Specialist Registrar Interview ( for UK Doctors)

 

The SpR post usually follows a Senior House Office (SHO) job of 2-3 years.

 

Before you apply for SpR post you should have your second part membership of Royal Colleges in UK and then you will be eligible to enter specialist training for any of the specialities you have done in your SHO jobs. The jobs are usually advertised on www.bmjclassified.com on a weekly basis but for SpR training will be in early spring or late winter.  As a matter of fact, you should apply to three or more regions and aim to be short listed at least for two of the regions. If you are successful  in getting a National Training Number then you can move to the region where you wish to continue your training. As they say, first get yourself on the first step of the ladder then you can climb it.

 

Application Forms

 

§              The application form requires from you time and accuracy. 

§              Take time to complete them very efficiently and correctly. 

§              Talk to people who have done it before and get ideas from them.

§              Show it to your consultant before you send it out.

§              Take time to read them and reflect on the application form. 

§              It is the only way to get to the interview.

§              People will read your application and your CV and both will tell them a lot about you. So do not do it in a hurry or delete wrong information with same pen.

§              If you have made a mistake delete it with felt tips. Before writing on application form, write the information you want on paper and go over them few times then when you are happy transfer them into the application.

§              The best way is to download the application and type all the information and keep copy for you.

 

 

How to Write your CV

 

1.               How you lay out your CV is your own decision - chose the presentation that you like.

2.               Writing your CV on your own may not be a good idea.

3.               Try to ask someone to help and look at other people CVs and how they write them. You do not need to write about your colour, religion, and place of birth.

4.               The following three pages will give a guide on how to write your CV and we will put 4 CVs for different peoples, which will give you an example for four different ways of writing CV.

5.               You should aim for your CV to be not more than 6-7 pages all together.

6.               After you finish from writing your CV, let one of the consultants or your colleagues look at it.

 

§                 No spelling mistakes

§                 Straight and clear grammatical English

§                 No falsified information

§                 Write your aims and career plan

§                 Clear printing (Laser printing)

§                 Do not send copies (original always what ever number they asked for)

§                 Header and footer for each page

                  Use good quality plain paper

                  Take good care with layout: good margins and spacing, not “over-fussy”

                  Be concise

                  Emphasise strengths, minimise weaknesses but be truthful

                  Tailor it to the job (no “standard” CV)

                  Spend progressively less time on posts after current one

                  Avoid chronological gaps (be prepared to explain them)

                  Get it proof-read (ideally by consultant or fellow trainee)

                  Write a short covering letter

                  Application forms: if required, fill in, preferably in electronic format

                  Specify examples of team working and communication skills

                  Read the job description/”person spec.” carefully

                  Your CV should match it as closely as possible

                  Note:

            Always approach referees beforehand

            Read your CV:  be prepared to discuss it

 


 

 

C U RR I C U L U M   V I T A E

 

 

 

 

YOUR NAME (in bold capitals)

 

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS (in text capitals)

 

PERSONAL DETAILS

 

NAME:                                        Your name (plain text)

 

AGE, GENDER:                          (plain text)

 

DATE OF BIRTH:                        Day Month Year (UK style not USA style)

 

NATIONALITY:                            (plain text)

 

LANGUAGES:                             English (state level), Others (state level)

 

MARITAL STATUS:                     May be left out if you prefer (plain text)

 

HOME OFFICE STATUS:            Refugee / Asylum Seeker / I.D.L.R. / Ex. L.R.

 

ADDRESS:                                 Your best postal contact address (plain text)

 

TELEPHONE:                              Landline number or mobile

 

GMC REGISTRATION:                Eligible for limited registration (dependent on…)

MDU REGISTRATION:

 

TRAINING COURSES:

E.g. APLS, ATLS, PALS …etc

 

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS (Table of three column for Qualification, date obtained, place obtained)

 

          Degree / Diploma    University / College  Date of receipt

 

FUTURE PLANS / PROFESSIONAL GOALS

 

A short statement along the following lines (do not just copy this one!)…

 

As a refugee doctor now resident in the United Kingdom, I wish to recommence my career in (specialty).

 

I plan to engage in a training programme and work towards the higher qualification of (appropriate UK diploma or College Fellowship).

