Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS) PA Interview Questions

Work Experience

• Talk to me about your work experience in detail, and describe how it has informed your desire to be a PA.
• Tell me about a charity or volunteering role that you have taken on.
• Were you impressed by the healthcare professionals that you shadowed?
• Tell me about something that surprised you during your work experience.
• Tell me about the importance of volunteering.
• Why do you think that an experience of caring roles is crucial to working as a PA?
  

Empathy

• Define the term empathy.
• Tell me about a time when you showed empathy to a stranger or someone that you didn’t know well.
• What mentoring roles have you had?
• Why is empathy important?

Teamwork & Communication

• Do you work well in a team?
• Why is teamwork so important to working as a PA?
• What kind of team do physician associates work in?
• Tell us about your leadership ability.
• Tell me about a time that you succeeded as part of a team.
• Tell me how you would discuss a challenging topic with a patient.
• Who might you find it easiest to communicate with? Who would you find it more difficult to communicate with?

Resilience

• How will you adapt to the pressure of working as a PA?
• How do you relax?
• How will you adapt to the pressure of studying at this university?

Ethics

• Should the NHS offer treatment for self-inflicted problems?
• Which is more important, quality of life or length of life?
• Imagine you discover that your supervisor has been pursuing a relationship with one of your fellow students. What would you do, and what ethical problems are raised here?
• Imagine that a patient repeatedly uses sexist language to other healthcare workers on the ward, although you are aware that they have significant learning difficulties. Can their disability excuse the language used? How would you act in this situation?
• What would you do if a doctor was repeatedly rude and condescending to you?

The Course

• Why are you interested in studying at Brighton and Sussex?
• Do you think that our course fits your learning style?
• Do you like the location of our campus?
• How will you deal with the amount of independent studying on the course?
• What attracts you about the range of placements and hospitals?
• What differentiated our course from others that you were looking at?
• How will you handle the stress of having to balance attendment at placements and a significant amount of learning?

Your Personality

• What would you like your impact to be in this field?
• How would your friends describe you?
• What would your friends say are your greatest strengths? What about your greatest weaknesses?
• Tell me about yourself.