Even if you are naturally charming and charismatic, resist the temptation to wing your medical school interview. You will be miles ahead if you have already given any serious thought to common interview questions beforehand.
Our list of classic medical interview questions covers everything an interviewer might ask, from why you want to become a doctor to what you think about universal health care. Before you walk through the door, you should think about how you will answer the tougher questions.
Interviewing for a job at Penn Medicine Princeton Health can be an exciting yet nerve-wracking experience. As one of the top healthcare systems in New Jersey, Penn Medicine Princeton Health hires only the best and brightest candidates. Therefore, it’s important to prepare thoroughly for your interview to stand out among fierce competition.
In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the most frequently asked interview questions at Penn Medicine Princeton Health. We’ll provide example responses and tips to help you craft winning answers that highlight your skills and experience. With the right preparation you’ll be ready to impress your interviewers and land the job!
commonly asked questions
Here are some of the most common Penn Medicine Princeton Health interview questions you can expect
Tell me about yourself
This open-ended question is often used to kick off the interview Don’t ramble through your entire resume Instead, highlight 2-3 relevant experiences or skills that make you an excellent fit for the role. Try to relate it back to the position you’re interviewing for.
For example: “I’m a registered nurse with 5 years of experience in cardiac care nursing. In my current role at XYZ Hospital, I’m part of a team that achieved a 20% decrease in 30-day readmission rates amongst heart failure patients last year. I’m passionate about providing empathetic, high-quality care and I’m excited by the opportunity to join Princeton Medical Center’s cardiology department.”
Why do you want to work at Penn Medicine Princeton Health?
Hiring managers want to gauge your interest in their healthcare system. Demonstrate you’ve done your research by mentioning specific things that appeal to you about Princeton Health, such as:
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Mission and values – Princeton Health prioritizes compassionate, patient-centered care.
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Quality care – Princeton Health is known for excellent clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction scores.
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Growth opportunities – reference their residency programs, fellowships, or continuing education options.
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Work culture – cite their collegial, team-oriented environment.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
This question is commonly asked in interviews across all industries, not just healthcare. Be honest but focus on strengths relevant to the role. When discussing weaknesses, choose something minor and highlight how you’re working to improve it.
For example: “I’m extremely organized and detail-oriented. In my last job, I implemented a new chart auditing process that reduced documentation errors by 15%. However, public speaking is something I struggle with. I’ve been taking a speech course over the past few months to improve my presentation skills.”
How do you handle conflict or disagreement among team members?
Healthcare teams deal with stressful situations daily. This questions tests your teamwork skills. Discuss how you facilitate open communication, remain calm, identify solutions, and focus on the patient’s best interests. Provide a specific example if possible.
How do you stay up-to-date in the medical field?
Lifelong learning is a must in healthcare. Mention activities like reading medical journals, taking continuing education courses, attending conferences, and networking with peers. Share an example of how you’ve applied something recently learned on the job.
What questions do you have for me?
Always prepare at least 2-3 thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer. This demonstrates your interest in the role and the organization. Avoid questions easily found on the company website. Ask about things like leadership style, training processes, or growth opportunities.
Now let’s go over some role-specific questions you may encounter:
questions for nurses
Registered nurses make up a large portion of the clinical staff at Penn Medicine Princeton Health. In your nursing interview, you may face questions like:
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How would you respond if a physician ordered a treatment you felt was unsafe for a patient? Discuss advocating for the patient while respectfully voicing your concerns and trying to understand the physician’s rationale. Emphasize patient safety first.
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What qualities make a good nurse? Highlight competencies like clinical skills, critical thinking, empathy, teamwork, integrity, and communication abilities.
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How do you stay current on the latest evidence-based practice for nursing? Cite reading nursing publications, pursuing certifications, attending grand rounds or in-services, and networking with peers. Give examples.
