Talk about a work situation where you had to put yourself in someone else's shoes to truly understand how they were feeling in a situation. Why was this necessary to provide a great outcome?

How to Answer
1st Answer Example
2nd Answer Example
Community Answers

For this question, your interviewer will be looking to hear that you are able to take an empathetic approach to your work, no matter if it is with a colleague or with your patients. Your empathetic approach in your ability to see things from another's perspective will reflect on your compassion, one of University Hospital's core values for employees. In your example, paint the picture for your interviewer as to why it was necessary for you to place yourself in another person's shoes in a situation and speak to how this helped both you and the other person have a great outcome.

"A couple of years ago, a very close colleague on my unit had turned from a solid, reliable colleague into one that was never on time and not much fun to work with due to a poor attitude. As a person that can take things too personally from time to time, especially with a colleague I had worked so closely with, I approached her about her change in work habits and attitude. As we talked over lunch, she broke down crying and talked about her pending divorce that had been going south for the past couple of months. She indicated that she didn't want to talk about it at work to burden others and she didn't realize it was effecting her work and attitude so much. Seeing what she was going through made it easy to see why her habits had changed so drastically and I really felt for her in her situation. After talking it out with her, she was open and honest with our team and we really saw a quick and positive turnaround in her work life. Just knowing that she had true friends that cared and were willing to help her changed things drastically."

"During my time working as a Respiratory Therapist in a large metro hospital, I had a patient I was scheduled to see a patient that was having some extreme pains in his throat that he described as I was preparing for the bronchoscopy procedure. I delved in more to find out where the pains were coming from and asked the nurse if he had been having issues for the last 12 hours. Knowing that the bronchoscopy could further worsen anything that could have been going on, I consulted with the ordering physician about postponing the scope. He agreed and the correct choice was made as the patient had a bad infection that could have been further complicated if I would've went through with the scope. By simply taking the time to talk and understand the patient, I was able to prevent a risky procedure."

Anonymous Answer

"When I worked as a medical coder, the health center was changing from paper to electronic records, we were putting the paper visits into a date base. The management created an application to track data progress which gave us a new project. The manager of my department was looking for someone to help with that project. I was called in and she said no one wanted to do this project. I saw how distressed she looked and wondered what I would have done if I was her. I said OK and never regretted it."

Marcie's Feedback

This is a good example! You provide a lot of details that will help the interviewer to understand the situation and how you acted. It also clearly shows a time when you empathized with someone else and felt compelled to help them which shows compassion. Great job!