Auckland publishes the domains and an example prompt for each. The cards show the example, what the domain assesses, and a way in.
Career choice“How could your non-academic hobbies or pastimes add to your ability to be a good healthcare professional?”
Assesses: Your career motivation, goals and decision-making, and your self-awareness about the career you are choosing, including how you plan to look after yourself throughout it.
Approach: Anchor your motivation to a specific experience: a clinical observation, a kaiāwhina interaction, volunteering with a hauora service. Be ready to talk about sustainability, not just enthusiasm; how you will manage the demands of the job is part of what this station listens for.
Moral / ethical“Animal testing: is it justified, and under what conditions?”
Assesses: Whether you can recognise a moral or ethical dilemma and discuss it from various perspectives. Auckland is explicit that it is not how much you know about the topic.
Approach: Weigh autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice, and say out loud where they pull against each other. For New Zealand scenarios, consider how cultural safety, particularly for Māori whānau, interacts with conventional bioethical principles. The Medical Council of New Zealand sets professional standards through Good Medical Practice.
Personal experience“Describe your role in a team: what did you contribute, and what did it teach you about teamwork?”
Assesses: Something you have actually lived through, then questions about it: how you coped with a challenge, what you learned, or the impact it had on others.
Approach: Situation, task, action, result, then the learning: what you would do differently and why. Auckland advises against choosing the worst thing that has ever happened to you, or anything you would find upsetting to discuss on camera.
Hauora Māori“Many Māori whānau need emergency housing and some are sleeping in their cars. What has contributed to that for Māori communities in particular?”
Assesses: Cultural safety, critical thinking and your understanding of the key structural determinants of Māori health.
Approach: Reason from structural determinants (housing, income, education, access to care) rather than individual behaviour; know what cultural safety asks of a clinician and why it differs from cultural awareness; know the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations; have specific disparities you can name, such as rheumatic fever, cancer screening equity and mental health.
Equity“Should prisoners be able to vote?”
Assesses: Recognising a social or health issue that affects groups unequally, its multiple contributing factors and impacts, and the potentially inequitable consequences of an intervention or policy.
Approach: Name the groups affected, then work through why: multiple contributing factors, not a single cause. Where a policy is involved, ask who it would help and who it could leave worse off, then offer a realistic solution rather than an idealistic one. Rural and regional access is one inequity worth being able to reason about; it is why Auckland runs its Regional Rural Admission Scheme.
Healthcare issue / topic“What is the role of alternative and complementary medicines?”
Assesses: Forming and defending an opinion on a current healthcare issue, often something recently in the media. Depth of knowledge is not assessed, but you need enough to form a view.
Approach: Reason from the shape of the system: Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora replaced the 20 District Health Boards in 2022 under the Pae Ora Act; Pharmac funds medicines and devices within a capped budget; the Medical Council of New Zealand registers and regulates doctors. Give both sides before your view.
Personal insight“What are your tactics for dealing with stress and anxiety?”
Assesses: Your personal qualities, interests, ambitions or inspirations: what defines you, how you respond in different situations, and how those traits may help or hinder you in your intended career.
Approach: Have examples ready of things you do well and things you do less well. Pick a real weakness and show what you are doing about it. Reflective depth, what you noticed about yourself and how it changes how you will practise, separates strong responses from polished but generic ones.
