Interview

Question 1

What is the structure of academic training in the UK?

Answer 1

Medical School: BSC
Foundation Years: AFP
Specialty Training: academic clinical fellowship (NIHR) max 3y. 75% clinical and 25% academic. Then clinical lectureship max 4y
Consultant: senior lecturer/ senior clinical fellowship
Flexibility in moving in and out of academic training and can join the pathway at any point.

Question 2

What is the Walport Report?

Answer 2

2005 and update in 2015
Recommendations for academic/ educator training in UK
Including explicit specialist training pathway and dedicated academic training programmes.

Question 3

What is an audit?

Answer 3

‘A quality improvement process that compares patient care and outcomes against a set standard then implementing a change and comparing the same outcomes again against the set standard’

Question 4

What is the difference between audit and research?

Answer 4

Research is subject to ethics committee approval and therefore must comply with the ethical principals of research whereas audit does not. Audit may be subject to guidelines by the clinical governance office.
If you are unsure there is a health research authority tool http://www.hra.nhs.uk/research-community/before-you-apply/determine-whether-your-study-is-research/

Question 5

How would you apply for a research grant?

Answer 5

Funding must be secured in order to undertake research. This can be done through contacting R&D office or national bodies e.g. NIHR.
I have had some involvement in applying for a research grant although an application has not yet been submitted. This was for the NIHR RfPB grant. I began the application with an O&G researcher. To apply for the grant, the project eligibility needed to be assessed and the correct grant selected. An online application for the grant then needs to be completed with details of the study protocol, justification and a lay summary amongst other things.
Other places to acquire funding could be through a university R&D office or other national bodies or private/ charity organisations.

Question 6

Why is research important?

Answer 6

EBM underpins all the work we do
Raw reserach underpins practice guidelines
Reserach can lead to the development of new technologies, inform patient care. Medical education reserach can also inform how we train HCP and the nezt generation of doctors.

Question 7

How would you apply for approval for a study?

Answer 7

Health Research Authority Approval can be obtained through the Integrated Research Application System. There is extensive guidance on the health research authority website about how to apply. This ensures the study will have ethical committee and legal approval.

Question 8

Research ethics and GCP

Answer 8

Research must adhere to ethical prinicpals such as justification (undertaken when there is a genuine clinical question), non-maleficiance (does no harm to patients/ animals etc.)

Question 9

Research ethics and GCP/ consent training.

Answer 9

Research must adhere to ethical principals (Declaration of Helsinki) such as:
Clinical equipoise- genuine question
Scientifically robust
Ethical recruitment e.g. only recruiting those who are likely to benefit, not excluding minorities
Valid consent e.g. same as medicine, knowledable informant, capacity, cooling off, freedom to withdraw etc.
Voluntariness e.g. no coercian

Question 10

Why is research important?

Answer 10

EBM- benefit of future patients

Question 11

What are the ethics that guide research?

Answer 11

Research must adhere to ethical principals (Declaration of Helsinki) such as:
Clinical equipoise- genuine question
Scientifically robust
Ethical recruitment e.g. only recruiting those who are likely to benefit, not excluding minorities
Valid consent e.g. same as medicine, knowledgeable informant, capacity, cooling off, freedom to withdraw etc.
Voluntariness e.g. no coercion

Question 12

What are the bradford hill criteria?

Answer 12

strength, consistency, specificity, temporal sequence, dose response, experimental evidence, biological plausibility, coherence, analogy

Criteria for causality

Question 13

What are the bradford hill criteria?

Answer 13

strength, consistency, specificity, temporal sequence, dose response, experimental evidence, biological plausibility, coherence, analogy

Criteria for causality

Question 14

What types of research are there?

Answer 14

Qualitative/ quantitative

Observational/ experimental

Question 15

What does an academic clinician do in a typical day?

Answer 15

https: //www.rcr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/charlotte_coles.pdf
https: //www.bma.org.uk/advice/career/studying-medicine/insiders-guide-to-medical-specialties/nhs-career-choices/academic-medicine

Question 16

Tell me about a teaching session you have delivered. What did you learn from it?

Answer 16

Situation—What happened?
Task—Your aim?
Action—what you did?
Result and reflection—What happened and what you learnt?

Question 17

Why did you choose the academic foundation programme?

Answer 17

Clinical—Clinical skills and interests
Academic—Research and teaching
Managerial—Service evaluation
Personal—Any personal connection to the topic

Question 18

How would you deal with conflict between two colleagues?

Answer 18

Seek more information
Patient safety
Initiative—Things you can do
Escalate—Which colleagues to involve
Support—For yourself, for the patient, for the team, for any colleagues affected

Question 19

Your fellow foundation year one doctor missed work because she was hung over. What would you do next?

Answer 19

Seek more information
Patient safety
Initiative—Things you can do
Escalate—Which colleagues to involve
Support—For yourself, for the patient, for the team, for any colleagues affected

Question 20

What area of research are you interested in and why?

Answer 20

Clinical—Clinical skills and interests
Academic—Research and teaching
Managerial—Service evaluation
Personal—Any personal connection to the topic

Question 21

Your work colleague is always off sick. How would you deal with this?

Answer 21

SPIES

Question 22

Tell me about any challenges you have faced in research. What did you learn from the experience?

Answer 22

STAR

Question 23

You have two patients presenting with [name of symptoms]. Who will you see first? Why? How will you manage them and who can you call for help?

Answer 23

SPIES