Prompt
You coordinate volunteers at a community day program for 35 older adults with memory loss. Most of your 40 volunteers are university students preparing to apply to medical school, and the average volunteer stays about five months. Staff and families say that participants become attached to particular volunteers and are confused and upset when those volunteers stop coming. One woman asked every day for three weeks where "her girl" had gone. The board has asked you to decide whether to require a 12-month commitment from all new volunteers. Several students tell you they cannot commit for a year, because they need a range of experiences for their applications. You estimate that the rule would cut your number of volunteers in half, and the program would have to reduce afternoon activities from five days a week to three. What would you decide?
Practice this question
After you practice: what this question tests and how to approach it
What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Empathy and compassion
- Critical thinking
How to approach this question
This MMI station tests whether you'll put the needs of older adults in the program ahead of what volunteers, including premed students like you, want for their applications. Name each group: the participants who are distressed when familiar faces vanish, their families and staff, the students, and the board. Weigh the harm of constant turnover against the harm of losing two afternoons of activities a week, and look for options between the extremes, such as a shorter required commitment, short-term roles with less one-on-one contact, or a planned way to say goodbye. Make a recommendation and own its downside. When a follow-up offers a steady supply of short-term help, judge it against the standard you just set rather than on its convenience, and be candid about what the station says about motivation for medicine.
More on motivation for medicine
All 13 questions on this topicMock interviews
If you want to practice with a person, we run mock MMI and panel interviews with feedback on every answer.
