Oncology Mock Interview

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

Question 18 of 20

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

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"Patients put their trust in us as healthcare professionals, so errors, although inexcusable, are at the mercy of whatever standard of professionalism is being maintained. Such maintenance means constantly thinking about what could go wrong and double-checking every decision and order I make. When that fails, I cannot also fail in my loyalty to my patient via any type of dishonesty. Assuming I corrected any harm, I then would level with the patient and express remorse as part of my professional duties."

D. Leo

"Although it's never happened to me, I know what to do because we've all been trained on what to do, and I would follow hospital policy. I would treat any reaction that had been caused by the error, document the error and what steps I took to address it, and inform the patient fully on what happened, how it happened, and what implications might be there for him or her. After that, I would hope that the patient-doctor relationship could survive such an honest mistake."

D. Leo

This is very similar to the question above about the misplaced lab report. However, it goes a step further by describing an incident in which a person is actually harmed. Nevertheless, your policy should be the same: own it. The repercussions from honesty are easier to withstand than surviving the fallout from dishonesty. Most hospitals or state boards require doctors to take online courses about medication errors and how to take steps in their charting protocols to lessen the possibility of their happening. Your answer, thus, should be reversal of harm, admission of fact, and prevention strategies. Also, don't be afraid to say it's never happened to you, which is always good for the interviewer to hear.

D. Leo

"My first responsibility is to 'un-do' the harm by treating the adverse reaction, be it an allergic reaction, the wrong medication, or even an overdose. After that, I should explain to the patient what happened and what steps I felt were necessary to mitigate the harm."

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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

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

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?