 

I am keen to use my clinical skills to provide care for patients as part of the supervised clinical experience this would involve.


PERSONAL PROFILE / KEY SKILLS (This section may take maximum 4-5 pages only)

 

In bullet point (short sentences) note the skills you have as a doctor.  This is really a short summary version of what you have done and are capable of:

 

        Work experience

          Teaching skills

          Special areas of expertise

 

 

APPOINTMENTS HELD

 

A list of all medical posts that you have worked in giving only the following details:

 

Grade of employment (e.g. PRHO, SHO, Specialist Registrar, Consultant)

Name of Hospital and its City, Country

Duration of employment (start date to completion date)

Specialities in which you practised in this post

Degree of supervision by more senior doctor(s) and their name(s)

 

 

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

 

A single paragraph description of each of the above posts giving the following details:

 

The size of the hospital (number of beds)

Your responsibilities as a doctor in this post

The type of work you were involved in (clinical practice, procedures performed)

The educational benefit you gained (what you learnt from this job)

 

 

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

 

Include here any teaching you have done

          (E.g. lectures given, training responsibilities)

 

 

OTHER INTERESTS

 

Include here appropriate non-medical interests

          (E.g. computers, music, reading, travel)


REFEREES

 

Ideally three (and at least two) people willing to provide a reference for you.  They should be able to confirm your past medical experience and achievements.

 

Include their name, address and telephone or fax numbers.

 

Examples for CVs

 

Medicine

Paediatrics

Surgery

Haematology


 

Presentation

 

If asked to do a presentation, topics will be provided in advance on the interview. Spend time researching about the chosen topic. Read more about this topic. Plan the talk about your objective, presentation and conclusion.  Try to make your own presentation. If it is 7 minutes or ten minutes presentation then do 4-6 slides or overheads.  Each one will have not more than 6 lines and do it in black and white with large font. Avoid animation or multicoloured slides. Present your talk to at least two people. Your consultant is the best one to try as well as your colleagues. Rehearse this talk as much as you can and time it.

 

Examples of different presentation

 

1

2

3

 

 

THE INTERVIEW

              Pre-interview visit or telephone call (minimum)

              Talk to present post-holder, significant others, consultant if possible

              Re-read your CV

              Study the job description/person specification

              Consider “mock” interview

              Make appropriate eye contact

              Speak clearly

              Try to be animated and enthusiastic

              Listen carefully; check if necessary

              Pause briefly to structure your reply; keep to the point

              Emphasise strengths

              Be honest but positive about weaknesses

              Don’t criticise your present post

              Be aware of commonly asked questions

              Prepare a maximum of two questions to ask (preferably education/skills related)

              Smile and thank the panel!

              Be clear how/when a decision will be available

              Obtain feedback

              If successful:  celebrate!

              If not:  tomorrow is another day!

 

References

1.            Careers Information Handbook for the SHO – Royal College of Physicians Education Department March 2000

2.            Bates M Personal Communication – Burnley Healthcare NHS Trust November 2000

3.            Craft N, Scriven, P Making the Shortlist - Career Focus BMJ 1996 (9th November) 7066 313

4.            Chambler AFW et al A Model Curriculum Vitae – Hospital Medicine 1998 59 47-49

5.            Sudlow M, Toghill P, How to be Interviewed - Career Focus BMJ (21st September) 7059 313

 

SHO interview

 

The SHO interview will be your easiest interview and normally will not take more than 30 minutes and there will be 2-3 people on the panel.  The local consultant and one from outside usually hold it if shared job. If attending the interview you may need to phone one of the SHO or SpR and ask about the job and hospital.  Visiting the Hospital and the department may be not necessary but you can visit and meet the consultant who will interview you at least one of them.  On the day of the interview, you should arrive early.

 

The likeliest questions will be

 

§              Take us through your CV

§              What is the most interested job you have done and Why

§              What did you learnt from your last job?

§              What one listen you learnt in your previous jobs

§              Any thing good you took from your last job

§              What procedures you learnt from your last job

§              Have done audit/research?

