General Surgery

Access both gen. surgery interview questions at ST3 level and generic interview questions for higher specialty training

£35.00 for 3 months access

ST3 General Surgery Interview Skills for just £35.

The perfect companion for your ST3-level General Surgery Interview, you'll have 3 months unlimited access to this fantastic resource including:

- Over 70 commonly-asked questions, including comprehensive advice and guidance on answering each question with confidence
- Over 25 questions specific to General Surgery interviews, written by interview panel members who know exactly what you need to say to secure the job
- eLecture series:
o Interview preparation
o Body language and communication skills
o Writing the perfect medical CV
o Clinical governance
o NHS hot topics
o Finance
o Management
o Leadership
o Resolving conflict
o Research and working abroad

Sample Question

ST3 General Surgery Interview

You are the on-call ST3 and have just admitted a young lady with a crush injury to the lower leg which will require an amputation. This is your first on call as a registrar. Whilst you have assisted your consultants with with a below knee amputation you have not performed one yourself. The patient is unwell and showing signs of sepsis. What do you do?

Stabilise the patient and prepare for theatre
• Ensure the ABS’s have been followed
• Ensure that analgesia and oxygen have been administered
• Ensure the patient is not hypotensive or hypothermic
• Ensure “special circumstances” e.g tetanus have been dealt with
• Ensure adequate blood has been crossmatched
• Ensure that theatres are informed and ready. All appropriate staff must be informed

Explain the procedure and take appropriate consent
• Even if you are not competent to perform the procedure, you should be competent to consent – it saves time
• Explain the procedure to the patient and/or relatives with compassion

Call for senior help as soon as possible
• Phone your supervising consultant at the earliest convenience. On further questioning the examiner might say that his phone has gone through to answerphone. In this instance the second option is to phone another consultant, a senior registrar colleague, or a consultant from another hospital. If still not available then the next line of attack is senior nurse, hospital manager and then finally defence union
• If you are essentially on your own then the decision has to be taken as to whether an operation by you is better than no operation at all.
• The answer to this is usually yes and you could even take phone advice to help. It is important to remember that this however is only as the last resort – the least unsafe option

Additional Notes
• Remember that heroics only have a place in the final stages of this case
• There are many things you can do to temporise the situation whilst waiting for help
• If the interviewer keeps pushing you may have to take the least unsafe option