16 Common RMO Interview Questions

with answers

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Introduction

I wrote this guide as I have been collecting

questions that are typically asked at a resident
medical of cer (RMO) interview. This top 16 is
based upon what job candidates are reporting are
the common types of interview questions being
asked by hospitals in Australia for resident
medical of cer jobs or what are sometimes
referred to as junior house of cer or hospital
medical of cer jobs in Australia

For resident medical of cer interviews you will commonly have

around 20 minutes with a small panel of 3 or 4 and be given
between 4 to 6 questions to answer brie y. These will generally
consist of:
an opening question about your experience or interest in the
role;
questions about past examples of handling con ict or dealing
with errors;
questions about strengths and weaknesses; and
at least one clinical scenario where the focus will invariably be
on recognising a sick or unwell patient and asking for help
early.
Typically these jobs are at a postgraduate year 2 level. Hospitals
often post these openings throughout the year in an attempt to ll
gaps in their trainee doctor rosters. So these jobs offer
opportunity for Australia doctors to move hospitals but also
provide opportunities to get their rst job experience in Australia.

Dr Anthony Llewellyn
Dr Anthony Llewellyn
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Question 1. Tell us about your experience and how it makes you a
suitable candidate?

I've written in another post about how this question is often just asked in the shortened
version. “Tell us about your experience.” In which case its a very lazy question. Its often
asked because sadly on some resident medical of cer interview panels the panelists are
slotted in the day before and do not have time to review your application and CV.
Regardless of how the question is asked you should answer it by telling the panel about
how your experience makes you a good candidate.
One way to do this is by picking out one, two or three of the selection criteria and relating
your experience to them.

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So, for example, a common selection criteria is around communication skills. So talk about
how your recent experience has been working in a hospital with lots of patients who are
from a Non-English speaking background and how you have had to collaborate (probably
another selection criteria) with other members of the team to meet this challenge.
I recommend that you take a portfolio of relevant les to the interview. One of which
should be a print out of the selection criteria.

Question 2. What are your long term career goals and why this
hospital?

This is the other common opening question.

If you have written a Career Goal Statement that is tailored to the job description then
you pretty much have the basis of the answer of this question.
This question is digging into whether you have done your appropriate research. Have you
identi ed a reason why the hospital will help you in your career? For example, does it have
good exam pass rates. Or is there a particular sub specialty that is not available
elsewhere?
Whatever the case you should be able to identify something of value in the position that
will help you. Make sure that you are emphasizing that its a positive factor about the
health service or hospital. Interview panels want to hear nice praise about their
institution. But also make sure that you quickly bring it back from your personal needs to
what you can give to the hospital.
This should be something or somethings reasonably unique to you and not what other
candidates might also choose to talk about. Se below for strengths and weaknesses.

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Question 3. A member of the nursing staff complains that an intern
is not attending calls and not doing duties properly, what will you
do?

A big tip for this question is to avoid the inclination to stereotype nursing staff and refer
to the nurse in this scenario as female.
Hypothetical scenarios are common in doctor interviews. This one bundles both the
potential for work con ict (between yourself and the nurse, yourself and your colleague
and the nurse and your colleague) along with topical matter of trainee doctor well being
and what's called the trainee in dif culty.
So the key here is to cover all the key principles in the scenario. To show you have broad
awareness of what might be going on.
Another very good tip for this question as well as most other questions is to list your key
points rst. That way the panel knows what you are thinking, even if you run out of time to
address all the issues.
The key points here would be:
1. How you engage in the initial discussion with the member of nursing staff in a respectful and
listening manner.
2. What your strategy for approaching your colleague is. And again, how you are going to conduct
that initial conversation, which is often referred to as a “quiet chat”.
3. The potential outcomes of your “investigation” into the problem. In particular, how you would
handle it if your colleague was resistant and how you would handle it if they con ded in you a
problem.
4. Your responsibility to discuss things with more senior colleagues.

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Question 4. Describe an error you made in your practice and what
you did to x it?

This is an example of what is called a Past Behavioural Question. Panels like to ask for
examples of past work that t the current job challenges as demonstrating what you do is
far more powerful and predictive than saying what you would do.
You should de nitely have an example of an error ready to give. As well as one about work
con ict (see below).
The key here is to be able to give an example of an error that was signi cant but for which
there was not a really terrible outcome. The best examples are of system errors or simple
communication errors. If possible it should be something where you caught the error
yourself and then there was an attempt to look at the system to improve it for next time.
So for example an error where the wrong data was entered on a discharge summary
because the electronic record system was unclear would be a good one. So long as the
patient was okay in the end.
Answer all example type questions using the STAR method.
STAR stands for
Situation

Task
Action
Result

Please. Please. Please don't forget to give the panel the result of the example. So many
times job candidates tell the story but then fail to sell it by going over the results of their
actions. If you don't talk about the results of your actions the panel will assume you are
not results oriented and probably also take feedback poorly. Not good.

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Question 5. What strengths do you bring to this role?