§              How SHO teaching can be improved

§              How SHO training can be improved

§              What you will do in children suspected with NAI

§              What you will do if nurse stopping you from doing procedure in Neonate

§              What to do if you found that your SpR is drunk on night on-call with you

§              What we should do with SHO who is not finishing his/her jobs on the ward

§              What courses you attended

§              What operation you have done

§              Can SHO consent patients for operation and why

§              How you deal with some insulting staff in front of you

§              Can we improve waiting list on the surgical department

§              How shift system affecting you

§              Is it all right for doctors go on strike?

§              What is your career plan?

§              What is your general interest?

 

 

 

 

 

SpR interview

 

You should know where is the interview and leave early and aim to be in the place at least 15 minutes before the interview.

 

The interview will be conducted by a panel of 4-6 staff and each one will ask you the same questions they asked of the previous candidate.

 

When entering the room you should  say hello.  Make sure you have looked to every one and said hello. Sit down and make sure everyone can see you and you can look at everyone when you talk.  Shaking hands is not necessary but if one of the panel wants to do it you can do that and do not reject it, as people get very offended by this even if your religion will not allow you to do that.  If you have a problem then let the committee know before the interview so you will not embarrassed and they do not feel rejected.

 

Questions are the same for each candidate and try not to be a philosopher and go around the point. Look into their eyes and do not try to talk and look downward or away as this will give the impression that either you do not know how to answer or you are lying. Your voice should be moderate and not humble or very loud. This will show how confident you are - loud voices will not get you anywhere.

 

Do not fidget at the time of the interview as fidgeting is a sign of nervousness and poor judgment is usually accompanied by fidgety people. Sitting very relaxed with legs extended and almost falling from chair is a sign of laziness and no one wants lazy people.

 

Here is an example of questions you may be asked in SpR interview:

 

Questions you may be asked for the registrar job interview

 

1                 Take us through your CV

2                 Tell us about your paediatric experience or other speciality

3                 What is the difference between paediatrics in Libya and UK

4                 What is the most interesting job or jobs you have done in UK and why

5                 Why have you chosen this post

6                 What has made you proud during your career

7                 What has been your major achievement in the last twelve months

8                 Research. What have you done so far? Where are you going? How it can be       applied in the job you are seeking? How it is important for the paediatrician.

9                 If you are teaching medical student, what is the most important points you will tell them during their first day.

10              SHO not doing his/her job right, what are you going to do about him/her

11              Where do you see yourself in ten years time

12              What do you see as major advances in Paediatrics over the next ten years or in your major speciality over the next ten years

13              A senior nurse or sister on neonatal unit stopped you from giving a medicine to a sick baby, what are you going to do about it

14              Why should we appoint you rather than other candidates

15              What the patients think of as a doctor

16              How would you like to be remembered

17              Why did you write these two books? Is it your idea or someone else’s?

18              When this job finishes, what are going to do next?

19              Calman report and its implications? Have you got RTN?  What are the   advantages and disadvantages of Calman report?

20              How has Calman affected your training and how many years you think needed to            finish your training

21              Could the training of junior Doctors be improved by other ways?

22              Is reducing junior Doctors’ hours a good factor to improve training?

23              What is risk management? How can it be applicable to Paediatric services?

24              Tells us about audit and have you done or attended one?

25              What are your weakest  and strongest points?

26              Are you staying in this country or going back?

27              What the role of a Doctor in management?

28              What is the difference between research and audit?

29              What is the clinical governane?

30              Your SHO is searching the web for child pornography, what you will do?

31              Nurse stopping you doing a procedure, what you will do?

32              What is the NFS for children or other speciality?

33              Should we apply evidence based medicine and why?

 

 

Frequently asked question for consultant interview – Paediatrics

 

Q.             What do you know about the clinical Governance?

R.              It is a new system for improving the standard of clinical practice. It is a mean by which the organisation are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and assuring high standards  of care by creating an environment in which  excellence in clinical care will flourish. It is the local manifestation of the statuary duty of quality that has been placed on all NHS organisations, it operates within a national framework for health care quality in which new structures and mechanisms provide support.

The elements of Clinical governance include:

a-              clinical audit

b-              education and training

c-               research and development

d-              risk management

e-              clinical effectiveness (evidence based medicine)

f-                personal development plan

g-              openness

 

Q.             Have you seen Clinical Governance in action within the paediatric services?

R.              The department of health has the intention to set clear quality standards through National Service Framework and NICE (Asthma inhalation, Ritalin for ADHD,). Those who work in Paediatrics should agree and adapt these standards  as well as follow local guidelines for local services.

