Interview questions

Question 1

Tell us why you want to do paediatric cardiology

Answer 1

Combination of different factors (1) related to specialty and (2) that I have learned about myself as a clinician that ‘get me out of bed in the morning’

Related to specialty - (1) objective interest in cardiac physiology and complex haemodynamics (2) continuity of care and long term follow up, seeing patients do well

Related to personality (1) working in a field with a degree of acute or critical care (2) the care of young people

Summarise

Question 2

Tell us about your experience in paediatric cardiology

Answer 2

Three key areas

• Adult experience which gives me transferrable skills
  (mention: CICU, BSE)
• Direct experience of paediatric cardiology as a specialty
  (mention: ACHD clinics vs paediatric, transition care)
• Research
  (mention: HCM study and MCS study, focus on outcomes research)

Summarise

Question 3

What personal characteristics make you suitable to be a paediatric cardiologist

Answer 3

Three key things

⁃ able to remain level-headed in pressured situations (mention: OHCA)
⁃ communication skills (mention: COVID charity)
⁃ academic and research interest (mention: ACVC educational content with Susanna Price on acute heart failure in CHD)

Question 4

What is your experience of working with children so far

Answer 4

⁃ attendance to paediatric clinics
⁃ care for young people under adult services (e.g., <20s in CICU)
⁃ attempts to gain exposure to acute and inpatient settings e.g. paediatric ED

Question 5

What have you found most challenging about working with children

Answer 5

⁃ communication - maintaining two levels of communication with children’s to develop trust, and parents, to keep informed
⁃ even more difficult in teenage / near adult years where children start to be in similar wavelength to parents
⁃ example of young patient in cardiac icu just on the threshold between paediatric and adult who had a complicated and long inpatient stay and issues re communication and ethics

Question 6

What do you envisage will be the biggest challenges in the specialty

Answer 6

⁃ emotionally coping - as i said one of my strengths is communication and empathy and this can cut both ways in emotional burnout - something I am certainly aware of and for which i believe it’s important to have a good support network of friends and colleagues

⁃ accepting ‘failure’ - by that i mean that no matter how well you communicate or how good care you provide some things beyond control might happen eg missed cardiac abnormalities on scans etc, something hard to accept for someone with a tendency to perfectionism

⁃ ‘good’ problem to have but I envisage it will be tough for me to choose a sub specialty - genuinely find all subspecialties very interesting so already know it will be hard to make a choice