Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship Mock Interview

Practice 30 fellowship interview questions covering clinical scenarios, research experience, and critical care philosophy.

Question 15 of 30

How do you cope with stress?

Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
How to Answer
Example Answer
Community Answers

Tiffany McPherson

Stress is a part of any fellow's day-to-day professional life. You will encounter patients with unexpected diagnoses, difficult personalities, and overbearing families. The interview panel wants to know what strategies you have in place for dealing with these situations.

Tiffany McPherson

Avoid suggesting that you don't get stressed. Everyone does. Instead, acknowledge that stress is expected and provide an answer that reassures the interview panel that you manage stress in ways that won't have a negative impact on your practice.

Tiffany McPherson

"For every smooth day I had during residency, I had two that were stressful. I understand there are many situations that can cause stress in a medical setting from having to deliver a terminal diagnosis to dealing with EMR systems being down. By the end of PGY2, I learned to take things in stride. It's okay to experience stress and feel urgency--but it's important to have the ability to step back and evaluate priorities and the actual impact of a situation on the things that matter. When I do this, it's usually easy for me to think objectively, remain calm, and take a logical approach, which alleviates stress."

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Jaymie

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Anonymous Answer

Stress is almost a daily occurrence just from being in residency. From managing many complex patients to delivering bad news to meeting up with deadlines. When things start to get overwhelming, I take a minute to do some mindfulness and breathing exercises. I have an app on my apple watch for that. When I do that, it makes it easy for me to think objectively, remain calm, and take a logical approach, which alleviates stress. Also, after a busy week, I like to unwind with friends or do something fun but relaxing like drawing.

Marcie's Feedback

Excellent! The interviewer will be happy to hear that you have a process in place for dealing with the inevitable stress of this profession. It's also great that you mention ways that you like to unwind outside of work. If possible, include an example of a time when you successfully handled a lot of stress. Good job!

Anonymous Answer

Critical care is a definitely stressful environment. I try my best to not let it get the best of me. Whenever I feel stressed I take a deep breath and try to see the big picture, organize my thoughts, and prioritize the patient well being.

Jaymie's Feedback

This is a great start! If there are any other examples of how you decompress at work or at home, feel free to share another example or two.

Anonymous Answer

Intensive Care is a stressful career and I make stress management a priority to ensure career longevity.

There are two types of stress in my experience. Stress at work and stress outside of work may not be work-related but has the potential to impair the clinician.

Stress at work, I generally consider a welcoming experience for growth.
IT usually relates to high workload, and challenging family and colleagues. I use this opportunity to practice prioritization, delegation, and communication. I have friends and mentors who I can debrief after work, and I sometimes write reflective journals to delineate what I could have done better. If it's cumulative, for example, a terrible week, and I feel impaired or burnt out or apathetic, I take time off work to ensure patient safety - note I've had to do this once in my training - after working long shifts in a row during the pandemic. I try to fit in as much exercise as I can during my time off.

Stress outside of work I find much more difficult to deal with. Being a trainee is stressful.

Communication

29.Talk about a time you successfully educated a patient on a complex topic during residency. How did you ensure the information was understood?

Communication

30.As a fellow in our program, how would you change your communication style if a patient's family had trouble understanding what you were trying to tell them?