Gastroenterology Fellowship Mock Interview
Practice 35 Gastroenterology Fellowship interview questions covering clinical cases, procedural skills, and program fit.
Question 32 of 35
How would you deal with a disagreement among other fellow colleagues or senior fellow as a trainee with our program?
Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
Example Answer
How to Answer
Community Answers
Ryan Brown created and launched MockQuestions in 2008.
Disagreements requiring outside help are inevitable during your time in Gastroenterology Fellowship training. Your team of interviewers wants to know that you would join their program with the ability to be respectful and diplomatic when you face a disagreement with your immediate colleagues.
Ryan Brown created and launched MockQuestions in 2008.
"It would depend on the disagreement. If the disagreement was with a senior fellow, I would defer to their opinion as they have more experience than I do. However, if I was concerned that they were making the wrong decision regarding patient care or providing subpar patient care, I wouldn't hesitate to discuss it with them respectfully. If necessary, I would go to the chief resident. For more serious issues, such as ignoring patient care responsibilities, I would go directly to the attending physician because these actions, or inactions, would be done under the umbrella of the attending's medical license."
Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
For a colleague disagreement, you should go to your senior on the team. For disagreement with your senior, you should go to the chief fellow. If there is a significant and imminent risk of harm to the patient, you should go to the attending physician. Walk your interviewers through how you would first try to handle the disagreement among yourselves and then take it up the chain of command as necessary.
Interview Coach
Jaymie
A real coach, not AI. I read every answer myself and write back with personalized feedback.
Typically responds within 24 hours.
0 - Character Count
Anonymous Answer
I would be respectful, and diplomatic first. I will approach GI attending first respectfully to discuss because they have more experience. If I still have concerns then I will follow the proper chain of command. If the patient’s safety is at risk then I will approach directly attending.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! The interviewer will appreciate that you stay respectful during conflicts. Can you provide an example of a time when you successfully handled a disagreement with others? This will further strengthen your response. You might also talk about being an active listener who tries to fully understand the perspective of others. Great job!
Anonymous Answer
Disagreements are unavoidable and will occur during your career at one point or another. Firstly I would want to acknowledge and try to understand the other person's perspective in case this was a communication issue and I did not interpret the situation in the correct way. I would speak with them directly about the issue and ask for details or information regarding their opinion or way of thinking so that I could have insight into why the disagreement may have occurred. Secondly, I would try to offer a solution - for example, I recently had a rostering disagreement with my fellow ATs if there were rostering issues where I was given more weekend shifts to accommodate someone else's leave but that then wasn't reciprocated. Firstly I asked if the person making the roster had noticed there was a large difference in weekend rostering and asked if we could try to make it more even. I also helped try to fix the issue by offering to re-write the roster. Thankfully we were able to sort this out between us, however, if we weren't able to do that, I would have escalated to my immediate supervisor, followed by the head of department. If issues in the workplace remain unresolved it may be helpful to institute a third party such as a union or other manager from higher up the chain of command. It is important to always maintain respect and professionalism throughout these processes.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is an excellent strategy, and using specific examples throughout your response made it even more impactful!
Anonymous Answer
I believe that disagreements occur not uncommonly in practice due to the busy schedule and work-related stressors. An important aspect of dealing with disagreement is to understand the point of view of the other person and try to come to a common ground diplomatically as long as it does not affect patient safety.
As an example, I recently disagreed with a senior colleague when I noticed that she ordered fecal occult blood testing for an inpatient with gastrointestinal symptoms. I was aware that this test has not been validated for this indication and this practice exposes patients with unnecessary procedures with these related risks. I approached this colleague and expressed my concern to her respectfully. She asked for further information or evidence regarding this and I was able to provide the related articles and specifically a meta-analysis on this topic. That was enough to convince her and she was thankful that I provided her with feedback regarding her practice that was helpful to change it in a better way.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a great answer! You are self-aware and can take a step back and try to evaluate the situation from others' perspectives before jumping to conclusions or rushing to a confrontation. Your example is excellent because it highlights your ability to be professional and use effective communication skills to resolve a disagreement.
Anonymous Answer
Whenever there is a disagreement with a colleague, I have learned to always be respectful and take a step back. Expressing good intentions and my point of view meanwhile being open to the views of my colleagues and curbing any emotional response has helped me to foster great relationships with colleagues.
If there is a disagreement with a senior fellow, I am always respectful and cognizant of my lack of experience. I follow a similar pattern to establish collegiality and exchange thoughts. If a patient-care issue is the cause of disagreement then escalating the issue through the chain of command to get an impartial opinion seems pertinent.
Jaymie's Feedback
Your response displays a high level of emotional intelligence! You have excellent communication and conflict-resolution strategies in place here. Good job!
Unlock All 35 Gastroenterology Fellowship Questions
Prepare for program director questions with answers written by fellowship selection committees.
Get StartedJump to Question