Hi everyone and welcome to this video. I'm Prateek a dentist and specialty doctor and in this
video we're going to be looking at the interview process for dental core training during the COVID
pandemic. So in this video we'll be looking at what the interview process for dental core training
will be during the COVID pandemic; the types of stations that will be involved and some hints
and tips in order to maximise the mark you can get through an online interview. I have done some
other videos on the dental core training process so make sure you have a look at those. Before
we go on it's really important to stress that this is a fluid situation as I've said in other
videos, so make sure you stay up to date with the COPDEND website where all the details are listed.
As it currently stands, Plan A that is put forward by COPDEND is that you will have an interview
which will be carried out on Microsoft Teams with two examiners. If the pandemic gets worse this may
be dropped to Plan B where there'll just be a single examiner. Different to previous years, you
will have two stations. The first one is a clinical governance station and the second one a clinical
scenario station. Each of these stations account for 33.5% of your overall mark.
The SJTs account for 33%. The interview is a stark contrast to the situational judgement test. In the
SJT you're not really tested on your clinical knowledge whereas in the interview you need your
clinical knowledge to shine. For those of you who have previously applied to dental core training
or have looked at old application guides, you'll be aware that there normally would be a communication
station but due to the pandemic this isn't going to happen this year. So instead your communication
is likely to be assessed from these other stations so it's really important that you remember to
maintain good communication skills. Each station is thought to approximately be lasting for seven
and a half minutes giving your total 15 minute interview time. We're still unclear as to whether
you'll get the scenarios beforehand or you'll get some reading time at the time. Again ensure that
you read the person specification because there are certain things that it would be expected you know
when it comes to these scenarios. Although you may not know completely which scenario is going
to come up you can have a good guess and there are certain themes and certain topics that will likely
come up and so it's really important you look at these topics and you consider potential answers
for them. Now if we look at station one - this is officially titled as clinical governance, quality
improvement and professional skills. The complexity of this will probably vary slightly between DCT1
and DCT2 and 3 applications, where at DCT2 and 3 you're expected to have a little more knowledge.
There are potentially lots of things that you may need to cover in this station but a lot of
this comes with documentation and guidelines that are readily available for you to read. So make
sure you read the relevant resources including the GDC standards, FGDP guidelines, looking at the
seven pillars of clinical governance, aspects of evidence-based practice, scope of practice,
safeguarding, consent, the list goes on. There are so many things that you could look at. Some examples
of stations that could potentially come up or it's worth practicing - consenting for a 16 year
old and how you would go about this; what to do if you suspect that someone has been abused and they
turn up as a patient; what to do in terms of auditing or the audit cycle. You may also be asked
to draw on your own experience so if you're asked about audit you may be asked to tell them about an
audit that you've done so making sure you follow each of the steps of the audit cycle in order to
present it properly to the examiners. You can use jargon in this station because you're not speaking
to a patient, you're speaking to examiners so use jargon to demonstrate your knowledge, demonstrate
the terms that you know and the documents that you know. These will pick you up the extra marks
and if there is time left at the end and you feel like you've spoken everything that you can, you can
always go back and fill in bits that you may have forgotten. Take your time, compose yourself
and look back on the topic. Let's look at the second station which is the clinical scenario.
In this station, you're going to be presented with a clinical situation and you're expected to
demonstrate your clinical knowledge and competency through this. Typically you will go through the
assessment, your diagnosis, your investigations and also your treatment planning. Common stations
to consider for this include common things that you'd see as a DCT. Facial trauma - fractures of
the mandible or fractures of the zygoma, dentoalveolar trauma and avulsed tooth and how you'd
manage this, advanced periodontal disease and how you'd manage this type of patient. You may also be
asked about osteoradionecrosis or medication related osteonecrosis of the jaw or MRONJ. And if
you're thinking about practicing this station look at common situations you've come across in dental
school or during foundation year or what you're likely to come across for example if you were to
do a MaxFac DCT job. Then you discuss the case with the examiners in the format that I've already
mentioned. It's important to follow this systematic format to try and maximise the marks you will get
because you're less likely to skip things. Another really important thing with this is
to know your limitations. Ultimately for example if you have a station regarding a fractured mandible
there is only so much you're going to be competent to do as a dental core trainee and this is when you
would start mentioning that you would speak to your registrar on call or you'd speak to
your consultant on call to get their input. This does two things - it shows that you are safe and it
shows that you're working within your competency and you recognise your limits. Don't forget to go
through an ABCDE assessment if it is a patient for example who's attended A&E or a sustained trauma.
This again shows that you're not forgetting the basics - you've got a well-rounded view
of the situation at hand. Discuss all treatment options and how you'd go about making an informed
decision with the patient. The scenario should fall within your knowledge and it's useful to
involve evidence-based practice wherever you can for example if a station comes on wisdom teeth you
may want to start referencing the NICE guidelines on extraction of wisdom teeth.
