Staff specialist interviews in Australian public hospitals are more predictable than they feel, because of how they are run. State merit selection rules require the same questions to every applicant, each mapped to a selection criterion, scored against a rubric by a panel of at least two. And the criteria barely change between position descriptions. This guide works from those criteria to the questions that follow in nearly every interview.
The panel and the format
Usually three to five people: the head of department, the director of medical services or an executive, a staff specialist colleague, and often a nurse manager, people and culture or a consumer representative. About thirty minutes, five to eight questions, each mapped to a criterion. Answers of about two minutes in STAR form are expected for behavioural questions, and a structured clinical reasoning answer for scenarios. Presentations are uncommon unless the post is a head of department or academic appointment.
The opening questions
Tell us about yourself and your career to date, and how it has prepared you for this position. Two minutes, newest first, mapped to the selection criteria rather than told chronologically.
Why do you want to work at this health service, and why this position? Reasons the panel can verify: the service, the community, the people you have met, the roster and subspecialty mix.
What will you bring to this department that we do not already have? Two or three concrete things, each with how you would deliver it in year one.
Looking at the selection criteria, which do you meet most strongly, and which least? Be candid. Claiming to meet every criterion equally reads as unprepared.
The criterion mapped questions
Clinical experience and skills: describe a clinical situation that did not go well and what you changed; how you keep your skills current; a case at the edge of your scope and what you did. Panels score judgement, honesty about limits, and the change that followed.
Communication: a difficult conversation with a patient or family; how you respond to a complaint; a time you took part in open disclosure. Panels want a real conversation and knowledge of the national open disclosure framework.
Multidisciplinary teamwork and leadership: a time you worked effectively in a multidisciplinary team; a time you showed leadership; a conflict with a colleague and how you resolved it; a colleague not pulling their weight on the roster. STAR form, your contribution clear, respect for nursing and allied health evident.
Teaching and supervision: your teaching experience and how you would contribute here; how you would supervise trainees preparing for college exams; what makes a good supervisor of training.
Research and quality improvement: an audit or QI project and what changed; your research and what you would do here. Honesty about research scores higher than ambition.
Clinical governance: your understanding of clinical governance; an adverse event you were involved in, how it was reported and what came of it; what open disclosure is and whether you have done it.
On call: this position includes after hours work; can you meet that, and how do you manage the rest of your life around it? Answer yes plainly and show you have thought about sustainability.
Cultural safety: what cultural safety means to you and how you provide culturally safe care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. Define it as the patient's experience and give your own actions.
Values: the health service's values and an example of demonstrating each.
System questions
What you know about the health service and its community. The main challenges facing public hospitals. The National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards and how they apply to your work. How you would help the department meet its waiting list targets. The difference between a staff specialist and a VMO and why you want this type of appointment.
What separates candidates
Homework on the district. One STAR example per criterion with your own actions and an outcome. Honesty about the criterion you meet least. Cultural safety described through actions rather than a definition. And a two minute discipline that leaves the panel time to ask everything.
Preparing
Take the position description and write one example per criterion. Read the health service's strategy and values and the latest activity data you can find. Practise each answer aloud in two minutes with someone who probes once. The interview is thirty minutes and the panel will ask everything on its list whether or not you have finished.