Clinical Radiology Application Episode 5: The RCR Empire Strikes Back!
Our thoughts on the interview format changes and how you can get that competitive edge, the RadCast way
As the great Emperor Palpatine famously once decreed, “Execute Order Sixty-Six"! Whilst this spelt the near total demise of the Jedi, the Royal College of awesomeballs Radiologists decided to execute their own Order Sixty-Six only but a mere three days ago when they released more information about the forthcoming interview. And boy oh boy, did they play the ultimate UNO reverse card. Yes my friends, they only went and changed the interview format! Throughout the universe, many gasps were heard which were promptly, and rightly, followed by different flavourings of profanities recited in all manner of tongues. From the promised “Commitment To Specialty” and “Communication Skills”, as per the initial description on Oriel, to the latest “Prioritisation of Clinical Situations” and “Specialty Skills”. But don’t fret, we are here to try and unravel what this could mean for you. Of course, we don’t have a crystal ball and all of this is speculation on our part but it’s an educated one based on prior interview formats. At the end of the day, the focus now is purely trying to cover all bases and in particular, areas that you know you’d sh*t yourself if it came up in the interview tomorrow (we’re looking at you prioritisation station). So let’s get straight into it!
Station A: Prioritisation of Clinical Situations (10 Minutes)
1 minute reading
6 minutes questions on scenario
3 minutes questions
Based on the messages we’ve received, this is the station that is causing you a lot of stress. Is it going to be clinical? Is it radiological? What kind of questions can they ask? All of these are sensible questions and whilst we cannot guarantee anything, we do know that this format has been used in the past. You see pre-2018, before Tinder was a thing, the radiology interview would ask candidates to prioritise a series of radiology requests in order from highest priority to lowest priority. How do we know? Well firstly, Uzi and Jamie got this in their interview and secondly, we found a BMJ article that walks through it (click the button below to access it).
The first thing you realise from this article is DAMMMMMNNNN, there were only 917 applicants back in 2015?! Secondly, it was a 100% fill rate back then which still holds true now i.e. radiology has always been one sexy specialty. Finally, and most critically, the article gives an overview of the different stations they went through at the time. In fact, reading it, it does sound very similar to what you are being asked to prepare for this year. Once again, pure speculation on our part but if we were in your position, we’d be preparing for these things “just in case”.
As you can see for the prioritisation element, the focus was on radiology related requests. The candidate would be asked to firstly, determine if the imaging request was appropriate and then secondly, determine its urgency based on the context. A good example is a chest X-Ray to diagnose tension pneumothorax. Totally inappropriate since that’s a clinical diagnosis, not a radiological one! In our opinion, these are fair questions and you don’t really need a lot of radiology knowledge to figure this out. Classically, from speaking with individuals who went through this format, the scenarios were emergency based ones which you’ve probably already encountered during your time on the wards/A&E.
With regards to the final “3 minutes questions”, we honestly don’t know what this means. We’re not even sure if it’s a typo. Like is it 1x3 minute question? Or is it 3 minutes of questions (emphasis on the pleural)? We just don’t know and we’re holding our hands up about this. Once again, speaking to those who went through the pre-2018 interview format, they do remember being asked “why radiology” so they may ask this here (key emphasis is on the word “may”).
Station 2: Specialty Skills (10 Minutes)
3 questions
Isn’t it hilarious how the first station was called Station A and now this station, instead of being called Station B, is just called Station 2? Like what happened here? Did someone make a boo-boo? Anyhow, we digress, let’s take a look at what could be asked.
Firstly, this could be a pure “skills” based station. What do we mean by that? Well, they could ask you about 3 “skills” from the Person specification and ask you to give examples e.g. communication, leadership, teamwork. Of course, make the link to a career in radiology and personalise to your achievements as you go along.
But, based upon speaking to pre-2018 candidates and having gone through the BMJ article, it could get a bit more interesting. Specifically, this station could also include:
Image Interpretation
Report Critiquing
Ethics
Now if you’ve signed up to our Clinical Radiology Application Course (CRAC), you’ll be as ethical guru and a maestro in articulating your personal skills. However, it may be the image interpretation and report critiquing that may throw you off kilter. So let’s go through these together.