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Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult patient or family member. What was the situation and how did you handle it? Share how you remained calm, listened to their concerns, validated their feelings, resolved the issue diplomatically, and preserved the therapeutic relationship.
physician interview questions
Physicians are in high demand at Penn Medicine Princeton Health. Expect more clinically focused questions to assess your medical knowledge and judgment. Common physician interview questions include:
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How would you diagnose and treat a patient presenting with chest pain? Use a case-based approach to discuss your differential diagnoses, which tests you would order, treatment options, and patient education.
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Tell me about a time you made a medical error. What happened and how did you respond? Be honest. Explain the situation succinctly, how you took accountability, notified the patient, implemented systems to prevent recurrence, and applied lessons learned.
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What quality improvement initiatives have you participated in or led? Share projects to reduce medical errors, streamline care coordination, improve documentation accuracy, lower readmissions, etc. and your role.
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How do you stay up-to-date on the latest clinical guidelines and emerging research? Again, cite reading medical journals, attending conferences, taking CME courses, participating in grand rounds, and networking with peers.
questions for allied health professionals
Penn Medicine Princeton Health also recruits many allied health professionals like physical therapists, occupational therapists, medical lab scientists, pharmacists, and more. Some common allied health interview questions include:
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Tell me about a time you had to adapt a treatment approach for a complex patient case. What was the situation and how did you modify standard techniques? Use a case-based response to highlight your clinical reasoning skills.
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How do you ensure your patients understand their home exercise programs or treatment plans? Discuss patient education techniques like using demonstration, analogies, models, handouts, and teach-back.
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What qualities are important for a physical therapist, occupational therapist, etc.? Emphasize skills like technical abilities, empathy, communication, motivation, patience, critical thinking, and teamwork.
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How do you prioritize tasks when you have several patients with urgent needs? Explain how you triage patients based on acuity, communicate delays, delegate if needed, and provide timely follow up.
administrative interview questions
For non-clinical roles like administrative assistants, billing specialists, coders, etc., interview questions will focus more on required hard and soft skills:
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Tell me about a time you had to handle multiple priorities. How did you organize and manage your time? Share a specific example of using efficiency tactics like creating task lists, minimizing interruptions, not procrastinating, etc.
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Describe a time you had a disagreement with a coworker. What was the situation and how did you handle it? Again, focus on conflict resolution skills like listening, seeing their perspective, compromising, and working towards a resolution.
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What computer skills and software programs are you proficient with? Highlight experience with EHR platforms, Microsoft Office, billing/coding programs, and other healthcare IT systems used at Penn Medicine Princeton Health.
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How do you stay organized while handling a high volume of work? Discuss your organizational habits like detailed record-keeping, creating reminder systems, note-taking, and requesting clarification on unclear tasks.
tips to ace your Penn Medicine Princeton Health interview
Here are some final tips to prepare for your big day:
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Practice aloud – Don’t just think about your answers. Practice out loud until responses flow naturally.
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Study the website – Explore the Penn Medicine Princeton Health website thoroughly so you understand the organization.
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Have examples ready – Prepare 5-10 stories highlighting required competencies through your past experiences.
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Ask insightful questions – Research your interviewers on LinkedIn and prepare thoughtful questions for them.
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Mind your body language – Maintain eye contact and avoid nervous mannerisms like fidgeting.
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Dress professionally – Follow a formal business dress code in corporate colors/neutral tones.
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Arrive early – Plan to arrive 10-15 minutes early to complete any necessary paperwork.
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Collect business cards – Bring several copies of your resume and collect business cards to follow up.
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Get good rest – Arrive well-rested, hydrated, and focused. Aim for at least 7 hours of sleep.
With the right preparation, you will feel confident and ready to ace your Penn Medicine Princeton Health interview. Do your research, practice responding to likely questions, and remember to highlight your most relevant skills and experience. Wishing you the best of luck in your pursuit of an exciting and rewarding career at one of the nation’s top healthcare organizations!
Questions about Your Character and Personality
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
- What kinds of trips have you taken, and how have you learned about other cultures?
- How would you rate your empathy and compassion based on examples from the last few years?
- How do you use the skills you’ve learned as a pre-med to better manage your time and deal with stress?
- What three things would you wish for to make the world, society, or your community a better place, and why? Or, if you had a million dollars to spend on three things, what would you do and why?
