Duquesne University Nasuti COM (DO) Medicine Interview — Format, Questions & Prep Tips

Duquesne is a Spiritan university with a founding charism of service to the poor, migrants, and refugees. How does that mission connect to your calling as a physician?

Research the Spiritans specifically: the Congregation of the Holy Spirit's tradition of working in underserved communities globally and locally. Connect to your own values and experiences of service to marginalised communities.

Pittsburgh has experienced significant deindustrialisation and has communities — the Mon Valley, the Hill District — with persistent poverty and health disparities. Why do you want to serve in this context?

Know Pittsburgh's specific health geography: Allegheny County health data, the steel mill legacy and environmental health (particulate matter, cancer clusters), and the Hill District's history as a historically Black neighborhood with persistent health disparities.

The Nasuti COM was founded in 2022. Does it concern you to attend a very new medical school, and why or why not?

Research COCA accreditation status, Duquesne's institutional resources and existing health sciences infrastructure, and the specific benefits of a newer program. Show informed confidence rather than naivety.

A migrant farmworker presents to your Pittsburgh clinic with serious symptoms but cannot provide any identification and has no insurance. What do you do?

EMTALA rights, FQHC sliding-scale care, community health worker navigation, immigrant-serving health resources in Pittsburgh, and the Spiritan tradition of serving the marginalised regardless of legal status.

Describe your most meaningful experience serving someone on the margins — poor, homeless, immigrant, refugee, or otherwise marginalised.

Authenticity over polish. Draw on real experience where you engaged with structural disadvantage directly, not just proximity to poverty. Reflect on what serving in that context required of you.

Duquesne has established pharmacy, nursing, and physical therapy programs. How do you plan to use Duquesne’s interprofessional health sciences environment in your training?

Interprofessional education in practice: simulated team-based care, understanding pharmacy's role in medication access for low-income patients, and how PT/OT complement OMT in musculoskeletal care.

What draws you specifically to the DO degree, and how does the Spiritan tradition of whole-person service connect to osteopathic principles?

The connection is natural: osteopathic philosophy — the body as a unit, structure-function, self-healing — resonates with the Spiritan view of the whole person. Make that connection explicitly and authentically.

Pittsburgh has a growing refugee population from various countries. What specific health challenges do refugee populations face upon resettlement in the US?

Refugee health screening requirements (TB, vaccinations, lead), mental health (PTSD, depression), nutrition transition, language and cultural barriers, and the FQHC-refugee health program model.

A patient from Pittsburgh's Mon Valley mining community is stoic about symptoms and reluctant to seek care. How do you build a therapeutic relationship with him?

Cultural competency for working-class Appalachian-influenced communities: distrust of "outsiders," stoicism about illness, economic barriers, and building trust through presence and plain communication.

The Spiritan tradition calls physicians to be "people of mission." What does that mean to you, and how does it differ from simply being a good doctor?

Mission implies intentional commitment beyond technical competence — choosing to practice where need is greatest, advocating for structural change, and staying in relationship with communities over time rather than parachuting in.

Pittsburgh's Mon Valley carries a legacy of steel-industry environmental exposure, and the Hill District has persistent, race-linked health disparities. How would you think about measuring whether a clinic is actually narrowing these neighborhood-level gaps?

Equity-stratified, geographically-aware metrics: disaggregating outcomes by neighborhood and race, environmental exposure context, process versus outcome measures, and community-level interventions. Keep figures conceptual.

A stoic older man from a Mon Valley mining family minimises chest discomfort he's had for weeks and clearly does not want to be in your clinic. Show me how you'd build enough trust to take the symptom seriously.

Demonstrate the encounter: respect his self-reliance, avoid alarmism, use plain language, acknowledge his reluctance, and create enough safety for him to disclose. Working-class, Appalachian-influenced cultural competence.

As an early cohort at a 2022-founded program, you'll help establish study culture. What is your evidence-based plan for COMLEX-USA preparation and keeping OMT skills sharp with limited upper-year mentorship?

Spaced repetition, active recall, a board-preparation timeline, deliberate hands-on OMT practice, and building peer-study structures. Resourcefulness in a young program.

A migrant patient without documentation needs a referral that, in practice, will be hard to access without insurance or ID. The Spiritan mission calls you to serve the marginalised, but the system is not built for him. How do you act?

EMTALA and FQHC safety-net pathways, sliding-scale and charity-care resources, advocacy within system constraints, and connecting mission values to concrete action rather than rhetoric — without overpromising what you cannot deliver.

Describe how you would explain a complex care plan to a refugee patient through an interpreter, and then hand that same plan off to a pharmacy and a physical-therapy student on your team. What changes between the two?

Audience adaptation: teach-back and cultural humility with the patient via interpreter; structured clinical handover to teammates. Relevant to Duquesne's interprofessional health-sciences environment.