 

Q.             Why want work in this place (any hospital or neonatal unit)?

R.              I visited this place on several occasional  and I liked the atmosphere and the culture. It is the ideal place for me to work as it is  a large department with a good vision for the future. In addition, there is backing from a forward thinking trust board, whose aim to provide a consultant led service leading to improved quality of care  it paramount.

 

Q.             You are young, how do you see yourself in 30 years in Paediatrics or neonates?

R.              In the initial years, I see myself taking an active role in the clinical work, actively supporting junior doctors with audit, research, and teaching. Whilst I would envisage the clinical duties, it would be necessary to keep contact with the ongoing changes within the health services. As my career developed I would envisage taking an additional responsibility and interest either teaching  or research or management.

 

 

Q.             What areas do you think you would like to research into?

R.              Research is very important in medicine and clinical effectiveness is measured by evidence based medicine which research can provide that. medical research is vital in improving effective care for present and future patients and population as whole. I am not primarily researcher but I would like to do collaborative research ( prepare an example in the area you are specialised)

 

Q.             What do you understand about the clinical audit?

R.              In general the purpose of the clinical audit is either to verify that our agreed standard is being achieved, or to examine our area of practice which experience suggests is significant poor. The audit cycle is a process whereby audit leads to verified quality improvement  Give an example

a-              Review of clinical performance

b-              Refining of clinical practice as a result

c-               Measurement of performance against agreed standards

 

Q.             What is continuing professional development?

R.              This is meant that staff appointed to permanent position need to continue to expand their competence by keep up to date with evidence based practice, refresh skills e.g. APLS, NLS or other subspecialty training courses and develop new roles within the service. By well managed CPD , this helps to maintain enthusiasm and makes staff feel valued by the  organisation of which they are bond.

 

Q.             What is appraisal?

R.              Regular appraisal is the mainstay of revalidation for permanent staff and acts as an educational progress for SHO’s and SpR’s. It should enable identification of individual strength and weakness and goals for staff, set agree targets to be achieved over a defined period and feedback about personal achievement.

 

Q.             How compliance dealt with?

R.              Compliance are usually made in the aftermath of  an adverse incident or in failure of communication with parents.

There should be a good quality record so that complaint can be properly addressed even if it happened long time ago  after the incident.

1-    Detailed discussion with the parents as soon as their concern is made clear in an attempt to resolve the matter.

2-    If however the parents wish to pursue the complaint further, then the parents should register their complaint with the designated officer in the trust.

3-    Ideally complaint should be dealt as soon as possible

4-    The complaint officer sends an acknowledgement as soon as possible

5-    The general manager of the department needs to investigate the complaint and draft response letter to parents on behalf of the chief executive

 

Q.             Why you want to be a consultant?

R.              My aim has always been to be a consultant in general paediatric in DGH or Teaching hospital. I have been fortunate to have a wide and varied experience within the paediatric field. I also have experience in subspecialty which my area of interest.  I finished my training and I got my CCST in January 2001 and I feel now is he right time for me to become a consultant.

 

 

Q.             You are one of the trust candidates of Calman, How do you feel about your training?

R.              Calman was set-up so that UK specialist certification complied with European law. I think there have been advantages and disadvantages to being   a Calman trainee.

Advantage                                 Disadvantages

Shortened training                       Placement process not fair

          Secure localised job for 5 years   Lack of interview

          Family stability in one region       Inexperience in appraisal

                                                            Lack of chances

                                        Difficult to transfer to other regions

                                                            Teaching programmes no structured

No feedback process on training or                teaching

                                                            DGH’s SpRs are getting less teaching

Fewer management training sessions

Lack of contact with the management team

 

Q.             What are going to contribute to paediatric department in this Hospital or other speciality?

R.              I am young and enthusiastic and willing to work as part of team which will established in this department. I am particularly interested ( your interest if they have not any one doing this or the area of special interest they asked for) and would like to develop my skills in this area.  I am also keen to help and encourage audit and research activity.  I am keen on teaching and I would like to be part of the teaching team ( mention your experience in teaching and whether you want to do a teaching diploma)

 

 

Q.             What skills/interest do you have that will benefit the unit?

R.              As above and mention if you have speciality skills.

 

Q.             How will you improve the team?

R.              I am young and enthusiastic and enjoy working as a team.  I am particularly interest in paediatric neurology/epilepsy, a field  in which   I would be keen to develop.  I am also interested in clinical audit, or teaching, or research, or risk management or complaints (one of them). I would be keen to help and support  nursing staff and junior doctors in these area to improve quality of care.

