Cardiology is one of the most popular and varied medical specialities, comprising a wide range of sub-specialities including electrophysiology, device therapy, interventional cardiology, imaging and specialist heart failure management.
Cardiological problems account for a large proportion of the medical workload, and by delivering evidence-based care cardiologists can make a real difference to patients.
Cardiology trainee characteristics
Cardiology will particularly suit trainees who are:
-
motivated
-
hard-working
-
able to develop procedural skills
-
keen to engage in clinical research
Working in cardiology
Within cardiology, physicians can develop a wide range of careers encompassing cardiovascular research, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology & device implantation, specialised heart failure management, advanced cardiac imaging and several smaller sub-specialities.
Sub-specialties/combined training
Working in some sub-specialities involves performing procedures with a high intensity on-call while others are more out-patient based with minimal on-call commitments.
In all these areas the pace of change and development is very rapid, providing a stimulating working life.
Widespread requirement
Cardiological input is required in every hospital and consultant appointments are made in both district general hospitals and tertiary centres; sometimes appointments will be made with sessions at both district general hospitals and the local tertiary centres.
Currently most electrophysiology and advanced cardiac imaging posts are within tertiary centres.
Competitiveness
Cardiology remains a very competitive speciality, and many trainees will choose a period of academic research leading to an MD/PhD during their training; this is highly encouraged.
Potential cardiologists will need to demonstrate excellence in their career to date, and to show that they are committed to the speciality.
The needs of patients with cardiovascular disease continue to grow and cardiologists can do more and more to help them. Cardiology therefore remains a growing speciality.
Medical Care
Find out more about cardiology and the services delivered by the specialty on Medical Care – the RCP’s online guide to service design.
Further information
- NHS health careers - cardiology
- JRCPTB specialty page and curriculum
- RCP (London), Specialty spotlight - cardiology
- ST3 cardiology person specification
- The British Cardiovascular Society
- Developing physicians on RCP Medical Care
General / application queries
For general queries relating to areas such as eligibility criteria, making an application or the Oriel system, please contact the Physician Specialty Recruitment Office.
Queries regarding the progress of a submitted application should be directed to the lead recruiter for this specialty. The lead recruiter for cardiology in 2021 is Wessex.
Cardiology 2021 - regional contact details | |
---|---|
Region | Contact details |
Wessex |
Recruitment.WX@hee.nhs.uk |
Eligibility
This specialty uses the standard ST3 eligibility criteria, and does not accept candidates from any alternative training routes.
Please visit the am I eligible? section of this website for further information.
*Please note; cardiology has not participated in round 2 of ST3 Recruitment since 2012
Please note that due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, certain recruitment processes have been affected for round 2 ST3 PSRO-coordinated specialties. As a result, the below information on this page is not applicable for this round only and should not be used where the process has changed. Please refer to the applicant guide for the latest information about how round 2 will operate.
Further guidance about the scoring format of interviews will be published to each specialty page and we hope to have this updated by application closing date. Please visit the specialty pages closer to the time for updated information.
Interview Content
You will spend approximately 15 minutes at each of the three interview stations, with five minutes' transfer time between each. Thus the overall time for the cardiology interview will be approximately 60 minutes.
For details of how scores are awarded at interview, and weighting that is applied subsequently, please see the scoring page of this website.
Communication skills
Implicit in all six areas assessed across the three stations will be an assessment your communication skills - eg of how you would communicate with patients, colleagues, etc. in a given scenario, as well as your communication with interviewers at each station.
Click on the relevant stations below for more information on the content of the interview.
Please note that this is subject to change, and will be confirmed by the date of interview.
This question will focus on your commitment to ST3 training in the specialty and give you opportunity to expand on the information provided in your application form.
This question will last approximately 7 minutes.
This question will be a discussion of professionalism and governance.
This discussion will be prompted by a short question (often a single sentence) provided by interviewers. This will not be given to you before - this will be given verbally by interviewers once the previous question is finished. This question will last approximately 7 minutes
This section of the interview is designed to assess your demonstration and understanding of professionalism and governance in a given situation.
Familiarise yourself with Good Medical Practice
Please note - assessment here is underpinned by the principles of GMC Good Medical Practice.
Following the first two questions you will be given a clinical scenario to review for a few minutes. You will be asked questions on this scenario for approximately 10 minutes.
Once this scenario has been completed, one of the interviewers will verbally give you a second clincial scenario . Unlike the first scenario, you will not be given specific time to consider it and interviewers will start questioning you about it once the initial scenario has been relayed. Questioning on the second scenario will last approximately 6 minutes.
Scenario considerations
The scenario will describe a hypothetical clinical situation which has arisen in which you are, or have become, involved. Areas to consider when reviewing the scenarios are:- what steps you would take
- any potential treatments possible
- any further information you would gather
- how you would go about communicating with any people (eg patients, family members, colleagues) involved in the scenario.
You should also take into account any other factors you deem appropriate, using your experience and professional judgement.
Areas for assessment
You will be awarded a separate mark based on your responses to each scenario, marked independently of each other.
Interview scoring
Appointable - automatic
If you are awarded a score of at least 3/5, for all marks given to you at your interview, then you will automatically be classed as appointable.
Not appointable - automatic
If any of the 12 scores awarded to you at interview are 1/5, this will reflect poor performance and an area of major concern.
If four or more of your 12 interview scores are of 2/5, this will reflect several areas of concern across your whole interview.