This is sometimes answered alongside a request for weaknesses (see also below). If also
asked for weaknesses. Start with weaknesses rst and give just one. Then end with two or
three strengths.
For strengths. Try to come up with something reasonably unique and remember it needs
to be relevant to the role.
So things that are not unique to say are:
“I'm an excellent communicator”
“I'm a team player”
Because pretty much everyone does say that about themselves at these interviews.
It doesn't have to be overly speci c. Just something which you can back up. So for example
if you have done a lot of teaching in your career and have good feedback on this. This
would a a good strength to highlight in terms of any teaching responsibilities of the role.
There are always at least some medical students oating around that need looking after.

Question 6. A nurse is insisting to give medication to a patient

whom you don't know and you don’t know the medication. What do
you do?

Some questions seem simple on the surface. But providing a simple answer is not going to
get you very far. Its obvious with this hypothetical question that you should of course not
go ahead an prescribe the medication.
But you need to show your awareness of the needs of others in this situation, in particular
the member of nursing staff and the patient.

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 How are you going to discuss your dilemma with the nurse and possible the patient?
Is the situation urgent? Will you need to call your senior for advice?
Do you have time to go away and look up the medication and review the patient's le?
What will you be telling the nurse? Their job is probably being held up by your current lack of
knowledge. So you should be indicating to them when you will be able to get back to them.

For hypothetical scenarios the CanMEDS Framework from the RCPSC is a great model. It
gives you lots of ideas about what sorts of issues to cover. Its also the framework upon
which every Australian medical specialty college has built their frameworks upon.

Question 7. Describe a situation where you displayed leadership

skills.

Again. We are looking for an example here. So using the STAR method is recommended. Its
sometimes dif cult as a trainee doctor to nd opportunities to demonstrate successful
leadership. So don't forget “followership”. This is where you act as the rst person to
follow a leader and help them to enact a change.
Good examples are things like noticing a safety or quality problem on the ward and
instigating a change. For example, perhaps a ward trolley was inadequately stocked and
you worked to improve the situation. Be prepared however to demonstrate evidence of
lasting change. Did you go back and check that ward trolley after you left that rotation?

Question 8. What is the importance of documentation as a doctor?

This question tests your awareness of some of the key requirements of the role of trainee
doctors. Particularly the most junior trainee doctors, where documenting (or dealing with
computer information systems) can be 80% of the job on a daily basis!
Obviously documenting IS important. But Why? Again, the CanMEDS framework may be
a helpful construct for you in this question.

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You might also legitimately answer this question by saying: “Documentation as a doctor is
tremendously important and I am going to give you 3 examples of why?” Then give three
good examples.
There's so many angles to this question that giving 3 good examples is going to be just as
good as covering every point that you could imagine.

Question 9. Describe a situation where there was con ict between

yourself and another member of a team?

This question is a big but avoidable trap. You can avoid it by being prepared for it and
having an example. Again. The STAR method is your friend and the key here is to be able to
demonstrate that you managed the con ict to a point where you were at least able to have
a good ongoing working relationship with your colleague.
Its important to not only describe the situation and the con ict. But also take the panel
through the steps you took in terms of your communication and collaboration to work
with your colleague on the con ict and how you showed respect to them.

Question 10. You are covering the obstetrics and gynaecology

wards one evening and a 35 year old female patient who had a
caesarian section 2 days ago is now presenting with severe
shortness of breath and chest pain. What is your approach?

You can insert here any typical clinical scenario which might happen on the ward where
the resident medical of cer is called to review. Chest pain and other types of escalating
pain are favourite scenarios. Usually the scenario is in two parts. The initial question
which is in the form of the information you might be given when a member of nursing staff
calls you.
The next bit is the examination ndings. Generally the examination ndings are either of a
patient who is deteriorating or already in need of an emergency response.

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So the key aspects of responding to these questions are not to give a textbook answer to
the clinical problem. But to frame it in terms of your role as a very junior member of staff.
You need to spell it out to the panel. You need to let them know that:
1. You would prioritise the call – Go Straight Away.
2. You would ask for vital signs over the phone.
3. You would ask the nurse to call an emergency response. If the vitals warranted it.
4. You would ask the nurse to stay with you to help.
5. You would have in the back of your mind a question about “What could be the worst case scenario
here?” for example a pulmonary embolus.
6. You would take a quick history and examine the patient.
7. You would have a low threshold for calling a senior colleague and/or an emergency response.

Question 11. Describe a situation where you displayed effective

communication skills?

This is similar to the con ict question above. And in fact. It is perfectly okay to use the
same example to answer more than one question.
Other typical situations to think about for this question, include complex patients and / or
patients and families with communication challenges and / or patients and families who
are upset with their care.

Question 12. What qualities should a resident medical of cer

posses? Which ones do you have and which ones do you lack?

This is basically a variation of the strengths and weaknesses question.

But there is also a big hint stating you in the face. The position description, in particular
the role statement and the selection criteria. So you can use these to your advantage.
You might start by saying something like:
“Well I understand from reading the position description that the key roles and
capabilities are as such…”

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This shows you have done your research and you are willing to align your opinions with
the panels views of what a good resident medical of cer is.
You can then go on to highlight the sort of qualities that an individual might need to meet
these criteria and match them to your own.
So for example. Ability to work under pressure is often a selection criteria. So you could
talk about this requires a quality of being calm in a crisis and being able to juggle a number
of tasks.
How To Talk About Your Weaknesses.

