Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV (MD) Medicine InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

Las Vegas has one of the highest physician-to-population shortages of any major US city. How does that fact inform why you want to train here?

Demonstrate awareness of Nevada's healthcare shortage, and connect it to your personal mission. Avoid abstract altruism — be specific about your intended practice context.

You are a physician seeing an undocumented patient who needs expensive follow-up care. The patient is afraid of deportation if they engage with the healthcare system. How do you approach this?

Discuss patient confidentiality protections, trust-building, available resources (federally qualified health centres, sliding-scale clinics), and your duty of care regardless of immigration status.

Role play: your patient has just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Explain the diagnosis and initial management steps in plain language.

Avoid jargon. Check understanding. Use teach-back. Show empathy. Prioritise lifestyle changes and monitoring over immediately overwhelming the patient with medications.

Nevada has a significant gambling industry. Should physicians screen all adult patients for problem gambling? What are the arguments for and against?

This is a Nevada-specific question. Weigh public health benefits (early intervention, harm reduction), patient autonomy, time constraints in clinical practice, and stigma.

Describe a time you worked with someone from a very different background than your own. What did you learn that changed how you approach relationships?

STAR. Emphasise genuine listening, perspective shift, and practical takeaway. UNLV's patient population is highly diverse — show genuine cross-cultural competency.

What do you think is the most important quality in a physician working in an underserved urban community?

Go beyond generic answers. Consider: cultural humility, continuity of care amid patient mobility, navigating resource scarcity, and advocacy beyond the clinic.

A pharmaceutical company offers to donate medical equipment to your clinical site if you agree to prescribe their brand-name drug over an equivalent generic. What do you do?

Address conflict of interest, pharmaceutical industry ethics, patient cost burden, and institutional reporting obligations. The correct answer is to decline and report.

You notice a colleague seems burned out and is becoming curt with patients. You have not been asked to intervene. What, if anything, do you do?

Balance collegial support with patient safety obligations. Address the colleague first privately; escalate if patient safety is compromised. Reference wellness culture and professional responsibility.

UNLV is a young medical school. What do you see as the unique advantage of training at an institution that is still defining its culture and traditions?

Show self-awareness about what you want from medical school. Highlight opportunity to contribute to institutional culture, proximity to leadership, and entrepreneurial learning environment.

Nevada expanded Medicaid under the ACA. How has that expansion affected healthcare access for low-income Nevadans, and what gaps remain?

Acknowledge coverage gains while noting provider shortages, reimbursement challenges, and gaps for undocumented residents. Show familiarity with Nevada health policy specifics.

Nevada consistently ranks near the bottom nationally for active physicians per capita, and Las Vegas relies heavily on a single safety-net hospital, UMC. What are the downstream consequences of that shortage for patients, and which of them would training more local physicians actually fix?

Distinguish the shortage's effects (long waits, ED crowding, out-migration for specialty care, gaps in continuity) and recognise that home-grown physicians who stay help, but pipeline, residency capacity, and retention all matter. This is an MMI data/policy station — reason aloud.

MMI role-play station: a standardised patient has just learned their long-awaited specialist appointment has been pushed back three months because of provider shortages. They are upset and feel the system has failed them. Respond to them.

Validate the frustration without becoming defensive of the system, be honest about the constraint, and offer concrete interim steps (symptom safety-netting, what to watch for, alternative options). Treat this as a self-contained station with a clear arc.

Describe a time you defused a tense situation between people who were in conflict. What did you do, and what would you do differently now?

STAR. Show active listening, de-escalation, and fairness to both sides. The reflective 'what would you do differently' element fits the MMI's emphasis on self-assessment.

MMI station: a friend who is a fellow applicant tells you they used a third party to help write part of their personal statement. They ask you to keep it to yourself. What considerations guide your response?

Weigh integrity and fairness to other applicants against loyalty and certainty about what actually happened. Reason through proportionality and what level of evidence would justify action, rather than jumping straight to a verdict.

MMI station: tell me about a meaningful failure or setback and what it taught you about yourself.

Choose a real setback, own your contribution to it, and emphasise the concrete change that followed. Self-awareness and growth are exactly what this reflective station probes — avoid a disguised strength.