Respiratory Medicine ST4 21st November 2024

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Interview 2025

Are you applying for Respiratory Medicine ST4 in the 2025 recruitment round? To support you with your application, we’ve put together a Respiratory Medicine ST4 interview guide. The guide covers everything you need to know about the application process. This includes the key recruitment dates, the interview format and how you’ll be assessed.

To stand out with your application, you need to make a good impression, but before you do this, it’s helpful to have an idea of what you’re up against. In round 2 of 2024, there were 367 applications to Respiratory Medicine ST4. With 109 posts, the competition ratio was 3.37, meaning more than three people applied for each post.

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Application

To be eligible to apply for Respiratory Medicine ST4, you must have completed internal medicine training (IMT) stage 1 programme or equivalent. You must also have one of the following:

• MRCP Part 1 at the time of your application and MRCP full – Part 1 and Part 2 – by offer date
• Eligibility for the specialist register in general internal medicine by the time of your application submission (this must be approved by the GMC)
• Completion of Irish Basic Specialty Training in medicine and the MRCPI full diploma by offer date

For a full breakdown of the eligibility criteria, please see the Respiratory Medicine ST4 person specification 2025.

If you meet the eligibility criteria, submitting your Respiratory Medicine ST4 application is the first step in the recruitment process. Details of how your application is scored and used for shortlisting for interview are provided in the following sections.

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Application Scoring

Your Respiratory Medicine ST4 application will be scored based on your self assessment and supporting evidence. For your self assessment, you’ll answer questions relating to your achievements and qualifications, and be awarded scores based on the options you select. Your evidence documents are then used by assessors to verify these scores.

For the Respiratory Medicine ST4 self assessment, 38 points are available across the domains, with an additional 2 points for evidence documents which are organised to a satisfactory standard.

The Respiratory Medicine ST4 self assessment scoring domains are as follows:

You can find more information about the Respiratory Medicine ST4 self assessment and application scoring on the Physician Higher Specialty Training Recruitment website.

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Recruitment Timeline

The Respiratory Medicine ST4 application process takes place twice a year, with interviews for round 1 of the 2024 recruitment process scheduled for March.

You can find the key 2024 Respiratory Medicine ST4 recruitment dates in the table below:

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Interview Format

The Respiratory Medicine ST4 interview is split across two stations. There are four questions in total, lasting 5-10 minutes each. Each station will be approximately 15 minutes in total, so including the time between the stations, you can expect the interview to last 40 minutes.

Below, you’ll find what each question entails, along with how you’ll be assessed:

Station 1 – Question 1 – Clinical Scenario

For the first question of the interview, you’ll be given a clinical scenario. The scenario will be a few sentences long, describing a hypothetical situation that you’re involved in.

You can use the time before the discussion to either make notes or undertake some mental preparation. When reviewing the scenario, you should think about the following:

• Your next steps
• The potential treatments
• How you would communicate with other people in the scenario
• Any further information you would gather
• Any other factors you deem appropriate

You’ll then be asked questions relating to the scenario. This will last 10 minutes.

You can see an example of a clinical scenario from our Respiratory Medicine ST4 Question Bank below:

Station 1 – Question 2 – Application & Training

The second question focuses on your application form and training to date. The interviewers will ask you questions based on your career and achievements, while also exploring how you’ve engaged with training and learning so far. This question will last approximately 5 minutes.

Remember, you’ve already been scored on your achievements in your application, so scores in this station are not purely for your achievements. Rather, the interviewers will award scores based on a combination of factors, including your responses to the questions, the breadth and quality of your achievements and your career progression.

Station 1 – Question 3 – Communication mark

This is not a separate question, but a score for your communication across the station. You will be assessed and scored specifically on the communication skills you demonstrated with patients, colleagues, etc. in the scenario and with the interviewers throughout questions 1 and 2.

Station 2 – Question 1 – Medical Registrar Suitability

Station 2 starts by exploring the non-clinical aspects of being a medical registrar, with a primary focus on two of the Capabilities in Practice (CiPs) from the Internal Medicine Stage 1 Curriculum. These are:

• Managing an acute unselected take
• Managing a multi-disciplinary team including effective discharge planning

The interviewers will start the discussion by asking a question. However, with this part of the interview, you won’t receive this in advance, as you did with the clinical scenario. The question will last approximately 10 minutes.

The line of questioning will require you to think about your experience managing a team caring for acute medical admissions. You should also give specific examples to provide further weight to your answers.

Station 2 – Question 2 – Suitability & Commitment

The last question will cover your suitability and commitment to Respiratory Medicine training. This 5-minute question is a window of opportunity to build on the information you provided in your application form.

Station 2 – Question 3 – Communication mark

Again, this is not a separate question, but you will be assessed on your communication throughout the station. This is an opportunity to score specific points by demonstrating strong communication skills in questions 1 and 2.

Respiratory Medicine ST4 Interview Scoring

Each of the assessors will mark your interview performance separately, providing you with two scores for each section. As mentioned above, in addition to the four questions, the interviewers will also judge your communication skills for both stations.

And after determining how well you perform in relation to the expected level, the assessors will give you a score between 1-5 for each question. A 3/5 means your performance was satisfactory, while a 4 or 5 means you’re above the expected level for a trainee. However, scoring a 1 or 2 means you have scored below the expected level, potentially leading to you being considered ‘unappointable’.

The total of these scores gives you your Raw Interview Score (RIS). And with 6 assessment areas in your interview, you can expect to receive an RIS somewhere between 12 to 60.

Before you can be considered an ‘appointable’ candidate, you must meet several points. Failure to do so will result in your application progressing no further.

So, for your application to progress, you must meet the following criteria:

• None of your 12 interview scores can be 1/5
• A maximum of two of your twelve interview scores can be 2/5
• A RIS of 36 or higher

After you interview, a weighting is applied to each of the assessment areas, and your application score. These scores are then combined to give you a total score, which is used to determine your ranking for job offers.

You can find more information about the Respiratory Medicine ST4 interview scoring, including the weighting for the different assessment areas, on the Physician Higher Specialty Training Recruitment website.

Good luck!