ST3 Interview (Structured Interview)

The questions below represent some examples that may help guide your preparation for ST3 interviews and the residency matching process:

STURCTURED INTERVIEW

Why do you want to do plastic surgery?

Clinical Governance

1. What is clinical governance?
2. How have you been involved in clinical governance?
3. What is clinical effectiveness? How have you been involved?
4. What is risk management?
5. What is research governance and what is your experience of it?
6. How is risk managed in the NHS?
7. How would you reduce risk in your surgical practice?
8. How can you perform a risk assessment?
9. Describe a serious clinical incident you have been involved with.
10. Protocols vs guidelines vs checklists? Disadvantages?
11. What is the WHO checklist?
12. What are early warning systems? How do they work? Do they improve safety?
13. What are the five steps to safer surgery?
14. What is the SSI surgical site infection bundle?
15. What are never events/clinical incidents/near misses?
16. How would you report a clinical incident? What happens subsequently?
17. Give the principles of the Data Protection Act.
18. What is the role of the CQC? Do you think the CQC is necessary?
19. Do you agree with revalidation?
20. Difference between revalidation and appraisal?
21. How is quality defined and maintained in the NHS?
22. What is the role of NHS Improvement?
23. What is the National Quality Board? What is its role?
24. What is Dr Foster? What is its role?
25. What are Foundation Trusts?
26. How is funding organised in the NHS?
27. How can costs be reduced in the NHS without compromising quality?
28. What is the EWTD? Advantages? Disadvantages?
29. Tell me about the King’s Fund. What is its role?
30. Tell me about the Calman Reforms of 1993. What were the effects?
31. Tell me about the Shape of Training review.
32. Tell me about the RCS Good Surgical Practice guidelines.
33. What are the differences between audit, research and QI?

Leadership and management

1. What is management?
2. What is leadership?
3. What is the difference between management and leadership?
4. Tell me about your management experience.
5. Tell me about your leadership experience. Give me an example of when you demonstrated leadership experience in a non-clinical/clinical situation
6. What did you learn about how to get on with or mange your colleagues?
7. Describe a management role you have undertaken. How does management experience improve your clinical practice?
8. How can an SpR get involved in leadership and management?
9. Should all trainees undergo a management course? Should attendance at a management course be compulsory?
10. What makes a good leader?
11. How would you go about setting up a new service in your department, such as a nurse-led pretibial haematoma clinic? Do you think nurse-led clinics are of benefit to patients and hospitals?
12. What are the advantages and disadvantages of nurse practitioners?
13. Is management important for NHS consultants? Should consultants be involved in management?
14. What can you do to improve your management skills?
15. What is the MDT? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
16. What makes an effective team?
17. Where do you see yourself in 10/15 years?
18. What have you achieved in your management experience?

Research

1. What is clinical research?
2. What are the benefits of research?
3. Tell me about your research experience? What research have you done?
4. What problems did you encounter and how did you overcome these?
5. How could you make your research better?
6. What research project would you like to do in your unit?
7. What are the advantages of laboratory-based research?
8. What is the difference between clinical and lab-based research?
9. Discuss the value of clinical vs lab-based research.
10. Should everyone be involved in research?
11. Should all trainees have the opportunity to undertake lab-based research?
12. How would you set up a research project?
13. How would you set up a RCT? What are the advantages and disadvantages of RCTs?
14. What is clinical equipoise?
15. Tell me about an area in plastics that is advancing.
16. Give me an example of current research in plastic surgery and recent clinical developments that have results. Tell me about cutting-edge research in plastic surgery.
17. Tell me about the most recent RCT in plastic surgery that you have read about.
18. Do you think undertaking research is an important part of surgical training? Why?
19. What was the biggest hurdle to overcome in your most recent research project?
20. How can you assess the significance of your own research?
21. Does research have any role in clinical plastic surgery?
22. Would national coordination of research help? Do you know any organisations that coordinate plastic surgery/plastics research nationally?
23. Should the UK government be funding UK medical research?
24. Should everyone do a higher degree?
25. Tell me about the levels of evidence.
26. What sorts of research are you familiar with?
27. Tell me about a paper that has changed your practice.
28. What is evidence-based medicine?
29. What is the paper/presentation you are most proud of? What problems did you encounter and how did you overcome these?
30. What are the phases of a clinical trial?
31. How do you critique a paper?
32. How do you ceate a guideline?
33. What is HIQP?
34. What are the results of the MSLT-1 trial?
35. How do you write a research proposal?
36. What is research governance.

