Augsburg University PA Program Interview: Format & Questions

Below are worked example answers and response frameworks for Questions 2 through 12 (Question 1 is worked in full in the practice block below). Each is an example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

Question 2 (Adapting communication in PCE): "While working as a certified nursing assistant on a post-surgical unit, I cared for an older patient with hearing loss who was refusing physical therapy after a hip repair. When I sat at eye level, lowered background noise, and used a whiteboard to ask what hurt, he wrote that he was dizzy from his pain medication and afraid of falling. I shared that with his PA, who adjusted his medication timing before therapy. That taught me to check for a communication barrier before labeling a patient noncompliant."

Question 3 (Team-based learning and Clinical Practice Seminar): "As an emergency department technician, our night shift had a bottleneck getting ECGs done within ten minutes for walk-in chest pain patients. Triage nurses felt techs were slow to respond, and techs felt paged without knowing which patients were high priority. I asked the charge nurse if we could review the workflow after shift change. We started a rule where triage nurses added 'STEMI rule-out' to the page text and techs replied with our location if stuck in a room. That connects to why I want Augsburg's Clinical Practice Seminar, where small-group cases work when everyone speaks up and listens."

Question 4 (Out-of-metro rotations): "I grew up in a suburb and did my undergraduate degree in the Twin Cities, so I picked up per-diem EMT shifts in a rural county an hour outside the metro. Learning how a critical access crew stabilizes patients for long transport times showed me how rewarding rural practice is. For Augsburg's out-of-metro rotations, I have budgeted for travel and short-term housing and look forward to learning broad rural primary care."

Question 5 (Professionalism and scope of practice): "As a medical assistant in urgent care, a parent asked me whether her child's rash looked like Lyme disease while waiting for the PA. Diagnosing was outside my scope. I validated her worry, documented the timeline and tick exposure in the chart, and let the PA know right away so she could address the parent's fear first. Knowing my limits protects the patient and builds trust with my supervising clinician."

Question 6 (Community health sequence): "At our clinic, patients with asthma returned repeatedly because of mold and pests in their apartments. An inhaler prescription could not fix the trigger at home. Working with our clinic social worker to connect tenants with a local housing advocacy group showed me why Augsburg dedicates four semesters to Community Health and Evidence-Based Professional Practice."

Question 7 (Empathy under stress): "During a winter respiratory surge in urgent care, we ran two hours behind and a father became angry at the vitals station. I paused, acknowledged how exhausting it is to wait with a feverish toddler, and gave him an honest update on how many patients were ahead and what signs would prompt us to bring his child back immediately. He calmed down, and we got a clean set of vitals."

Question 8 (Cultural humility): "I worked with a patient with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who wanted to fast for a religious observance despite his medication schedule. I asked him what the fast meant to him and brought those details to our PA. Together, they adjusted his dosing to match his evening meals and set safe blood glucose check targets."

Question 9 (Re-application or growth): "When I finished my degree, my biochemistry grade was a B-minus, below Augsburg's B minimum. I retook biochemistry at an accredited institution while working in clinic, attended office hours weekly, earned an A, and used those habits to raise my science GPA by 0.25 before applying."

Question 10 (Why PA and why Augsburg): "Shadowing a family medicine physician and a PA showed me that the PA role combines diagnostic autonomy with team flexibility to meet clinic access gaps. Augsburg fits how I learn because the 33-student cohort, the case-based Clinical Practice Seminar, and the Minneapolis location put team-based primary care at the center from the first summer."

Question 11 (Ethics and integrity): "While drawing up a vaccine as a medical assistant, I realized I had pulled a dose from a lot that expired the day before. I had not given it yet, and no one was watching. I set the vial aside, reported the expired stock to the clinic lead so we could audit the fridge, and drew a fresh dose."

Question 12 (Questions you ask the committee): Because Augsburg evaluates "questions asked by the applicant," avoid asking facts from the catalog. Ask faculty: "In the four-course Community Health and Evidence-Based Professional Practice sequence, how do students partner with organizations in Minneapolis?" Or ask a student: "Which habit from Clinical Practice Seminar I and II helped you most on your first rotation?"

Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented. For the past two years I have worked full-time as a medical assistant at a community health center in St. Paul, where I accrued most of my 2,400 clinical hours. One afternoon I roomed a patient in his fifties who had missed three follow-up visits for uncontrolled hypertension. When I took his blood pressure and asked gently about his refills, he admitted that he worked rotating warehouse shifts and could not call the pharmacy during business hours, and his daughter who usually interpreted for him had moved away. After talking with the PA I was working with, we brought in a video interpreter, switched his medication to a once-daily generic on our clinic's discount list, and set up mail-order refills synchronized to one date. When he came back a month later, his blood pressure was down and he asked for our team by name. That experience showed me that good primary care in an underserved community means solving the practical barrier alongside the medical one. It is also why Augsburg's four-semester Community Health and Evidence-Based Professional Practice sequence stands out to me.

It names the clinical role and hour context immediately, walks through one concrete patient problem and a team-based action, and connects the lesson directly to Augsburg's primary care mission and its four-part Community Health course sequence without reciting the catalog.