 

 

Q.             How dose the new NHS plan affect paediatric?

R.              Paediatrics will be benefit from the NHS plan both in general and subspecialty.  There is nothing much directly affecting Paediatrics.  In general the proposal of 7500 new consultant posts by 2004 will allow the development of a consultant led service, 1000 new medical students places will hopefully result in more paediatricians. There is also  an investment  in recruiting 20.000 extra nurses which would improve care and allow universal fulfilment of the BNPM guidelines on nursing staff. Every hospital which in turn will help nurses return to work after maternity leave.

-         Direct NHS line will help parents to get advise and guidance. Health improvement plan (Himp) for each health authority regarding breast feeding and healthy eating, implementation of the teenage pregnancy strategy, effective and appropriate screening test for HBS, HIV.

-         Envisage a multiple agency approach in the management of children with disability.

-         CHAMPS.

-         100 new hospitals by 2010 and 500 new one-stop primary care centres

-         modern IT systems in every hospital and PCTs.

-         Improve the diet of young children by making fruit freely available in schools for 4-6 year olds

 

Q.             What are you know about team work?

R.              Team working is important to assure that parents and children receive coherent and consistent management.  This  involve nurses, doctors and organisation who are working for common cause and to make sure that the patients and parents are satisfied with quality of care they had received.

There are two main ways to encourage team work. First is sheared learning and second is shared decision making.  Shared multidisciplinary learning is easily achieved. Shared decision making is essentially about the conduct of daily ward round and so the responsibility for making the team work lies primarily with the consultant and SpR’s

 

 

Q.             What do you think about guidelines and Protocols?

R.              Guidelines are produced in order to attempt to achieve current evidence of best practice. Local guideline should be under review and all consultant take part. They must  be written and reviewed. There are guideline from NICE ( you should no   which are belong to Paediatrics and you have seen them and  they may ask you if you not agree with them   

what to do?

1-step by step guidelines, easy to read and easy to follow.

2- Local agreed standards if you not agreed with other guidelines

3- Instructions should be clear in case  your standard is not working and                     where to ask for help

4- If there is a failure or bad practice, may be it is difficult to follow or the doctors is not fit for practice

                                                                     

Q.      What is revalidation?

R.       Revalidation is a system to check the competence of all doctors and is a part of wider reform of medical regulation

          The Process modules:

1.               Completion of portfolio

a.               Evidence of CPD

b.               Any complaints

c.               Details of work posts

d.               Any clinical incidents and how they were managed

2.               Yearly appraisal, discuss concerns

3.               Every 5 years submit portfolio to a local revalidation group comprising of one doctor from same speciality, another doctor and a lay member

4.               Revalidation group make one of 2 recommendation

a.               Revalidate ( this will lie within the GMC guidelines0

b.               not revalidate (The doctor will be subjected to the GMC’s fitness to practice procedures)

-         Revalidation must be simple, flexible, supportive and development, effective, transparent, comprehensive, thorough, fair, non-discriminatory, consistent and verifiable.

 

 

Q.             How would you deal with an under performing doctor?

R.              If I had concerns about a doctors performance, I will establish if others had similar concerns including nursing staff and other medical colleagues. If these concerns were just, I would discuss the situation with the doctor tutor. The situation should their  be brought up in the appraisal settings, discussed openly and strategies to improve agreed plan.  If these are not met then future discussion needs to be consider referral to the clinical tutor in the hospital.  If he/she is a consultant then discussion with medical director should be initiated if myself or colleagues not able to do any thing or there may be risks for patients or organisation.

 

Q.             What is CHI?

R.              CHI stand for the commission for Health Improvement.  It is main objective is to raise the quality of NHS care and in England and Wales, address unacceptable variation quality, means ensuring  clinical governance methods are in place, and also conducting and assessing investigation into service failure as appropriate.

