Baptist Health Sciences University COM (DO) Medicine InterviewFormat, Questions & Prep Tips

BHSU COM is a faith-based institution with a servant-leadership mission. How do your personal values align with that culture, and how would that shape your approach to patient care?

You do not need to be Baptist, but you do need to demonstrate genuine values-based commitment to service and compassion. Draw on specific experiences that show servant leadership in practice.

Memphis has some of the highest rates of poverty, cardiovascular disease, and maternal mortality in the United States. Why does that context appeal to you as a training environment?

Show you have researched Memphis's specific health statistics. Authenticity about why high-need urban communities are where you want to learn and practice matters more than polish.

Why osteopathic medicine? What do OMM and OMT mean to you in the context of the patients BHSU COM serves?

Connect osteopathic principles to compassionate, whole-person care for underserved urban patients. Demonstrate knowledge of the four tenets and at least one clinical application of OMT.

Describe a time you served in a community or healthcare context that challenged you personally. What did you learn about serving others?

BHSU COM's servant-leadership model means they want to see experiences of genuine service — not just volunteering, but moments where serving required sacrifice, adaptability, or confronting your own limitations.

A patient declines treatment for religious reasons that differ from your own. How do you navigate this?

Patient autonomy and religious freedom are paramount. Acknowledge the tension between your professional obligations and the patient's faith-based decisions, and show you can provide care that respects both.

Baptist Memorial Health Care is one of the largest health systems in the Mid-South. How does that clinical affiliation shape your expectations for your training at BHSU COM?

Research Baptist Memorial Health Care's network: hospitals, community clinics, specialties, and patient populations. Show how access to this system provides the clinical breadth you need.

Memphis has a high rate of HIV and sexually transmitted infections relative to the national average. How should physicians approach these public health challenges in a clinical setting?

Stigma reduction, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), HIV treatment as prevention, social determinants, and the role of primary care physicians in HIV prevention in high-burden communities.

Many patients in Memphis face significant health literacy challenges. How will you adapt your communication style to ensure they understand their care plan?

Teach-back method, plain language, visual aids, and cultural humility. Show you understand health literacy as a structural issue, not a patient failing.

Servant leadership implies putting others' needs before your own. Describe a time you demonstrated this in a team context.

AAMC Interpersonal competency filtered through BHSU COM's specific servant-leadership values. Choose a story that shows you prioritized team or patient needs over personal recognition or comfort.

What does compassion mean to you as a physician, and how is it different from empathy?

Compassion = empathy + action. Show you understand the distinction and can describe how compassion drives clinical decision-making in a way that empathy alone does not.

Memphis has maternal mortality and cardiovascular disease rates well above national averages, with stark racial disparities. How would you think about measuring whether a clinic or hospital is actually reducing those disparities, not just its overall averages?

Equity-stratified metrics: disaggregating outcomes by race and zip code, the difference between an improving average and a closing gap, and process measures (timely prenatal care, blood-pressure control) versus outcomes. Keep figures conceptual.

A patient in a Memphis clinic with newly diagnosed hypertension is quiet and seems overwhelmed. He mentions he 'doesn't really do doctors.' Show me how you'd open and conduct this conversation.

Demonstrate the encounter: build rapport, use plain language and teach-back, screen for cost and access barriers, and frame the relationship as long-term partnership. Servant-leadership values made concrete in communication.

As a faith-based program founded in 2023 (inaugural class 2024), BHSU COM is still establishing its academic and board-preparation track record. What is your evidence-based plan for succeeding on COMLEX-USA in a newer school?

Spaced repetition, active recall, a realistic board-preparation timeline, and resourcefulness where alumni and tutoring networks are still forming. Show academic seriousness alongside the values fit.

You are caring for a patient whose religious convictions lead her to decline a blood transfusion you believe could be life-saving. The institutional culture is faith-based, but your clinical judgement says otherwise. How do you navigate this?

Patient autonomy and informed refusal are paramount regardless of institutional context, alternatives where they exist, capacity assessment, careful documentation, and respect for the patient's own beliefs even when they differ from yours or the institution's.

Memphis has a high HIV burden and significant stigma. Role-play offering PrEP or HIV testing to a patient who becomes defensive when you raise sexual health. How do you keep the conversation open?

Demonstrate the exchange: normalise the offer, avoid judgement, use destigmatising language, and respect autonomy while keeping the door open. Public-health communication grounded in Memphis's specific epidemiology.