Anaesthetics: Specialty Training Interview Questions Australia

Why do you want to train in anaesthesia, and why with this network?

Evidence first: the anaesthetic and intensive care terms, the cases, the airway course, the audit, the primary sat early. Then the network: its hospitals, rural sites, teaching and reputation in terms that show homework. In a monologue, signpost both parts and close before time.

Tell us about your experience to date and how it has prepared you for anaesthetic training.

Two minutes, newest first, mapped to what an anaesthetic registrar does: managing the airway, the sick patient, the theatre team, the crisis. Name the hardest term and what it taught you. End on what you still need to learn.

What qualities does a good anaesthetic trainee need, and how do you demonstrate them?

The roles in practice: medical expert, communicator, collaborator, leader, health advocate, scholar, professional. Say which you can evidence with one example each and which you are still building. Honesty about the gap scores higher than claiming them all.

What do you know about the ANZCA training programme, its stages and its examinations?

The stages, the primary and final examinations and when they fall, the volume of practice requirements, the rural and subspecialty rotations, the supervision structure. Two accurate sentences, then how you would fit the primary around a full roster.

Anaesthetic training includes rural and regional rotations. What would you bring to a rural site, and what would you get from it?

What you would bring to a rural site and what you would learn there, not only that you are willing. Rural experience if you have it. Constraints handled honestly rather than hidden.

What do you think you will find hardest about anaesthesia?

Honest and specific: the primary alongside full time work, the solitary responsibility, the moments when things go wrong fast, the night work. Name one, say why it will be hard for you, and how you would manage it.

Your supervising consultant makes a clinical decision you believe is unsafe. How do you handle it in the moment and afterwards?

Patient safety first: if the decision puts the patient at risk you act on it now, saying so respectfully and documenting. Afterwards, a private conversation about the reasoning, reflection on whether you were right, and the supervisor of training if it is a pattern. Keep your own conduct impeccable throughout.

How would you provide culturally safe anaesthetic care to an Aboriginal patient who is frightened of hospital?

Find out what frightens them, involve the Aboriginal liaison officer early, allow family presence as far as safety allows, explain in plain words and check understanding, give choices where they exist, and be flexible about the small things. Say that cultural safety is judged by the patient.

You are the junior registrar on call. A nurse calls from recovery about a patient who is drowsy with a respiratory rate of six after a hip replacement. Describe your approach.

Opioid toxicity until proven otherwise: oxygen, airway support, naloxone titrated, the anaesthetist who gave the anaesthetic called, the prescription and the handover from theatre reviewed. Say what you would tell the recovery nurse to watch for and that you would stay until the patient was safe.

A patient in the emergency department with severe asthma is tiring and the consultant is twenty minutes away. What do you do?

The silent chest and the saturations on high flow are the warning: nebulisers, steroids, magnesium, a gas, and intensive care and the consultant called now because this patient may need intubation. Say what you would prepare for in the twenty minutes and that you would intubate yourself if the patient could not wait.

You are asked to see a patient on the ward two days after a laparotomy who is hypotensive, tachycardic and oliguric. Describe your assessment and management.

Sepsis, bleeding or the leak: systematic assessment, fluids, bloods and a gas, antibiotics, the surgical registrar and intensive care called early with ISBAR. Say what you would do if the patient did not improve with fluid.

An anaphylaxis call goes out in theatre during induction. You are assisting. What do you do?

Call for help, stop the trigger, adrenaline at the right dose and route, 100 percent oxygen, fluids, the airway secured if not already, the algorithm followed with repeat adrenaline, and the tryptase samples. Then the documentation, the allergy referral and the conversation with the patient. Say the dose.

A nurse tells you a patient has received ten times the intended opioid dose. What do you do, including what you say to the patient?

The patient first: assess, naloxone and monitoring, the senior told. Then the incident report, open disclosure with the patient in plain words and an apology, support for the nurse, and the review of the process. Say what you would say to the patient and that you would not blame the nurse.

A patient listed for emergency surgery refuses blood products. How do you approach this?

Confirm capacity, make sure the refusal is informed, explore the reasons and what the patient will accept (cell salvage, the alternatives), involve the surgeon and the consultant, plan the anaesthetic to minimise blood loss, document the refusal and the plan, and respect it. Say what changes if the patient lacks capacity.

You are the only doctor available with two deteriorating patients and the consultant is in another theatre. How do you prioritise and escalate?

Triage by acuity, treat what you can, delegate to the nurses, and escalate: the consultant through the theatre, the on call consultant, intensive care outreach, a rapid response call for either patient. Say that you would not try to manage both alone for long.

What do you understand by perioperative medicine, and how is ANZCA developing it?

Assessing and optimising patients before surgery, shared decision making, prehabilitation and care across the pathway. ANZCA's perioperative medicine programme and the diploma. Say what you have seen of pre assessment and why it matters for the sick patient.

What is the role of the ANZCA professional documents in day to day practice?

The college's statements on standards of practice: monitoring, pre anaesthesia assessment, the recovery room, fatigue, sedation and the rest. They set what a department is accredited against and what a trainee is expected to meet. Give one example of using one.

Tell us about an audit or QI project you have done that relates to theatres, pain or perioperative care.

The problem, the standard, the measure, what you changed, the result and whether it lasted. If it was on pain, theatre efficiency or pre assessment, say why that mattered for anaesthetics. Be clear about your own part.