Oncology Mock Interview

Master 20 Oncology interview questions covering patient care, treatment protocols, and clinical decision-making.

Question 1 of 20

What made you want to choose Oncology as a vocation?

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"I've always been interested in biochemistry and the body's interaction with it, hopefully at the expense of the malignant tissue. As such, it is a scientific specialty, with new possibilities all the time. I hope cancer will be eradicated in my lifetime , and I want to be a part of that when it happens."

D. Leo

"Why oncology? It's tempting to just say, 'Someone's got to do it.' The truth is that the reverence for life is directly proportional to the dangers to it, and you can't get any more dangerous than cancer. In striving and struggling to keep life going--in partnership with a patient--with a hope of eliminating the disease altogether, I find it a very powerful reverence for life and very beautiful. This is the beauty I see in my field and makes its price for admission worth it."

D. Leo

This is such a predictable question as to be a cliche. Nevertheless, you can count on it being asked. What's different in a setting involving an Oncologist is that it's not just a question of why you wanted to be a doctor (that is the cliche), but why choose a specialty in which you're sure to see a lot of people die. You have to express something positive about a specialty that often fails to cure its patients, and that is difficult to do. As such, you best place of refuge is probably that you want to help people any way you can, even when the odds of success are very low. Don't be afraid to wax philosophical, because after all you're answering a question that centers on a patient's very existentialism.

D. Leo

"As a person who became a doctor for wanting to help others, I felt that helping the most vulnerable and endangered--even when tainted with a poor prognosis--would be the most fulfilling for me."

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20Oncology Interview Questions & Answers

1.What made you want to choose Oncology as a vocation?

2.More than any other type of specialty, there frequently is death occurring in your work; what is your strategy for avoiding psychological distress?

3.If you had a patient who was newly diagnosed with cancer but refuses chemotherapy for whatever reason, how would you counsel him or her?

4.Do you feel you can abandon evidence-based medicine and pursue the 'art' of medicine, especially in a patient with a high risk of mortality?

5.Many patients with life-threatening conditions find comfort in religion; how would you counsel a patient who feels therapy can be adjusted because of faith in God (Allah, etc.)?

6.Patients with life-threatening conditions often change their attitudes to life, hopefully for the better. However, if you discovered destructive lifestyle changes, how would you get involved?

7.If you thought family members were taking advantage of a terminal patient financially, would you intervene?

8.How might you react if you, as an Oncologist, were given a diagnosis of cancer?

9.How far would you go in giving opiates to a patient with end-stage cancer? Would you go as far as giving enough to shorten his or her life if that's what it took to give relief?

10.Are you opposed to using new protocols you find in the literature before they become accepted as "evidence-based" medicine?

11.It's hard to get people to quit smoking, and it's often said that 'cancer cures smoking'; what steps do you think we, as a society, can do to finally rid ourselves of this powerful carcinogen in our lives?

12.How would you answer a patient who indicated he wanted self-assisted suicide instead of a lengthy, pain-filled period of final days?

13.Do you have coverage for your patients for when you are vacationing or for when you get sick?

14.Your terminal patient has cognitive dysfunction from a closed head injury, and if his family pleads with you to keep him unaware of his terminal prognosis because of how he won't be able to deal with it, would you?

15.Your cancer patient has as favorable diagnosis, but asks you to sign an advanced care directive that disallows aggressive resuscitative measures; how do you counsel her not to give up that easily?

16.A lab report comes back to you after having been misplaced for over a month. What would you say to the patient and the patient's family regarding this clerical error that may have clinical implications?

17.If you find a senior nurse prying into a relative's chart for some personal information that is otherwise HIPAA-protected, what steps would you take, if any?

18.After a patient's adverse reaction due to a medication error, what would you do?

19.If an 18-year-old nulliparous woman were to ask your advice on hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries prophylactically due to a strong family history of ovarian cancer, would you arrange referral for such a surgery?

Oncology Mock Interview

What made you want to choose Oncology as a vocation?

20Oncology Interview Questions & Answers

1.What made you want to choose Oncology as a vocation?

2.More than any other type of specialty, there frequently is death occurring in your work; what is your strategy for avoiding psychological distress?

3.If you had a patient who was newly diagnosed with cancer but refuses chemotherapy for whatever reason, how would you counsel him or her?

4.Do you feel you can abandon evidence-based medicine and pursue the 'art' of medicine, especially in a patient with a high risk of mortality?

5.Many patients with life-threatening conditions find comfort in religion; how would you counsel a patient who feels therapy can be adjusted because of faith in God (Allah, etc.)?

6.Patients with life-threatening conditions often change their attitudes to life, hopefully for the better. However, if you discovered destructive lifestyle changes, how would you get involved?

7.If you thought family members were taking advantage of a terminal patient financially, would you intervene?

8.How might you react if you, as an Oncologist, were given a diagnosis of cancer?

9.How far would you go in giving opiates to a patient with end-stage cancer? Would you go as far as giving enough to shorten his or her life if that's what it took to give relief?

10.Are you opposed to using new protocols you find in the literature before they become accepted as "evidence-based" medicine?

11.It's hard to get people to quit smoking, and it's often said that 'cancer cures smoking'; what steps do you think we, as a society, can do to finally rid ourselves of this powerful carcinogen in our lives?

12.How would you answer a patient who indicated he wanted self-assisted suicide instead of a lengthy, pain-filled period of final days?

13.Do you have coverage for your patients for when you are vacationing or for when you get sick?

14.Your terminal patient has cognitive dysfunction from a closed head injury, and if his family pleads with you to keep him unaware of his terminal prognosis because of how he won't be able to deal with it, would you?

15.Your cancer patient has as favorable diagnosis, but asks you to sign an advanced care directive that disallows aggressive resuscitative measures; how do you counsel her not to give up that easily?

16.A lab report comes back to you after having been misplaced for over a month. What would you say to the patient and the patient's family regarding this clerical error that may have clinical implications?

17.If you find a senior nurse prying into a relative's chart for some personal information that is otherwise HIPAA-protected, what steps would you take, if any?

18.After a patient's adverse reaction due to a medication error, what would you do?

19.If an 18-year-old nulliparous woman were to ask your advice on hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries prophylactically due to a strong family history of ovarian cancer, would you arrange referral for such a surgery?

20.If a patient for whom you had nothing more to offer begged you to try something--anything--else, how would you respond?