Notre Dame Fremantle Medicine InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

Why Notre Dame Fremantle specifically? What attracts you to the school's mission?

Engage with the Catholic ethos, the ethics-rich curriculum, and the WA placement network (St John of God Fremantle, Joondalup, Rockingham, rural WA).

What does "whole-person care" mean to you in practice?

Move past the cliché. Engage with biopsychosocial-spiritual frames and how they translate to clinical encounters.

Tell us about one experience that genuinely shaped your view of medicine.

Pick one moment. Reflect on what specifically shifted in your thinking — CASPer and MMI reward reflective depth over polish.

Voluntary assisted dying is legal in WA (since 2021). How does VAD interact with Catholic hospital settings?

Reference the WA VAD Act, institutional objection provisions, and practitioner referral obligations even for objectors. Engage with patient-access trade-offs.

A patient at St John of God Fremantle asks about contraception. Walk us through your response.

Institutional objection framework, duty of candour to patient, referral obligation for services not provided on-site.

Describe your service experience — what did you actually contribute, and what did it teach you?

Authentic specificity. CASPer and MMI both reward reflection over performance.

Closing the Gap targets continue to lag in WA. Notre Dame Fremantle has Aboriginal health placements. What role can you play?

Concrete: AMS partnerships, cultural safety, racism in clinical encounters. Don't centre yourself.

How would you explain a serious diagnosis to a patient whose first language is not English?

Plain language, interpreter use, cultural context, pauses, checking understanding.

A patient asks you to pray with them before surgery. You are not religious. What do you do?

Respect the patient's spiritual needs. Offer silent presence or arrange a chaplain. Don't feign belief; don't dismiss.

Why medicine rather than another caring profession?

Honest engagement with medicine's specific scope — diagnostic reasoning, procedural responsibility, longitudinal care.

A homeless patient declines admission for a treatable condition because they want to keep their dog. What do you do?

Capacity, social context, advocacy, creative problem-solving.

Tell us about a time you worked with someone whose values differed from your own.

STAR with reflection. Notre Dame values respectful engagement across difference.

What does social justice mean to you in the context of medicine?

Structural determinants, equity of access, advocacy. Not just charity.

A patient declines palliative sedation despite uncontrolled symptoms. Family disagrees. What do you do?

Capacity, autonomy, family communication, ethics consult, palliative care escalation.

How does Notre Dame's explicit Catholic identity sit with you, given your own beliefs?

Honest engagement. Thoughtful coexistence over allegiance.

A junior colleague at St John of God confides they're struggling with an ethical decision and asks you not to tell anyone. What do you do?

Listen, support, but make clear limits of confidentiality if safety is at stake.

How does Notre Dame Fremantle differ from Notre Dame Sydney?

Engage with the WA-specific placement footprint, the Fremantle community context, and the rural WA clinical sites.