In terms of the image interpretation, this does not mean you have to go crazy and start panic buying “Grainger & Allison’s Diagnostic Radiology” (the reference book for radiology). Don’t buy into FOMO. You’re not a radiologist (yet) and the interviewers don’t expect you to be a radiologist. Rather, when image interpretation was asked, they wanted to see you had a systematic and safe approach to your image interpretation. Do you escalate if you see emergency findings or do you finish the report to grab your vanilla latte? Whilst we are actually suckers for a chai latte, the key was to show to the interviewers that you are methodical in your approach. After all, you don’t go and do a surgical abdominal exam by offering to do a PR first and then moving on to palpate the abdomen. If you do, please seek help but jokes aside, you start at the end of the bed, move onto general inspection blah blah blah.
Moving on to the report critiquing, once again this is probably a very alien concept to you. Firstly, yes we do reports in radiology. It isn’t just the “Conclusion” which we know you just blates read by itself. It’s all that “other stuff” written before it too 😒. Once again, don’t panic. Keep it simple. When we asked pre-2018 candidates, they stated it was just a case of looking at the report structure and mentioning its positives and negatives. Good questions to ask yourself: “does this report answer the clinical question”, “are important positive findings highlighted”, “are important negative findings mentioned” and “are appropriate alert codes provided”? Whilst this isn’t an English literature assessment where you have to critique some obscure poem and make up bullsh*t about the sky being blue cause the author is sad, it’s a critique of a radiological report from a clinical perspective.
So How Can I Prepare?
Time is of the essence and at RadCast HQ, all stations are go! That’s why we’ve got two absolute bangers lined up for you:
RadCast New Interview Format Talk - Our Thoughts (9th March, 7pm (GMT), Zoom)
During this webinar, we’ll be going through the newly released information about the revamped interview format and giving our thoughts on what this means for you. This is based off our own interpretation of the information and having spoken to pre-2018 candidates who are familiar with the old school interview format. We’ve condensed their wisdom and hopefully, it will help steer this final sprint of your interview prep. Basically think of it as an extension of this newsletter where you can also ask us questions and we’ll do our best to answer.
It’ll be held over Zoom on the 9th of March at 7pm (GMT). The session will be recorded and made available on our YouTube channel (link below). To get the Zoom details, you just need to access the free module by registering for the Clinical Radiology Application Course (link below).
Access New Radiology Prioritisation, Image Interpretation & Report Critiquing Modules On The Clinical Radiology Application Course (CRAC)
We’ve been working our butts off to add new modules to the CRAC focused purely on radiology prioritisation, image interpretation and report critiquing elements. Whilst we’re not saying this is 100% coming up, we just don’t want you to feel alone when it comes to preparing. Alongside the modules, we’re also running daily webinars where candidates can practice prioritising scans, interpreting images and critiquing reports. We’ll be running these daily up until the interviews start. They are all recorded and then made available on the CRAC platform. Remember, the focus is on high yield prep on things you would crap yourself about if it came up in the interview tomorrow.
You can sign up using the button below and we’ll then invite you to our exclusive telegram group where we are actively sharing resources on high yield interview topics.
Final Thoughts
Twenty minutes, Two Stations, One Training Number.
Yup, that’s what 50% of your final rank has been condensed too.
Sounds fu*king scary right?
But remember you’re not alone in this fight. We are doing whatever we can to support you from the background. We are your number 1 fans (OnlyFans incoming 2024).
In the final run up to the interview, our number one priority is to provide that last bolus of motivation, support and focus we know you need to get over the finish line. Based on the interview format changes, our main focus will be on the radiology niche topics that may be making you feel uneasy. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do via our webinars and CRAC resources.
As always, feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions via hello@radcast.co.uk.
Till next time,
From your “I’d like to alert code this finding” friends,
Jamie, Uzoma and Muhammad
RadCast Co-Founders