In my role as a doctor interview coach, I get to hear about all sorts of weird
and wonderful questions that get put to doctors in job interviews.
But if there's one particular question that gets my blood boiling these days,
it's this one. "How will you deal with the stresses of the job?"
Hi there.
I'm Dr Anthony Llewellyn the Career Doctor and a real doctor,
and I've sat through literally hundreds of interviews in my medical career.
Now, this video is going to be a little different from my usual videos as there
will be a bit of a rant element.the but I am by nature a positive person,
so I will suggest a solution to the problem that I'm going to talk about.
So at the end of the interview, I will talk about how I think doctor job
candidates should answer questions like this.
And I will also suggest some alternative
and better questions for employers as well.
So stay tuned through to the end.
Now, I totally get that there are inherent stresses in working in health.
Hospitals in particular can be stressful
places for everyone, not just doctors, but other staff,
such as nursing colleagues, but also, of course, patients and their families,
especially right now in the middle of a pandemic.
And the nature of medicine is that you
can't fully predict things like the number of patients needing help on any given day
and sometimes the emotional impact of dealing with people's stress affects us.
And, of course, death and dying and things like that can have a big toll.
But honestly, how can employment panels
justify asking a question about how candidates will deal with stress in this
day and age. Especially since we have been having an ongoing debate for at least
the last six years about the culture of medical training in our country,
including discussing important topics such as bullying, harassment and sexual
harassment of trainees, as well as the impact of this culture
on trainee doctors, including on doctors suicide.
I've even conducted my own research into the subject.
How can employers ask a question like this and an interview?
It essentially reinforces the idea that it is up to you, the doctor,
to show how they will deal with the stress,
which by implication suggests that the employer, the hospital,
the health service has no obligation in such matters.
And why do we insist on defining medical jobs as unavoidably stressful?
Have we not learnt anything yet?
So here's how I think you should answer this question as a doctor.
If you're interviewing for the role, don't just answer the question by talking
about what you do to manage your own work life balance.
Sure share a bit of this as your first point.
But then I suggest you also address a couple of other points as well.
Point two would be about what you do in your own workplace in terms of, say,
noticing your colleagues and how they're going and stepping
in to support them when they might be experiencing stress.
This displays situational awareness
and teamwork, which are always good attributes for potential employees.
And point three would be to discuss how you might *respectfully* raise concerns
and potential solutions with managers should you ever feel that there were
problems in the workplace that were leading to stress.
And finally,
here are a couple of suggestions of better ways to ask questions about stress
and work life balance at a job interview if you're on the other side of the panel.
First off, you could try a past behaviour
questions such as: "Tell us about a time when you noticed one
of your colleagues might have been struggling and what you did about it?"
This question invites to candidate share stories about how they may have worked as
part of a team to reduce the impact of stress, although probably a lot
of the stories you will hear will still be about individuals getting together
to problem solve issues that probably needed a systemic solution as well.
Or you could be particularly brave and ask a question along the lines of: "As
an employer, we are serious about reducing the impact of stress in the workplace.
Do you have any suggestions about how we might go about doing that based on either
your experience at the hospital or things you've observed elsewhere or read about?"
Now, it's a busy time of the year for both
doctor job candidates as well as those conducting the interview process.
So I do wish you all well.
And if you need some help,
you can find some links in the description below this video.
I'd also love it if you would subscribe and turn on notifications.
And I will see you in the next video. Bye for now.