Practice 30 Situational Residency interview questions covering clinical scenarios, patient prioritization, and decision-making under pressure.
Question 13 of 30
Why the Interviewer Asks This Question
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Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
Essentially, your interviewers are asking this question to determine if you understand the importance of completing shift handovers as a resident in their program. When patient information is involved, residents and physicians must ensure that they properly hand over information to their colleagues properly, even if this means they stay late to complete paperwork on each of their patients. Failing to properly hand over information to the next physician could have dire consequences to patients, making handovers a vital element of a resident's set of responsibilities.

Kelly Burlison is an experienced healthcare and quality measurement professional with experience interviewing in the healthcare field focusing on IT.
"It has been thoroughly ingrained in me that patient safety often fails first because of shift handoffs and I would come to your institution as a new resident that would be focused on efficient and effective shift handoffs. In this situation, even though I am exhausted, I would complete all required handover templates for all my patients, if I haven't already. I would also take the extra time to verbally communicate any known issues happening on the unit to the physicians coming on and the nursing staff as well. If there are huddles at shift change time, I would prioritize being present at both the start and ends of my shift each day."

Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
To effectively answer this question, you should indicate they would ensure handover information for all patients was completed before departing for the day. If you have direct experience in the proper handoff at shift change time, whether it be during your medical school rotations or other clinical experience, be sure to talk about that. Any way you answer, be sure that you reiterate to your interviewing team that you understand the importance of properly handing off work at shift change time as a resident physician with their program.

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Written by Ryan Brunner
30 Questions & Answers • Situational Residency

By Ryan

By Ryan