CSRH 13th March 2024

Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) ST1 Interview Guide 2024

Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) ST1 marks the beginning of a six-year specialty training programme. Getting on the programme isn’t easy, as the CSRH pathway is one of the most competitive specialties in medicine. 

In 2023, there were 272 applications to the ST1 Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) speciality, with only 8 posts available. The competition ratio was 34. This means there were 34 people applying for each post!

With a high level of competition for places, you need to make sure that you prepare well and submit the best application possible. To help, we have created a Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) ST1 interview guide. This guide includes everything you need to know about the application process including the timeline and format of the interview. 

Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) Application

Health Education England coordinates the national process for recruiting trainees into Community Sexual and Reproductive Health (CSRH) ST1 level posts. You can only submit your application through the online application system, Oriel. 

You will need to complete all parts of the Application Form. No application form will be accepted after the deadline, no matter the reason. To ensure a fair process, there are no exceptions to this. Because of this, candidates are advised to submit their application form well before the deadline.

Also, everyone applying for Community Sexual and Reproductive Health (CSRH) ST1 will be required to take a Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA). The test is a mandatory computer-based assessment, made up of two papers, the Professional Dilemmas Paper and the Clinical Problem Solving Paper. A full breakdown of the topics you’ll be assessed on can be seen in our MSRA question bank dashboard (below).

Medibuddy MSRA Question Bank Dashboard

The results of the MSRA will help to determine the ranking of each candidate. This, along with the places available at the time, will influence who’s invited to an interview. You can prepare for this using our adaptive, AI-powered MSRA question bank.

The MSRA score isn’t used for ranking beyond this, and there is no option to bypass the interview due to a high MSRA score, as with some other specialties. Those who fail to attend the test will be removed from the selection process.

Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) Interview Timeline 2024

The interview timeline for 2024 is below: 

Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) Interview Format 

With a limited number of posts available, only around 60 applicants will be invited to an interview. The interview will last for around 20 minutes. There will be two assessors on the panel. Each assessor will score you out of 60, meaning there’s a total of 120 marks available. 

The Community and Sexual Reproductive Health (CSRH) interview will cover the following four key areas:

1. Communication
   The communication scenario will be provided before the interview, giving you some time to prepare. This section is not designed to assess your clinical knowledge, but some understanding of ethical and legal considerations will help you here.
2. Specialty Focus
   This section will focus on what you know about the CSRH training programme and what you think makes you a suitable candidate.Below you can see an example question from our Community and Sexual Reproductive Health ST1 interview question bank and how to approach answering it:
3. Audit & Data Handling
   As with the communication station, you’ll be provided with an article to read prior to your interview. This will usually be sent about a week before and will vary in content, anything from a published research paper to a patient opinion piece. Our CSRH ST1 interview question bank shows you how to systematically approach the article so you’re prepared to discuss it with the assessors.
   
4. Resilience
   Resilience is recognised as an important quality for health professionals, and this section focuses specifically on questions relating to it. An example from our CSRH ST1 interview question bank is shown below:
   

You don’t need any previous experience relating to the specialty when you’re applying to ST1. Also, applicants come from a range of backgrounds and experience levels. Because of this, the interview doesn’t assess advanced knowledge as this would disadvantage less experienced candidates. Instead, the questions will reflect generic competencies and the assessors will be looking for things like leadership skills, which are required for clinical practice in this field. However, as it’s a highly competitive specialty, it’s essential that you dedicate time to preparing effectively for the interview. We’ve designed our CSRH ST1 interview question bank to support you, with example questions covering a broad range of topics and comprehensive model answers, so you’re thoroughly prepared for the interview.

Further Reading

MSRA Complete Guide

Person Specification 2024