Neurosurgery: Registrar Interview Questions Australia
The neurosurgery questions that sit on top of the specialty training core: clinical scenarios, the system and governance questions specific to the specialty, and presentation titles.
Updated 7 November 2026
The structures these questions are marked on
- CAMP Clinical experience, Academic work including audit, research and teaching, Management and leadership roles, Personal: who you are as a colleague and what you will find hard. For the CV walkthrough. Full guide →
- ETHICS Establish the facts and capacity, Think through the four pillars and name the tension, Hear the other side fairly, Identify two or three options, Choose a patient centred action with the next step, Safeguard and document. Full guide →
- SAFER See the patient, Assess systematically with ABCDE, Fix what you can and decide, Escalate with a clear request in SBAR or ISBAR, Review: the patient told, the handover, the documentation and what you would do if the first plan failed. Full guide →
Motivation
Evidence of commitment over enthusiasm: rotations, courses, audits, exams sat. Know the programme's stages, exams and rural requirements. Say what you would bring to a rural site, not just that you are willing to go.
Why Neurosurgical, and what have you done to prepare for neurosurgery SET?
Evidence over enthusiasm: the rotations, the cases, the courses, the research and audit, each with what it taught you. Say what you understand the work of a neurosurgical surgeon to be, including the parts that are hard.
What do you know about the Neurosurgical SET programme, its rotations, its examinations and what selection requires?
The length, the rotations including rural, the examinations, the logbook and research requirements, and the selection tools and their weightings. Two accurate sentences, then what will be hardest for you.
What would you do if you were not selected this year?
A calm plan that strengthens the next application: the unaccredited post, the research, the course, the referees. The question tests whether your commitment survives a setback.
Neurosurgery training is long and the anatomy examination is demanding. How have you prepared, and how will you sustain it?
The preparation for the examination, the time already spent in neurosurgery, a realistic view of the length of training, and how you protect your wellbeing and relationships.
Ethics and professionalism
For the supervisor, stay professional, use the supervisor of training and the college channels, and keep patients safe. Define cultural safety as the patient's experience and give your own actions. Know mandatory notification and open disclosure.
You see a consultant shout at and belittle a junior in theatre. What do you do?
Patient and junior safety in the moment, a calm intervention if needed, support for the junior afterwards, and the reporting route under the college's and the hospital's policies. Say what you would do if the consultant were your own supervisor.
How do you provide culturally safe surgical care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients?
Define it as the patient's experience, then your actions: the Aboriginal liaison officer early, family in consent and decisions, flexibility about discharge and follow up closer to home. One example if you have one.
A young patient with a catastrophic brain injury is unlikely to survive and the family want everything done. How do you approach it?
The reality explained honestly, the patient's wishes, the goals of care, organ donation raised only through the proper process with the donation agency, and the consultant involved.
Clinical scenario
Systematic assessment, treat what you can, escalate early and clearly even when the consultant is distant, use retrieval and telehealth where they apply, and say what you would do afterwards. A safe answer that asks for help beats a clever one that does not.
A patient with a head injury has a falling GCS and a dilating pupil. What do you do?
Airway and breathing first with the anaesthetist, the CT now, measures to lower intracranial pressure, and theatre with the consultant for evacuation. In a regional hospital, the retrieval call and the burr hole discussion with the neurosurgical centre.
A patient presents with a sudden severe headache and a subarachnoid haemorrhage on CT. What are your priorities?
Airway and blood pressure, the grading, the CT angiogram, nimodipine, the hydrocephalus watched for, and early securing of the aneurysm with the neurovascular team. Say what you would tell the family.
A patient has back pain, saddle numbness and urinary retention. What do you do?
Cauda equina syndrome until proven otherwise: the examination, the bladder scan, the MRI now, and decompression within the window. Say that you would not wait until morning.
A patient after a craniotomy becomes drowsy on the ward overnight. What do you do?
ABCDE, the glucose and the sodium, the wound and the drain, the CT now, and the consultant called. Think of haematoma, hydrocephalus, seizures and hyponatraemia.
A patient with a spinal cord injury develops hypotension and bradycardia. What is going on and what do you do?
Neurogenic shock: exclude haemorrhage, fluids and vasopressors to a target, atropine for bradycardia, and the spinal unit involved early.