How to Answer: If your patient is terminal and is at home with Hospice in terrible pain, how do you feel about medicating him or her for pain relief if you know it will hasten death?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Geriatric Physician job interview.
3. If your patient is terminal and is at home with Hospice in terrible pain, how do you feel about medicating him or her for pain relief if you know it will hasten death?
How to Answer
This is really a commonsense question disguised as a dilemma. It isn't really a dilemma though, and it is asked to see if you know the difference between 'above all, do no harm' and 'do what is needed'.
Written by Audra Kresinske on February 22nd, 2021
Answer Example
"In the case of someone who is at home dying, I have the responsibility to keep him or her comfortable, even if that means providing medication that could shorten life. Pain is harm, and 'do no harm' should therefore mean to not allow unnecessary pain or any pain at all, especially if such treatment will not change the ultimate result: death. For a terminal patient, death is inevitable, whether it is today or tomorrow. What matters most is if there's agony for another day until their inevitable death."
Written by Audra Kresinske on February 22nd, 2021