- What do you do for fun?
- For you, what does “success” mean? What kind of “success” do you hope to have reached after 20 years as a doctor? Please explain.
- In a doctor, what qualities do you look for? Can you give me an example of a doctor who has any of these qualities? How do they do it?
- Working with sick people has given you what kinds of experiences? Have they taught you anything you didn’t know before?
- Do you have any family members or people you look up to who are doctors?
- Tell me about the family members, friends, or other people who helped you decide to become a doctor.
- Who would you invite to dinner from the past, why would you invite them, and what would you talk about?
- Does your school record show any major problems? If so, what are they and why did they happen?
Read More: What to Expect in Medical School
- What excites you about medicine in general?
- What do you know about how the U.S. healthcare system is changing right now?
- What do you think are the most important health problems in the world right now, and why?
- From a professional point of view, what do you think are the bad or limiting things about medicine?
- Clinical medicine or academic medicine? Why do you think you would choose one over the other? What do you think you might lose if you had to?
- When it comes to society, what do you think a doctor should do?
- Which social problem do you think is the most important one in the United States right now, and why?
- What do you think the effects of national health insurance are on doctors, patients, and society as a whole?
- How and how much do you keep up with what’s going on in the world?
- What movies, books, or other forms of media do you remember as being very important to your education in those subjects?
- Care for the sick and injured is often seen as a right in our society. But what about when it’s not clear?
- Are there any controversy in the field of medical ethics going on right now? List some of them and talk about them.
- Have you been in any moral dilemmas lately? If so, what kind of dilemmas?
- How do you feel about euthanasia or medically assisted suicide?
- What kinds of feelings and problems might you have with a patient who is dying compared to other patients?
- What would you think about taking care of a patient who tested positive for HIV?
- What are some moral issues that our society thinks about when it comes to teen pregnancy?
- Imagine that there aren’t many resources available and you have to make choices in the middle of a major emergency with a lot of different patients of different ages, backgrounds, and levels of injury. Also, let’s say there is no “right answer” to this question. There are only deliberate and unplanned answers. Who do you think should get the treatment first, and why?
- If you are a minority candidate, how do you think your background makes you better prepared to be a doctor and will affect your job as a doctor?
- If you are a woman, how has your gender affected your choice to become a doctor?
- If you are not a minority, what could you do to best meet the needs of a multicultural and multiethnic group of patients?
- If you don’t have much money or are politically poor, how has this difficult situation changed you?
- How much do you feel you owe to other people? How much do you feel you owe to people who are less fortunate than you? Tell me more.
Questions about Your Motivation
- Discuss your decision to pursue medicine. When did you decide to become an MD, and why? .
- You could help people in many other fields, like nursing, physical therapy, pharmacology, psychology, education, or social work. Why did you choose medicine?
- How have you proven that you want to become an MD? Please explain.
- What are your plans if you don’t get into medical school this year? Do you have another job in mind?
- Do you think the interviewer should know anything else about you or your desire to become a doctor that we haven’t talked about?
Read More: 5 Essential Tips for Your Med School Interview
As a Woman | Penn Medicine Princeton Health
FAQ
What questions are asked at the Penn Medicine interview?
How do I prepare for a health interview?
How to answer tell me about yourself in an interview?
How to answer interview questions in healthcare?
What questions do they ask during an interview at Penn Medicine?
The interviews focus on a mixture of soft and hard skills. They will ask about your previous experience on your resume to see how it translates to the role. Got a burning question about Penn Medicine?
How long does it take to get an interview at Penn Medicine?
The first interview was over the phone and the second was in person. Why do you want to work for Penn Medicine. I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Penn Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) in Sep 2022 I applied and got a call in 2 weeks. Went to interview met manager and assistant.
How long did it take to get a callback from Penn Medicine?
The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Penn Medicine (Philadelphia, PA) in Oct 2022 Took a month to get a callback from HR. Had the interview with the manager 2 weeks after the phone interview with the recruiter. The manager was very welcoming and made it seem like I got the job but just received an email today saying I didn’t.
