Practice 31 North York General Hospital interview questions covering patient care, clinical scenarios, and healthcare values.
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Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
In its most basic sense, empathy is the ability to understand and share in the feelings of others. In other words, putting yourself in their shoes and taking the extra steps needed to help comfort, console and heal. As a healthcare worker, empathy should come naturally or with ease to you and your interviewer will be looking to gain insight to your empathetic side with this question. When talking about a specific example, learning why you thought this was important helps them gain this insight. Be sure to let your interviewer know that you approach any situation on a patient with empathy.

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
"Working in pediatrics, I approach every child with an empathetic and understanding approach as these patients often feel very vulnerable and scared. I have several ways of demonstrating empathy towards patients that are very effective. Recently, I was with a four year old that was receiving immunizations and she was obviously very scared of the shots. To begin, I listened to her talk about how scared she was for the pain. I noticed that her mother was holding a stuffed animal and I asked if it was hers. She explained that the rabbit's name was Mr. Fluffy and I told her that it would probably be wise for him to get his immunization as well because the shots would help ensure that he wouldn't get sick in the future. I called my colleague in and we prepared an empty syringe. As I prepared the girl for her shots, I talked her through how both her and Mr. Fluffy both needed the shots and she took the shot with little pain. She thanked me for ensuring that both her and her bunny were safe now!"

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Written by Ryan Brunner
31 Questions & Answers • North York General Hospital

By Ryan

By Ryan