What are you looking for in a Critical Care fellowship program?
As an advanced fellowship program that sees fellows from a wide variety of medical specialties, the program you are interviewing with wants to be sure that the fellows they match will be committed to their program and have a vision for what they hope to gain. In asking this question, they're ideally looking to hear that they can provide what you want to take from your year of training to ensure it will be a mutual fit.
"As I began researching surgical critical care fellowship programs over the last year, there were a few things that I was looking for in a program. First, I wanted hands-on experience in a burn unit, and I am glad your program offers a two-month rotation there. Getting relevant experience in critical care research is also important to me. Can you talk more about the research experience your current fellows are involved in?"
Your interviewers are ultimately asking why you want to join their program, and they may do this in multiple ways during your interview. Explain how their surgical critical care program meets your needs and goals for training and what you will take into practice post-fellowship training. Before your interview, research the program and identify a few unique features of the program that are important to you when ranking the programs that you interview with.
