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The Ideal Candidate

What is an ideal internal medicine candidate and does such a person exist? At St. Joseph Internal Medicine Residency, we value well rounded and motivated individuals who love internal medicine and enjoy new challenges. While there are many characteristics which make up a successful applicant, our program intentionally seeks out the following characteristics:

Humility: the freedom from pride or arrogance. Your three years of internal medicine residency will be challenging. Successful internal medicine residents understand improvement first starts with realizing we don’t know everything, and are eager to seek out new ways to learn and improve.

Drive: an innate or biologically determined urge to attain a goal. Successful internal medicine residents are often driven to succeed and have an internal drive to success. Drive is the motivation behind people’s actions, and is fueled by desire, belief and expectation.

Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. Throughout three years of training, there will be setbacks. Successful internal medicine residents realize the comeback is always bigger than the setback. It is not the event or challenge which is important, but the response.

Throughout our interview process, we utilize behavioral based interviewing to seek out prior situations in an applicant’s life which may manifest the above three qualities.

Finally, we review all application documents to make our applicant selection. We accept both MD and DO applicants. Applicants are selected based on their:

  • Academic credentials
  • Preparedness
  • Aptitudes
  • Abilities and communication skills
  • Personal qualities, such as motivation and integrity. 

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health training programs do not discriminate with regard to gender, race, age, sexual orientation, religious preference, color, national origin, disability, or veteran status.