University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine

1) Why medicine? (duh, I didn't see this one coming! ) 2) Why now? (duh, as a 39 year old applicant, I didn't see this one coming either... ) 3) What do you do to keep up with current events? What stories of particular international interest have you been following? (duh...duh...the potential war in Iraq perhaps? ) 4) What do you do for fun? 5) What qualities will make you a good doctor? 6) What have you been doing with St. John Ambulance? 7) What is unique about YOU that would contribute to our program?

13) What person or people has/have inspired you most in your lifetime? (I couldn't resist saying my children...great conversation followed) 14) What on earth is "prestidigitation"? I disclosed in my sketch that I was a magician. 15) Who are you working for now and what are you doing? 16) We have...ummmm...one minute left...is there anything you'd like to ask us about or anything about yourself you'd like to tell us?

8) What have you been doing with Dr. Faloon? (another volunteer activity listed on my sketch) 9) As a physician...you will see lots of awful things...people with terrible diseases, addictions...etc. How will you feel about that...will it make you 'sick' ... would it 'disgust' you? 10) You've been a senior manager of multidisciplinary groups for a very long time...how will you find participating in PBL as a non-manager? Will you find it difficult to be a participant or will you always want to lead the group? 11) If one of your patients was a smoker...and you knew the outcome of their smoking would ineveitably be bad, how would you approach the issue with them? 12) You know that there are many people looking for family physicians (Note: by this time I had disclosed to them that I had a very strong vision of family medicine as a career)...what would youdo if you had the opportunity to get rid of your "bad patients" who don't take care of themselves... continue to smoke, etc. ?

What, on earth, is "prestidigitation"? (Note: I disclosed to them that I was a close-up magician in my autobiographical sketch)

What do you do to keep up with current events? What stories of particular international interest have you been following? - What made is a bit difficult, in retrospect, was that I picked the, at that time, potential war in Iraq to talk about...interesting discussion...but challenging.

Since this was not my first time applying, I took time to introspect...think about why medicine...why now (I am an older applicant...39)...I read the paper (which I do anyway)...read international papers via the web...did a mock interview with current med students (highly recommended).

The attitude of the admissions staff...and the organization of the day...all was on time and went very smoothly. My interviewers (Dr. Neil Hartman, Dr. Barbara Power & the student...Kellie Scott) were all amazingly engaging, interested, professional and pleasant.

Nothing...it was a very positive experience.

Nothing was a surprise.

General Tone: Incredibly positive, upbeat...lots of smiling, joking. The conversation was very fluid, natural and relaxed. Although some challenging questions were posed, there were no "good cops" or "bad cops"...they were ALL "good cops." Interviewers were all writing like mad throughout the entire interview (last year they hardly wrote a thing down). We covered my entire autobiographical sketch...and then some. The interview was 45 minutes long. At the beginning of the interview Dr. Power said, "You're a very unique candidate...(smiling)" which really broke the ice. At the end of the interview, the medical student, said "you have really done your homework, you know our school well...you have summarized all the positive aspects of our school and program" Dr. Hartman said "I wish you good luck in your career." Prior to the Interview: As we did last year, candidates hung out in the atrium of the Roger Guindon hall. It seemed they made a bit more effort to make things look nice this year...tables were set up with nice white table cloths...there was hot coffee, juice, and lots of donuts and muffins to snack on. The candidates were impressive...scared the poo out of me...when they say "we had an exceptionally talented pool of candidates this year...blah, blah", I can honestly say this is true. At EXACTLY 8:30am (scheduled time of my interview), Dr. Hartman interrupted a conversation I was having with other candidates and said "Mr. Hill...I'm Dr. Hartman...please come with me..." And then, of course, we wove our way to the PBL room where the interview was conducted. Tours: The tour was conducted by a first year medical student named "Jeff". Jeff was an English major...very pleasant, witty, fun. He brought us on a wonderful tour of the medical school, including: PBL rooms; lecture rooms; amphitheatre; computer room/lab; library; anatomy labs. Information Session: I chose not to go to the information session this year. Summary: An extremely pleasant experience. I was, once again, very impressed with the organization, the attitude of Nicole Racine and others organizing the day, the fact that the schedule was right on time and the other candidates. Cheers and good luck to everyone...I hope this information is helpful to you in some way. Although I have tried to provide all the details...I have likely forgotten something as I'm completely excited about how things went. I will edit this post as things come back to my frail old memory. Net out: I have no idea whether I'm going to get in this year... but I can honestly say that I did the best possible job I could. I guess it's now time for "THE DREAAAAAAAAAAAAADDED WAIT"!