San Juan Bautista School of Medicine (MD) Medicine Interview — Format, Questions & Prep Tips

Why do you want to become a physician in Puerto Rico, and what draws you specifically to San Juan Bautista's community medicine mission?

Reference specific healthcare challenges in Puerto Rico (Medicaid disparities, post-hurricane infrastructure, physician shortages). Avoid generic island-setting or lower-competition answers.

Describe a meaningful experience you have had serving an underserved or vulnerable population. What did it teach you about healthcare delivery?

STAR structure with reflection on systemic barriers — not just what you did, but what gaps you observed and how they shaped your thinking about your role as a future physician.

A patient declines a recommended treatment for religious reasons. How do you navigate this as their physician?

Address patient autonomy, informed refusal, ensuring the patient has all relevant information, documentation, and when (if ever) you might involve an ethics committee.

Many talented Puerto Rican medical graduates leave the island for mainland residencies and never return. What responsibility, if any, do you have to practice in Puerto Rico after training?

Acknowledge the brain drain reality honestly. Discuss loan forgiveness programs, mission alignment vs. personal choice, and what systemic changes might incentivise return.

A patient's family member disagrees with the care plan you have explained to the patient and becomes confrontational. How do you respond?

De-escalate respectfully, acknowledge the family's concern, explain the plan clearly, reinforce patient autonomy, and offer to involve a patient advocate if needed.

What aspect of medicine — clinical, research, or public health — do you find most intellectually exciting, and why?

Be specific and authentic. San Juan Bautista values primary care orientation, so if your interest is highly subspecialty-focused, connect it back to community impact.

How should the US federal government address the inequitable Medicaid funding formula that affects Puerto Rico?

Demonstrate knowledge of the per-capita cap disparities. Argue for or against reform while acknowledging fiscal and political complexity. Show how this affects your future patients.

Tell me about a time you worked in a resource-limited setting. How did you adapt and what did you learn about creative problem-solving in healthcare?

Concrete experience preferred. Show adaptive thinking and empathy — not just persistence — under resource constraints.

How do you build trust with a patient who is suspicious of the healthcare system?

Acknowledge historical reasons for medical distrust (especially relevant in underserved communities). Discuss active listening, transparency about limitations, and continuity of care.

You are a primary care physician in a community with high rates of diabetes and obesity. Resources for preventive care are limited. How do you prioritize your time?

Show population health thinking — risk stratification, group education, community partnerships, CHW programs — alongside individual patient advocacy.

Role-play: you are the primary care physician for a small Caguas community and a long-time patient with poorly controlled diabetes admits, somewhat ashamed, that she stopped her medication months ago. Talk with her.

Lead with empathy, not judgement. Explore the real reason (cost, side effects, beliefs, access), rebuild trust, and co-create a realistic restart plan. This mirrors the continuity-based community medicine San Juan Bautista trains generalists for.

Your small clinic's data shows childhood vaccination rates have dropped over the past two years. How would you figure out why, and what would you try first?

Show population-health reasoning suited to a small generalist practice: look at access barriers, transport, hesitancy, post-disaster disruption, and reminder systems before assuming parental refusal. Propose a concrete, low-resource intervention.

How would you explain to a frightened parent why their child's fever does not need antibiotics, when the parent is insistent and has driven a long way to be seen?

Validate the worry and the effort they made, explain viral vs. bacterial illness in plain terms, give clear safety-netting (when to return), and preserve the relationship. Show you can hold the line on stewardship without alienating the family.

Working as the only or near-only physician in a small community can be isolating and relentless. What in your own life makes you confident you can sustain that, and where are your limits?

Self-awareness over bravado. Acknowledge burnout risk honestly, name genuine coping and support strategies, and connect to lived experience in demanding or resource-limited settings. The school selects for realistic, durable commitment.

Why is primary care, rather than a subspecialty, arguably the highest-impact path for a physician serving Puerto Rico's underserved communities?

Articulate the value of generalism — continuity, prevention, gatekeeping access, managing multimorbidity where specialists are scarce. San Juan Bautista trains community generalists, so connect the argument to the island's actual workforce needs.