Do you consider yourself an organized person?
During your three years of Internal Medicine Residency training, you will be balancing weekend staffing assignments, residency projects, topic discussions, meetings, a busy patient schedule, and a busy personal life. Your interviewers need to be assured that you have the skills and tools to keep yourself organized and on track at all times.
"I love organizing things. This came in handy during my first two years of medical school when I was presented with large amounts of information each block and during my rotations in my last two years when I had to keep track of multiple patients. I used several tools, including charts, different colored pens, and notecards to stay organized and ensure I didn't miss deadlines or even small details. I realize that I'll need to take these tools to a whole new level and am ready for that challenge."
Use this opportunity to talk about the ways you prioritize organization. Remember, managing 8 or 10 patients on a hospital floor or a busy day in the clinic requires you to be extremely organized and not make sloppy mistakes.
"I would consider myself very organized. I often make checklists and to do lists for myself so that I make sure I accomplish what I need to get done."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
I believe that appropriate organization should be part of any physician giving we face lots of different work activities. Being organized has always been the way I manage my duties. On a daily basis working in the hospital, I start up by drawing a list of tasks I have to do for the day, then I color code according to priority; a red task for urgent situations, amber then follows, the green task for when I have more time available. Also, I organize my work to allow for flexibility so that I create time to answer urgent requests from my hierarchies.
Marcie's Feedback
It's great that you recognize the importance of being organized. The interviewer will also appreciate that you've mentioned a few of the ways you keep yourself organized (i.e., creating to-do lists, color-coding tasks by urgency; building in flexibility). Some other methods you might mention include using a calendar, planner, and/or reminders, setting goals, tracking your progress, incorporating a timer, delegating, and keeping your environment tidy. Good job!
Anonymous Answer
I love organizing things, It helped me during my med school and my clinical years. I always add my tasks on a to-do app on my phone or schedule stuff on my calendar app. In addition, I try to add those tasks to my to-do notebook whenever I get the time so it consolidates. check marking those tasks always give me satisfaction.
Marcie's Feedback
Excellent! The interviewer will be pleased to hear that you consider yourself an organized person, and it's great that you've explained how you stay organized. Beyond using to-do and calendar apps and notebooks, what else do you do to stay organized? Do you set goals, track your progress on projects, keep your environment uncluttered, and/or establish daily routines? Be thorough and detailed in your response. Great job!
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