Main functions

a.               Reviews- Clinical governance review across the NHS every 4 years. Pick-up poor practice and intervene to put right.

b.               Studies- maintaining how national guidelines, national services framework and NICE guideline are implemented

c.               Investigation – Independent investigation into service failures

 

Q.             What is evidence based medicine and do you practise it?

R.              The evidence based medicine is the practice of basing every day clinical practice are exciting robust evidence from objective and will constructed clinical trials—talk about some ting done in your department – audit, research paper or review which produced a evidence based practice and shows some clinical effectiveness

 

Q.             What national guideline exist for paediatrics/ neonatology?

R.              Paediatrics - Asthma

Ritaline for ADHD

Cancer service

Diabetes – 2001

Neonatology.CEDI – Confidential Enquiry into still birth and Death in Infants.  They produce recommendation such as for babies > 4kg,  Project 27/28 is looking at mortality in the first 28 days of neonates born at 27-28 weeks.

                    BAPM: have produced recommendation on the management of surfactant deficiency disease and prevention of ROP

 

Q.             Why national Guidelines exist in general?

R.              1        National Service Framework –

a-       set national standards for various conditions e.g. cancer services

Coronary Heart disease

Older people & Diabetes

b-              programmes will be put in place to support implementation

c-               Establish performance measures against each project

2-              National confidential enquires e.g.           CESDI & Maternal death

 

Q.             What is quality?

R.              Quality can be defined in many different ways but is essentially ensured that are meets the needs of the customers, operates good clinical practice and aims to reduce mistakes

Q.             What is the clinical risk management?

R.              Aims :

-        To reduce and as far as possible eliminate harm to the                  patients

-        Protect staff and support when adverse actions occur

-        To ensure that patient and family are properly handled when an adverse event occur

Key elements in risk management

-        Risk appraisal – Risk identification

-         Risk analysis - Adverse incident monitoring including appropriate documentation and learning from critical incident and near misses

-        Risk control - Record keeping and documentation

-        Rapport of response to complains

 

Q.             What does NICE do?

R.              The national institute for clinical Excellence was set up as a special health authority in England and Wales on 1st April 1999. It is part of NHS, and it is role is to provide patients, health professionals and the public with authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current clinical practice.

1.       Appraisal new and existing technologies and decide which should be encouraged by NHS and which should not.

2.               Produce or prove guidelines

3.               Encourage quality improvement

4.               Advises on audit methodologies to enable those in clinical practice to follow its guidance.

 

Q.             Can you tell me about Telemedicine in paediatrics?

R.              Telemedicine can  broadly be defined as the application of modern telecommunication systems for clinical purpose.  Main benefit from it is neonatologist as in diagnosis of congenital hearth disease so that those babies with complex heat problem can be detected early and treated early. MRI, CT and Ultrasound scans done out of hours can be faxed to specialist who will report them and actions can be taken without delay or with for specialist to come and report it.  This can be done for second opinion in tertiary centre.  Telemedicine can be used for teaching as in endoscopies, laparoscopies and lecturing over the glob.

 

Q.             How can children service develop in next ten years?

R.              In next ten years,

a-    Computer technology will be advanced and will valuable of delivering support to doctors and patients.

b-    Subspecialty will becoming more in DGH’s.

c-     Centralisation the services

d-    Ambulatory services will develop further

e-    GP specialist. E.g.- asthma, diabetes, allergy, skins ….etc

f-      Nurse specialist, nurse consultant and nurse practitioner will be working and supporting doctors in some subspecialties.

g-    Lead NICU AND RETRIEVAL TEAM – skills maintenance, use of scares skills, economies scale

h-     Personal development plans to play a major role in enabling consultant to change focus, if necessary several times, in their career

i-       More generalist who can manage all aspects of child’s care at secondary level

j-       Close links between CAMHS AND PAEDIATRICIANS.

 

Q.             What is PCTs and how it is functioning?

R.              PCT is stand of Primary Care Trust who is caring about patients in community.  Group of primary care group will join under one trust called PCT. There will be 3-4 PCTs in each heath authority.

