Vascular surgery: Registrar Interview Questions Australia
The vascular surgery 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 Vascular, and what have you done to prepare for vascular surgery 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 vascular surgeon to be, including the parts that are hard.
What do you know about the Vascular 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.
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 patient with critical limb ischaemia is not a candidate for revascularisation. How do you approach the conversation about amputation?
SPIKES, the reality explained plainly, the alternatives including palliation, the rehabilitation and prosthetic team early, the patient's goals, and the consultant present.
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 75 year old arrives with abdominal and back pain, a pulsatile mass and a blood pressure of 85. What do you do?
A ruptured aneurysm until proven otherwise: permissive hypotension, the massive transfusion protocol, the consultant and the anaesthetist now, imaging if the patient can tolerate it to plan endovascular repair, and theatre. Say what you would tell the family.
A patient has a painful, pale, pulseless leg for four hours. What do you do?
Acute limb ischaemia: the category assessed, anticoagulation, analgesia, the consultant now, the imaging, and the decision between embolectomy, bypass and thrombolysis. Say the signs that mean the limb is not salvageable.
A patient with diabetes has a foot ulcer, cellulitis and a temperature. What do you do?
Sepsis bundle and antibiotics, the probe to bone, the imaging, the vascular assessment, drainage and debridement if there is pus, and the multidisciplinary diabetic foot team. Say how you would discuss amputation if it comes to it.
A patient has a 70 percent carotid stenosis after a transient ischaemic attack. What is your plan?
Antiplatelet and risk factors now, the timing of endarterectomy within the window, the stroke team, and a consent conversation about risks and benefits.
After an aortic repair a patient's blood pressure falls and the abdomen is distended. What do you do?
Bleeding until proven otherwise: resuscitate, the transfusion protocol, the consultant now, imaging if stable, and return to theatre or endovascular control. Consider abdominal compartment syndrome.