Tell us about a time you had a conflict or witnessed a physician in conflict with a patient. How was it resolved in a healthy manner?
Physicians need to be able to handle patients who are stressed, in pain, or angry respectfully and healthily. As you interviewer for Internal Medicine Residency programs, your interviewers need to know that you can handle patient conflicts with ease.
"During my Emergency Med rotation as a fourth-year med student, I was very fortunate to work with a physician who handled conflicts with ease. We were in a large urban hospital that saw all kinds of patient situations. One morning, we had an older gentleman present with what appeared to be a minor stab wound. While the nursing staff was bandaging him, the physician asked a lot of probing questions about how the cut had happened, and the patient became upset and was almost combative. I was very taken aback, but I got to witness how my preceptor remained calm, reflectively listened, and continued to ask further probing questions until the patient finally admitted that his son had stabbed him."
Describe a simple scenario briefly, focusing on your response to the challenge rather than describing the details of the conflict. When you discuss how you handled it fairly, emphasize that clear communication was instrumental. As a new resident, your example could include how you witnessed a precepting physician during your medical school rotations. Describe what you took from that situation that you will put into practice as an Internal Medicine Resident.
"Once I witnessed a conflict between an attending physician and a patient. The patient was very frustrated that they felt they were not being heard. The physician slowed down, stopped talking, and started listening to what the patient was actually complaining about. Once the patient felt that the physician was adequately listening to their concerns, they calmed down and communicated that they had been frustrated with their pain and that no one had been addressing it."
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 remember during my first year of graduation while working at an emergency room, I was called upon to resolve a patient who came in with a fever, but when I arrived at the emergency an urgent case of laceration on the arm from a fight and the patient was bleeding. I decided to urgently attend to the bleeding case and the other patient got angry that he came first and started shouting at the nurses present. I decided to try to tackle it quickly and professionally. I spoke to the patient in a calm and non-confrontational manner. I first made him understand that his case is of much importance to us, but that we are faced with a more urgent case of bleeding that if not attended to the patient might bleed to death and that immediately after I suture the other patient I will come to attend to him. The patient was taken aback by how softly and calmly I spoke with him and decided to comply with what I told him.
Marcie's Feedback
This is a good example that shows you're capable of calming down a patient who is disgruntled and agitated. The interviewer will be pleased that you remained calm and took the time to explain the situation to him in a logical and straightforward manner. You might also mention that you used empathy to understand his perspective, kept tabs on your body language (like keeping your face expressionless as you listened to his complaints), didn't take the anger personally, offered an apology, and focused on being both respectful and reassuring. Nice job!
Anonymous Answer
1. I had an incident with my fellow lead at the lab. There was a minor mistake that was made, and I thought it was best to let the process run to completion to save 95 samples. She disagreed with me and wanted to bring disciplinary action against the employee. I explained why I thought that was not the correct action to take. She got a bit hostile with me. I quietly listened, and brought up the issue calmly later- I mentioned that I didn't think the behavior was appropriate- it was my judgmental call. The person I was training was my business. She got upset and made some aggressive comments. I didn’t fight back. I simply went to my supervisor. No action was taken at the time. She went directly to the manager to complain about me making false accusations. Since I had taken clear steps to address the poor behavior, I was covered. My manager asked me to write an email summarizing what happened. My supervisor was already privy to what was going on. We were brought into mediation a few days later and the issue was resolved. We had a good working respectful relationship thereafter till the day she changed shifts.
Marcie's Feedback
Great job using the STAR method to answer this question. It's good that you stayed calm during the confrontation and brought it to the attention of your supervisor when you couldn't resolve it yourself. The interviewer will also be pleased that the issue was later resolved and that you maintained a good working relationship with this colleague until she changed shifts. Can you give some more details about the minor mistake that was made and how leaving it alone would save samples? This might interest the interviewer (so they fully understand your reasoning). Otherwise, good job!
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