 

Q.             What is the leadership?

R.              It is the leader who lead a team.  Good leader is characterised by:

a-              offer confidence

b-              offer support to junior and nursing staff

c-               absorb junior and staff anxiety

d-              a team worker

e-              accountable what he/she is doing

f-                ability to deliver and achieve

g-              able to set a model for others

 

Q.             What is your weakness and strength?

R.              My strengths are wide range of paediatrics and neonatology experience.  I can work and coop with stressful environment.  I believe in team work and leadership.  My area of special interest is (--------) which is giving me strong background of managing children or babies with complex problems.

My weakness -  My English is not my first language but I am able to communicate effectively with my colleagues and my patients.  Some times it is commented by my colleagues that I speak fast and that it is difficult to understand some of sentences.  My writing and dictation is good and feedback from various people about my ability to speak and understand English is very good.  I can speak other two languages , Arabic and German which may have some effect on my English but these are useful in areas where there are different cultures.

 

Q.             What is the clinical effectiveness?

R.              It is a measure of the extent to which a particular intervention works. The intervention should be efficient and safe. Clinical effectiveness has been promoted through the development of guidelines and protocols for particular diseases. NSFs, NICE, and CHI are further attempts to improve the responsiveness of the service to evidence of effectiveness. The practitioner has to justify their clinical practice and the Clinical governance framework is likely to make this process of justification more explicit.

 

Q.             If we ask you to do two sessions in A & E, what services can you provide in another department rather than paediatrics?

R.              I think paediatric A7E is never been separated from paediatrics.  Paediatrician is been always have input in paediatric A & E. The services that can be provide or brought to A & E are:

a-    Twice weekly rapid referral and follow-up clinic one done by the consultant paediatrician and one by SpR.

b-    Weekly teaching session for paediatric SHO and career A&E SpR

c-     Teaching for nursing staff

d-    Help and support the junior staff

 

Q.             Who should be appointed to this post, give us ideal candidate specification

R.              The person must be or must have

a-              Team player

b-              Good communication skills

c-               Reliable and hard worker

d-              Progressive and open to changes

e-              Clinically “humble” and ask for help

f-                Future thinking, ambitious –not over

Others which are desirable

a-              Approachable

b-              Wants to be her

c-               Leadership, corporate and aware of organisation aims

d-              Teacher

e-              Innovator

f-                Intelligence

g-              Skill mixing

h-               Will make department better in 2 years

 


 

Links

Very useful links to help doctors in training in UK which some of information may be essential to know when you applying training post in UK. It is useful to know about few things like Bristol inquiry, clambie report, Clinical governance, risk management, NICE, National Frame Work Health Improvement Plan and various government papers.

 

  1. http://www.careersonline.com.au/easyway/interview.html
  2. http://www.brit-thoracic.org.uk/index.asp
  3. http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/bdj/journal/v192/n3/full/4801314a.html
  4. http://www.erphst.nhs.uk/trainers.htm

5.      Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry

6.      Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust (Alder Hey) Inquiry

7.      Clinical Governance

8.      Commission for Health Improvement

9.      National Institute for Clinical Excellence

10.   Medical audit

11.   Medical Education Standards Board

12.   Interview skills for orthopaedic surgeons

For overseas doctors attempting to secure a training post in the United Kingdom the following sites may be useful:

13.   PLAB

14.   National Advice Centre for Postgraduate Medical Education (NACPME)

15.   Department of Health - Medical training in the UK

  1. http://www.laegeforeningen.dk/lf/vaerktoej/application_guidance.htm
  2. http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7333/S41a
  3. http://www.mrcpsych.com/preparation_of_a_curriculum_vita.htm
  4. http://qcom.etsu.edu/communication/index.htm
  5. http://www.ohiou.edu/japanese/212present03.html
  6. www.medix-uk.com
  7. www.hospital-doctor.net
  8. www.gmc-uk.org
  9. www.doh.gov.uk/hes
  10. www.mps.org.uk
  11. www.ich.ucl.ac.uk/ebm/ebm.htm
  12. www.pier.shef.ac.uk
  13. www.clinicalevidence.com
  14. www.phru.org.uk/~casp/
  15. www.nice.org.uk
  16. www.mrcophth.com
  17. www.worldortho.com
  18. www.tripdatabase.com
  19. www.fleshandbone.com
  20. www.specialisthealth.co.uk
  21. www.dailydose.net