The last thing to mention specifically for the clinical scenario, if you don't know admit that
you don't know. This is the safest option and the safest thing to say. Now we've looked at the two
main stations, I want to give you a couple of tips on structuring your answers. There are two ways
that I find it really easy to structure answers. The first way if you're encountering something
that is involved in competency qualities or skills is using the mnemonic STAR. So we have situation
and this provides a summary of the context of the answer. We've got the task which explains
what you're required to do. You've got the action which explains what you did and why you did it and
this will show your involvement and competency and the result, the outcome of your action including a
reflection. Then for ethical and professionalism scenarios another mnemonic is SPIES and this
is broken down to seeking information. This demonstrating you learning more about the
situation so what is actually happening. Patient safety - is patient care compromised? Initiative - what
can you do yourself to help the situation. Escalate this is involving other colleagues/bodies ecetera.
For example if you've got a staff member working out of their scope of practice, you may want to
involve a practice manager. And support - how can you support the individual, the team and the patient?
Using these two methods, it means that you're likely to follow again a structured approach
and so you're less likely to miss things when it comes to answering the questions. Let's now look
at the big thing - the general tips on how to get the most from an online interview. The first thing,
whether it's online or not, are buzzwords. A lot of the marks that are available are simply for saying
buzzwords so for example if you have a vulnerable child it's saying the term safeguarding or if
you've got someone who's doing something they shouldn't be in your team mentioning scope of
practice. So one of the things that I really like to do particularly for the clinical governance
station in my mind and when I answer to the examiner the first thing I do is I go through which GDC
standards are relevant and which other legal and ethical issues may be involved. An example scenario
would be a nurse is carrying out inappropriate treatment on a patient. I'd immediately go through
the GDC standards in my head and I'd start saying to the examiner that there are a number of GDC
standards that are impacted in this scenario. The first would be the patient's best interests
are affected because they have potentially having inappropriate treatment and I gradually
work through these standards and you can involve a majority of the standards. For example the patient
may want to complain, you need to raise concerns because patients are at risk and potentially
other members of the team at risk. There are lots of ways you can involve the GDC standards and by
saying these buzzwords you can pick up a lot of the marks. If you spend a lot of time talking about
the term but not saying it, you may not get the mark because the examiners don't know for certain
you actually know the term. The same with buzzwords applies to the clinical scenario so for example
if you're discussing investigations for a patient you use the correct terminology in terms of which
radiographs you're going to take, how you're going to assess them. Like with any normal interview
you want to follow the basic principles of an interview. You want to dress appropriately. You also
want to ensure that you speak clearly and slowly so that the examiners understand what you're
saying. Make sure you've checked that the software works you've practiced using Microsoft Teams
with someone in your family or a friend because there may be issues such as your internet isn't
very stable and so you keep cutting out. These are easy things that you can fix before the interview.
Practicing is really important - these are things you can practice. Your friends will have ideas
of certain types of stations that may come up and so practice with them and you may pick up certain
things that you weren't realising you were doing before. An alternative if you can't do that at the
moment because of the COVID pandemic is to film yourself. If you film yourself you'll get a good
idea of what you're going to look like over camera to how your communication is coming across. Are you
using verbal and non-verbal communication skills? Because these are all going to be really important
in terms of you being assessed on an online interview. Following on from that you want to
be speaking directly to the examiners and this is something that a lot of people struggle with with
an online interview. A lot of people will stare at their screen rather staring into the camera but to
actually make eye contact as you would in a normal interview with the examiners you need to look
directly into the camera. Make sure you practice this so that this doesn't feel unnatural to you.
Other basic things with regards to preparing for your interview - find a quiet room that doesn't have
any distractions. Choose a neutral background so that the examiners aren't put off during your
interview and you can be seen clearly. Make sure your laptop is working and is fully charged or you
have your charger available to you. Again this is not something you want to stress about. And finally
if you make a mistake don't worry about it - either correct yourself or just forget about it and move
on. Try not to get flustered and try to relax this is where practicing becomes really important - the
more you practice, the more comfortable you're going to be in this type of situation. If you
do have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or contact me one of the social handles. If
you found this video useful don't forget to like comment and subscribe. My recommendation in this video
is another youtuber who is RainaOnTheCusp. Now Raina is a dental student who's currently at
the University of Sheffield and through her YouTube channel she's helped a lot of individuals who are
currently thinking about dentistry as well as those currently going through dental school. So
if you're interested in this type of thing make sure you check her YouTube channel - I'll put all
the details in the description. Again if you're sitting the dental core training process, good
luck. If you do have any questions please contact me - I'm happy to help till the next video take care.