice from non-obese versus obese physicians, and physicians with poor personal lifestyle habits are less likely to counsel patients about a healthy lifestyle. Based on these research findings do physicians have a responsibility to act as healthy role models to their patients? Please elaborate.

1. Is a physician who does not follow a healthy lifestyle employing a double standard when they are providing lifestyle-counselling? Explain.
2. Do you think there is a difference between unhealthy lifestyle habits that manifest themselves more visibly than others (e.g. obesity versus smoking)? Explain.
3. What determines whether or not another person is a role model? Who decides and why?
4. What are the limits to this responsibility?
5. Do you have any additional comments before we end this discussion?

It’s inevitable that you’ll face some moral grey areas as a doctor. A key skill is the ability to form a strong opinion before making a measured decision – and most universities will have a station or two to test how you would solve these issues.

Example Question:

You are the head of a committee involved in issuing a donation of $50,000 to a charitable organisation every year. The committee has short-listen three organisations this year, but is having trouble selecting which one will receive the donation. You must decide which charity receives the money, between the following charities:

• St Vincent de Paul Society – an organisation committed to speaking out against the causes of poverty and inequality on behalf of demographics such as refugees and low-income citizens.
• Possible Dreams International – an organisation which partners with rural and remote communities in Swaziland to empower families and individuals living with extreme poverty, malnutrition and endemic disease.
• Red Dust – an organisation that delivers health promotion programs and community development projects to indigenous communities in rural Australia.You will be expected to choose an organisation and justify why you selected them.

1. Which organisation would you pick and why?
2. If you could split the money, how would you do so?
3. Do you believe that volunteering work should be compulsory for high schoolchildren?
4. What are the ethical issues that may arise by making volunteering work compulsory?
5. Have you done any volunteering work? If so, where?

You are not a doctor yet, so the solutions to these types of questions won't have a clear answer. Questions like these will be used to assess how your mind works and how you reach solutions.

Example Question:

You are a receptionist in a medical centre. You have found out that a patient, Henry, is HIV positive. He is engaged to the Sandra, the daughter of your good friend, who as far as you are aware of does not know this.

1. What are you going to do?
2. Henry became HIV positive after a syringe attack when he worked in a petrol station.Would that change your view?
3. Sandra’s mother found out about this, and she was furious that you did not tell her that Henry is HIV positive. What do you do?
4. Should people with infectious diseases such as HIV be allowed to practise medicine?
5. Currently in Australia there is mandatory reporting of new HIV diagnoses to theGovernment, do you think this is ethical?

Being culturally sensitive is of utmost importance to doctors. These stations test your understanding of the significance of ethnicity in a health context.

Example Question:

You are a teacher in a rural primary school that is largely composed of indigenous children.There is a state funded program that provides $5000 per month to provide breakfast for the children as many are from disadvantaged background could not afford to be fed in the morning, and there had been a visible improvement in children’s performance now that they are guaranteed to have food in the morning. The president of the school board however, wants to scrap this program, and use the money to buy more books for the school library that had not been updated for two years now. He has stated that, “with a new library it will benefit all children, not just the black ones.”

1. What would you say to the president of the board?
2. What would happen if the breakfast program was scrapped?
3. What would you do if the breakfast program was scrapped?
4. What are the alternatives?
5. A mother had complained that her son’s reading was not up to standard, and stated that she would rather see the money goes to more books. What would be your reply to that?

This interview station is set aside to test your knowledge your knowledge of health policy and medical news and trends in ANZ and and the world.

Example Question:

There has been recent debate regarding the benefits of feeding infants with baby formula as opposed to breast milk as well as the accessibility of baby formula in rural towns. In response, the concept of a breast milk bank has been put forth as a solution – such a bank would receive breast milk donations from women and distributes it to mothers who encounter difficulties with lactation.

1. What are the benefits of breast milk over baby formula, particularly for those in rural towns?
2. Are there any ethical issues that may arise following the introduction of breast milk banks?
3. What else can be done to assist mothers who have difficulty lactating?
4. What are issues that may be encountered by new mothers living rurally?
5. What can be done to combat the lack of accessibility to healthcare in rural areas?