The medical school interview road is a road riddled with tough questions about your career, your resume, and other accomplishments you’ve earned throughout your time in college. It’s hard to underestimate the importance of knowing yourself and being self-aware during these interview situations, so learning about books that can help you broaden your worldview is a must.
However, I like to say that medicine does not occur in a vacuum. there are things you need to know that are happening outside the confines of the ward or even the medical school you choose to attend. therefore, impressing your interviewer and learning about your skills in the American medical system, as well as the stories of other doctors, could be a way to test the depth of your applications and gain some perspective on what it means to be a doctor.
You are reading: Books to read before medical school interview
(1) the elisabeth askin, nathan moore, and william peck handbook of health care
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Looking for a way to get a quick introduction to the healthcare system? Confused as to what a deductible and premium are, and what the CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) does? Well, look no further than The Health Care Handbook, which is an introduction to the vast reaches of the American health care system, and how the different parts work together to influence how care is delivered in the United States. I got this advice from a harvard medical student, and he said he talked about it at length in his interview and that may have been the reason he was accepted into the program, as he was very interested in this aspect of medicine. /p>
(2) mountains beyond mountains by tracy kidder
if you are interested in activism of any kind, this is your book. Details the story of Paul Farmer, a Harvard-educated physician who became a social activist when he started his successful nonprofit organization called Partners in Health. When he was young, he saw that Haitians were dying from curable diseases and was able to establish a clinic called Zanmi Lasante. He also took his reach global, obtaining funding from the Gates Foundation along with many more nonprofit partners. If you’re interested in getting into any kind of global health program, this would definitely be a book to mention during the interview – his insight into the world of global health, coupled with a key player in modern medical activism, will definitely blow your mind. the interviewer of him and will allow you to strike up a good conversation about his interests in medicine.
(3) house of god by samuel shem
A more humorous and satirical novel showing the failings of the healthcare system, God’s House is a good book to mention when you have a certain relationship with your interviewer and think it would be better to show that you are more than just your classes and serious aspects of medicine. satire in this book is best left in the book, however, the principles of overtreatment and comparison to the irrational nature with which we treat some patients in the us. uu. it’s amazing this is an entertaining read that would definitely pair well with the health care manual when talking about the system.
(4) when breath becomes air by paul kalanithi
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A tear-jerking and highly insightful read, Paul Kalanithi’s memoir When Breath Becomes Air reflects on death and dying and how a doctor must consider the mortality of his patients and his own. Based on an op-ed in the nytimes, the gist of the book poignantly explains one man’s experience with death. You can bring a lot of perspective to his interview because you can convey the factors that led him to seek a field that is based on empathy and the ability of the doctor to connect with patients. you would be able to connect dr. Kalanithi’s experiences with their own, whether watching patients go through treatment during follow-up or in another clinical setting.
(5) laws of medicine by siddhartha mukherjee
there are three laws in medicine, according to siddhartha mukherjee. although this is less well known than his other book by him, the emperor of all diseases, i think this one provides more practical advice, especially regarding future clinical decision making. the three laws are: a strong intuition is much more powerful than a weak test, “normals” teach us rules, “outliers” teach us laws, and for every perfect medical experiment, there is a perfect human bias. these three rules are a game of probability: clinical decision making is an imperfect science. however, these three principles have guided dr. mukherjee throughout his medical career and they serve as good markers to talk about your interest in medicine and can definitely speak to your interviewer who will be impressed with your knowledge of how principles of probability such as bayes theorem affect the clinical decision making.
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