Ethics

1. A child with Muslim parents has a 5% superficial partial thickness burn which you want to treat with Biobrane. How would you consent the parents? What structures exist within the hospital with respect to child protection?
2. A confused lady comes in for a neck dissection. What are the consenting issues? What steps would you take to assess a delirious patient?
3. Jehovah’s witness blood transfusion – adult/child
4. Should body contouring be available on the NHS?
5. Your consultant compares two ways of doing an otoplasty on a patient. What do you do?
6. What is Gillick competence? What are the guidelines for Scotland, Wales and Ireland?
7. What are the principles of taking consent from patients for surgery?
8. A 9-year-old child has been listed for pinnaplasty but is refusing surgery, although the parents want the child to have surgery. What should you do?
9. Describe the Mental Capacity Act.
10. What must you tell patients (as far as they wish to know) regarding a procedure for them to be informed?
11. What level of risk must you discuss?
12. How do you assess capacity?
13. If a patient has lost capacity, who/what can decide on treatment?
14. What law governs advance decisions/lasting power of attorney? (Common law)
15. Who can make and advance decision? When does an advance decision become invalid?
16. What are the principles of lasting power of attorney?
17. Describe the principles of confidentiality.
18. What are the principles of medical ethics.
19. Should doctors be allowed to go on strike?
20. How do you resolve conflict with a colleague?
21. What would you do if your consultant was drunk before an operation?
22. A colleague is lazy. What do you do?
23. What are your views on non-doctors providing plastic surgery?
24. What considerations would you have in the work-up to a hand transplant?

Patient safety

1. What is the NCEPOD classification of intervention?
2. What are the 5 steps to safer surgery?
3. What strategies for ensuring patient safety in your trust are most important and why?
4. How would you deal with accidentally causing a minor burn to a patient with diathermy during a routine GA procedure? The patient goes on to complain, how would you deal with this?
5. What is the role of the GMC?
6. What is patient centred care? What are the advantages? Give an example of when you delivered patient centred care.
7. Give an example of when you delivered sub-optimal patient care.
8. Give an example of when you delivered optimum patient care/went above and beyond in a clinical situation.
9. Why are hospital acquired infections important? What are the main organisations involved?
10. Tell me about the duty of candour.
11. Tell me about the Francis report (Midstaffs).

Audit

1. What is a clinical audit?
2. What is the difference between audit and QI?
3. What is the purpose of an audit?
4. What is your experience in clinical audit?
5. What is your best audit? What are its weaknesses/strengths?
6. What is your worst audit? Why? What would you change?
7. Have you been involved in a national audit?
8. Tell me about a national audit that you have read about in plastic surgery.  Can you give an example of a national audit that is relevant to plastic surgery?
9. How do you design an audit? What are the components of an audit cycle?
10. What is an audit spiral?
11. Do you think clinical audit is important?
12. How has audit helped you develop your practice?
13. Tell me about an interesting audit you would like to undertake in your department.
14. Tell me about an audit that has changed your practice.
15. How much time should be devoted to audit?
16. What should you audit?
17. How effective is clinical audit?
18. What are the problems associate with the audit process?
19. Could the process of clinical audit be improved?
20. Have you ever completed an audit started by someone else?
21. Tell me about an audit someone else has done? How would you improve it?

Teaching

1. What is teaching?
2. Should everyone in surgery have formal teaching? Is it essential to go on teaching courses?
3. Is a teaching qualification important in a surgical career?
4. What are your feelings towards teaching?
5. What are your feelings toward receiving teaching?
6. Do you think the ISCP WBA system is a useful training tool?
7. How would you improve this system?
8. Strengths and weaknesses of WBA? How would you improve the completion of such assessments?
9. Your consultant does not want to fill in or partake in completing WBAs. What would you do in this situation?
10. How would you plan and run a minor surgery course aimed at GPs? What potential pitfalls do you foresee? How would you assess the outcome of your course?
11. Tell me about your teaching experience.
12. How would you design a teaching session? You have been asked to organise a teaching session for SCTs, how would you organise this?
13. What is the benefit of teaching to your clinical practice?
14. What are your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher?
15. What are the characteristics of a good teacher?
16. What teaching method do you find useful?
17. Tell me about the learning theories you are familiar with?
18. What is the ethos of lifelong learning?
19. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the online eLogbook?