Monash Medicine Interview

Why Monash specifically — what attracted you to the Clayton precinct and the Monash Health network?

Engage with the integrated teaching footprint (Clayton, Dandenong, Casey, Peninsula, Mildura, Bendigo). Authentic specifics over branding.

Why did you choose the undergraduate (or graduate) stream you applied to?

What they are listening for:

• Defensible reasoning tied to your maturity
• prior degree benefit (or readiness from school)
• how the stream fits your trajectory

A patient at Dandenong Hospital declines treatment because they don't trust the medical system. Walk us through your response.

Engage with the historical reasons for distrust (particularly relevant to migrant and Aboriginal communities), capacity, autonomy, and the relational work to rebuild trust.

Voluntary assisted dying has been legal in Victoria since 2019. As an intern, what would you do if a patient asked you for a VAD referral but you held a conscientious objection?

Reference the Vic VAD Act's referral obligations — you can object personally but must not obstruct access. Refer to a participating practitioner.

Role-play: a patient at Casey Hospital is upset they've been waiting 5 hours in ED. Demonstrate the conversation.

Acknowledge the wait. Apologise for the inconvenience, not for triage. Explain briefly. Concrete next steps.

What does the Mildura or Bendigo clinical school footprint mean to you?

Engage with rural workforce, RACGP rural training, and the year-long rural placement option for the Extended Rural Cohort.

Explain Medicare and the gap fee to a young patient who has never paid for healthcare before.

Plain language. Concrete dollar example. Avoid jargon.

Closing the Gap targets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cardiovascular mortality continue to lag in Victoria. What role can a Monash graduate play?

Concrete actions:

• VACCHO partnerships
• cultural safety
• racism in clinical encounters

Don't centre yourself.

Describe a time you connected with someone whose background was very different from your own.

Authentic. Monash's catchment includes migrant communities in south-east Melbourne; cross-cultural competence matters.

Should admissions tests like UCAT-ANZ continue to drive medical entry given their cost to applicants?

Engage with the assessment's purpose, the cost-equity critique, and alternatives. Balanced reasoning.

Tell us about a non-academic interest you'd want to continue developing during medical school.

Authentic. Monash values sustainable lives, not single-track strivers.

A patient asks you to prescribe a medication they've seen advertised. They don't need it clinically. What do you do?

Engage with patient autonomy, the limits of beneficence, evidence-based prescribing, and AHPRA advertising standards.

What does it mean to be a doctor in 2035? How is the role changing?

What they are listening for:

• AI diagnostics
• primary care reform
• climate-driven health
• telehealth equity

Curiosity, not buzzwords.

Role-play: explain to a worried parent why their child's viral fever does not need antibiotics.

Validate worry. Plain language. Antibiotic stewardship. Safety-netting.

A teammate at Monash has been making inappropriate comments about patients. Address it.

Specific behaviour. Private conversation first. Supervisor escalation if recurring.

Why Monash rather than Melbourne MD?

Engage with the dual-pathway option, the Clayton-Dandenong-Casey footprint, the Mildura/Bendigo rural pipeline, and Monash Health's breadth.

Describe a time you reflected on critical feedback and changed your approach.

Authentic, not a humble brag.