T&O Surgery 20th November 2024

Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery ST3: Interview Guide 2025

If you’re considering applying for Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery ST3 (T&O ST3), you’ll no doubt be aware that it can be a competitive specialty. With this in mind, we have created this T&O ST3 interview guide to help you prepare well for the interview and application process.

Here you’ll find everything you need to know about applying for T&O ST3, including the application timeline, format of the interview and the competition ratios, to give you the best chance of a stress-free application process.

Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery ST3 Interview Timeline

The following is the T&O ST3 recruitment timeline for 2025:

T&O ST3 Applications

Applications for T&O ST3 2025 will open between 14 November – 5 December 2024, giving you a limited amount of time to submit your application. You can only apply through the Oriel recruitment system, and all sections of the application need to be completed.

The ST3 T&O application form has several self-assessment multiple-choice questions. This part of the application form requires you to select responses to the questions while providing evidence to support your answers.

The T&O self-assessment questions cover:

• Specialty Experience
• T&O Specialty Experience
• Related Specialty Experience
• Operative Experience
• Publications (a)
• Publications (b)
• Presentations
• Audits
• Higher Degrees
• Leadership
• Teaching

As part of the essential entry requirements for T&O ST3, you must successfully complete MRCS Part A and Part B by the offer date. It’s also desirable to have:

• Completed a minimum of 10 months’ experience in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery
• Acquired CT/ST1 and CT/ST2 ISCP competencies identified within the T&O curriculum within the last 24 months
• Gained a minimum of 8 months’ experience in two related specialties – for example, Plastic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, ENT Surgery, Cardiac/Thoracic Surgery, A&E, ITU, Urology, OMFS and General Surgery.

You can find more information about the entry criteria and person specification for T&O ST3 here.

T&O ST3 Interview Format

If your evidence is verified by the assessors and your application is considered successful, you will be invited to an interview.

The T&O ST3 interview is a multi-station, 60-minute interview. This will be split into the following four 10-minute stations:

Commitment to Specialty (previously Portfolio)

During this station, you will be interviewed about various aspects of your career. The two interviewers will be looking to gain insight into your experience to date.

The categories on the mark scheme include:

1. Career Motivation, Learning and Development
2. Leadership and Team Involvement
3. Organisation and Planning
4. Communication – Information Giving
5. Academic

All the above categories are given a score out of 5 by each examiner, giving a total of 10 available points per category.

Below is an example question from our Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery ST3 interview question bank:

Clinical

The clinical station consists of two halves and two scenarios lasting 5 minutes each. Candidates are presented with XRs or scenarios either from a trauma or elective setting and then asked related questions. The assessors will score you based on the following:

1. Technical Knowledge
2. Problem Solving and Decision Making
3. Situational Awareness
4. Communication – Information Gathering
5. Communication – Information Giving

The following is an example of a trauma scenario from our T&O ST3 interview question bank:

Prioritisation

This station – sometimes considered the trickiest – consists of a prioritisation exercise. It tends not to test any new knowledge that hasn’t been covered in the clinical station but requires a certain technique to excel.

The candidate is presented with several cases which they must prioritise in order of urgency. Usually, the setting is that of the on-call registrar organising the next day’s trauma list and also deciding which patients to see first in the emergency department.

To give you an idea of the types of prioritisation questions you might face, the following is an example from our T&O ST3 interview question bank:

For each prioritisation question in our T&O ST3 interview question bank, you’ll be given a possible answer (prioritisation list) and a discussion of each case to understand how this decision has been reached.

The two interviewers, who score you independently, will test elements of your skill set. This includes:

1. Organisation and Planning
2. Communication – Information Gathering
3. Communication – Information Giving
4. Judgement Under Pressure
5. Situational Awareness

As with the previous stations, there will be a maximum of 10 points per category available.

Communication

Previously, communication was assessed across the other three stations (as is still the case). However, for the 2024 interview, it was introduced as a separate station, and this has been continued for the T&O ST3 2025 interview.

The communication station is based on a scenario involving communication with a patient. You will be assessed – and scored individually by the two assessors – against the following domains:

1. Technical Knowledge
2. Situational Awareness
3. Judgement Under Pressure
4. Communication – Information Gathering
5. Communication – Information Giving

The full scoring matrix for the interview can be found in Appendix 3 of the applicant handbook.

The following is an example communication scenario from our T&O ST3 interview question bank so you know what to expect.

T&O ST3 Competition Ratios

In 2024, T&O ST3 had 522 applications. With only 164 posts, there was a competition ratio of 3.18. This means more than three people were applying for every post. With a high number of applicants battling it out, you need to ensure that your T&O ST3 application is the best it can be.

When preparing your application, we recommend ensuring you are familiar with the self-assessment scoring guidance and the application handbook. We’ve also designed the Medibuddy Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery ST3 Interview Question Bank with a broad range of questions covering all elements of the interview and detailed explanations to help you succeed. You can find out more about our new T&O ST3 interview question bank here.