Basically you should not choose to talk about something that is a big weakness that you
have chosen to do nothing about.
You should also not chose the weakness that everyone picks. e.g. “I'm a perfectionist” or “I
can work too hard.”
Ideally you should pick something that you have identi ed that you are not so strong and
have been working on.
For example, maybe you struggle with reading. And you know that this is important for the
exams. So you have joined a study group where other members are better readers and you
are challenging yourself and keeping yourself accountable that way.

Question 13. Describe a situation where you displayed teamwork.

Again. We are starting to repeat ourselves with this question and questions about
communication, con ict and leadership.
Great examples here are situations where you noticed your colleague was struggling.
Perhaps they had a bigger caseload than you. And you stepped in. Others might include
helping to onboard a new doctor to the team.

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Question 14. You are called by nursing staff and are told that some
antibiotics were given to a patient that were actually supposed to
be given for another patient, what do you do?

Once again the CanMEDS Framework will be helpful here.

Lets look at it in more detail.

Health Advocate.
So. Obviously your rst concern is for the safety of the patient who was given the wrong
antibiotics. Are the allergic? Do they need monitoring. Also, has anyone else been given
wrong medications and needs to be checked?
After this there is the issue of disclosing to patients and their families what has happened.
You are representing the hospital so you need to be able to talk about how you would
carry this function out. You need to do the initial disclosure but then be aware that more
senior staff should be informed and take it from there.

Communication.
There is how you communicate with the patients and families about what has happened.
There's also communication with your nursing colleague and there is communicating with
seniors.

Collaborator.
You are needing to work collaboratively with the nursing team to identify all the current
risks and deal with them. You also need to be mindful of keeping good relationships with
nursing staff. The nurse may be in trouble for what has happened OR possibly they were
doing the right thing and a doctor has made an error.

Professional.

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There will be hospital policies and protocols that need to be followed. You may not be
aware of all of these but its your responsibility to nd out about them. The incident will
need to be reported and you should be making careful notes of your involvement in case
there is an investigation.
Potentially in this scenario there has been a breach of professional standards. But that's
not immediately evident.
Leader and Scholar.
Is this the only time this problem has occurred? Was it predictable in hindsight? Does
there need to be some thought to changes that would prevent it happening next time or an
audit of processes.
You may have noticed I didn't even mention medical expert in all of this.

Question 15. Describe a situation where your consultant noticed

that you have made a mistake and how did you react?

This one may be hard for international medical graduates to answer if they have not had
any medical work experience for a while. If so, panels will usually accept a suitable
example from another job.
This question is a variation of the error question. So again. The idea here is to not produce
an example of something where it all went terribly wrong. If you think about it there are
probably lots of times where your senior colleagues have pointed things out to you that
have helped you improve. We learn a lot from mistakes. And this should be part of your
answer.
An ideal answer would include how you encouraged your consultant to give you speci c
feedback about your mistake so you could improve for next time. Bearing in mind that
most doctors are terrible at giving feedback to other doctors. And then how you measured
your success.

Question 16. You are the Resident in Emergency and a patient

suddenly collapses. What do you do?

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Basically another clinical scenario where you are the rst responder. You should not
forget that even though you are in the Emergency Department you need to call an
emergency so that others respond.
Once you start getting into going through the DRABCs. There will probably be some
supplementary information provided about the patient. Along the lines of them being in
shock. Again. Call for help whilst dealing with this situation.
Bear in mind that its a rule that doctors in prevocational roles should not be the only
doctor in the Emergency Department so there should be someone more senior to call
upon.

Related Question.

Question: Should I Ask A Question At The End?

Answer. In most cases you have probably already had a chance to ask questions before the
interview. So its perfectly ned to say no. But remember that the nal question at the end
is a chance for you to go back and review some of your answers or clarify anything you feel
you may have gotten wrong in the interivew.
If you are after a good sort of question to ask. Think about asking for some feedback on
how your interview went. Whilst the panel obviously can't tell you whether you were
successful or not. They may have a useful insight for you. And this may be your only
opportunity to get meaningful feedback.
You might also consider asking the panel what they feel that their biggest challenge is at
the moment. Only do this however if you think you might be able to offer some assistance
in meeting this challenge.

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More Tips
Some other resources to help you with the interview challenge.

AdvanceMed Question Bank

Over 600 questions to further practice your interview technique
👉 View Question Bank Now

Record Yourself
Many interviews these days are done by video. You can gain great bene t by
recording some of your practice and watching it back. You can use your smart phone
or better yet download the free version of Zoom.

Speak With An Incumbent

It is often very helpful to speak to someone already working in the job you are going
for. They can give you some good information about what the job is like, what the
key challenges are and they may be able to recall some of the interview process.

Take A Course
Finally you might wish to take a course on job interview skills speci cally for doctors.
👉 Check out the Interview Skills Course

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Interview Skills Course

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