Tell me about a challenging experience you have encountered. Explain how you overcame this challenge and what you learnt from it.

This question is not really interested in the challenging experience itself but more looking into why they found it challenging, what they did to overcome it and their ability to take lessons from this challenge using it to develop as a person. This mimics reality as all doctors will face challenges in their career that they are doomed to repeat unless they use it as an educational experience. An example I have used in the past is when I participated as a carer on a 1-to-1 Summer camp for adolescents with severe learning disabilities. My camper, Tom, had a very limited vocabulary of 4 words; Tom, no, tractor, and train. The challenge I faced was having to effectively communicate with Tom even though the answer often seemed not related to the question. Therefore, I had to adapt my communication style to pick up on the other ways Tom was able to communicate with me e.g. his body language and the intonation of his voice. I also had to adapt the way I phrased myself, such as using closed questions, to allow Tom to effectively communicate with me. This allowed a brilliant rapport to emerge between the two of us and rarely a misunderstanding to take place. What I learnt from this experience is that everyone is able to communicate in their own way, it is just down to you to figure out a way to have an effective conversation and build a rapport.