Should your interview assessment fall under either category above, the level of concern over your potential progression to ST3 will see your application classed automatically as not appointable.
Appointability subject to panel decision
In the event that your 12 interview scores contain one, two or three marks of 2/5 (and the rest 3/5 or above), your appointability status will be subject to discussion in the post-interview 'wash-up' meeting.
The clinicians who have interviewed you will discuss your general performance during the interview and any concerns or otherwise they have about your application as a whole.
Should they deem it appropriate, your application will be classed as appointable, and you can then be considered for post offers; whereas if they feel their concerns are too substantial for this outcome, they must class your application as not appointable, and it will progress no further in the current recruitment round.
Review vs automatic status
Please note there is no distinction made between candidates judged as appointable automatically, and those classed as appointable on review. Once deemed appointable it is only your overall score which will be used to determine ranking.
Total score calculation
After interview, a weighting is applied to the scores in each area, as well as the application form score, to give a 'total score'. This score determines your ranking which is used to inform how offers are made. The weighting of different sections, as well as the method by which your total score is established, can be seen by clicking on 'Total score calculation' below.
Please note that this is subject to change, and will be confirmed by the date of interview.
Int. 1 | Int. 2 | Weighting | Max score | |
Station 1 | ||||
Evidence | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
Suitability for specialty | / 5 | / 5 | x1.2 | / 12 |
Station 2 | ||||
Clinical scenario (Major) | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
Clinical scenario (Minor) | / 5 | / 5 | x1.2 | / 12 |
Station 3 | ||||
Ethical scenario | / 5 | / 5 | x1.6 | / 16 |
Professionalism and governance | / 5 | / 5 | x0.8 | / 8 |
Raw interview score | / 60 | |||
Interview score (including weighting) | / 80 | |||
Short-listing (app form) | / 80 | x0.25 | / 20 | |
Overall assessment score | / 100 |
As part of the process of applying to ST3, you may wish to gain an idea of how recruitment progressed in previous years for the various specialties participating in the nationally-coordinated recruitment.
To this end, we have published data dating back to 2013 (where this is available), based around four main areas:
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Competition ratios - application numbers submitted to each specialty, along with the number of NTN and LAT posts available in each. It is worth noting that posts are subject to change throughout the round (increasing on average between 20-40%), and post numbers for this data are taken at the end of the round.
-
Shortlist scores - the scores awarded to all submitted applications, including average scores and distribution nationally.
-
Total scores - the total score awarded to all candidates who completed the full recruitment process for a specialty (application and interview), including some analysis of scores.
-
Post fill rates - the number of posts filled by region.
We have published information for all specialties participating in our process that year; consequently not all specialties will have data in all cases.
Year | Apps. | NTN posts | LAT posts | Total posts | Comp. | Unique* |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | 372 | 117 | 8 | 125 | 3.0 | 65% |
2018 | 360 | 135 | 5 | 140 | 2.6 | 69% |
2017 | 326 | 128 | 8 | 136 | 2.4 | 68% |
2016 | 324 | 141 | 9 | 150 | 2.2 | 69% |
2015 | 324 | 99 | 49 | 148 | 2.2 | 70% |
* the percentage of unique candidates that only applied to this specialty (out of the 24 PSRO-coordinated specialties)
Please note that cardiology has not participated in round 2 since 2012.
Provisional post numbers
Specialty vacancy numbers are available in the table below, broken down by region and divided between substantive national training number (NTN) and locum appointment for training (LAT) posts.
It is the intention that initial post numbers for all regions will be published prior to the application opening date, although this cannot be guaranteed. Numbers will be updated as and when notifications are received from each region and will be checked later in the round when programme preferences are open for selection.
Numbers subject to change
Please be aware that it is not uncommon for vacancy numbers to change throughout the round.
More commonly, post vacancy numbers can increase as the round goes on (and confirmation of posts becomes available); but it is also possible that numbers can reduce as well. On average post numbers rise between 20-40% from the start to the finish of the round but this can vary greatly for individual specialty/region combinations.
It is possible that regions which do not have a post at the start of the round may declare one after applications have closed. Whilst we try and minimise instances of this, it is not always possible to predict vacancies so even if there appears not to be a vacancy in your preferred specialty/region combination, you may wish to consider applying in case one becomes available during the round; you can check with the region concerned if you wish to check on the likelihood of a post arising.
Generally, once a region enter a post into a round they would always have at least one post available and would only withdraw it in exceptional circumstances.
Round 1 Interview dates and posts
Region | NTN posts | LAT posts* | Evidence upload date(s) | Interview date(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
London and KSS |
(London) 10-20 |
N/A |
7 - 14 January 2021 |
8 - 12 March 2021 18 March 2021 24 March 2021 29 - 30 March 2021 13 - 14 April 2021
|
(Kent, Surrey, Sussex) 6-10 |
N/A | |||
East of England | 0-9 | N/A | ||
West Midlands | 1-3 | N/A | ||
East Midlands | 6-7 | N/A | ||
North East | 0-6 | N/A | ||
North West |
(Mersey) TBC |
N/A | ||
(North Western) TBC |
N/A | |||
Yorkshire & Humber | TBC | N/A | ||
South West |
(Peninsula) TBC |
N/A | ||
(Severn) 0-2 |
N/A | |||
Wessex | 0-6 | N/A | ||
Thames Valley | 0-3 | N/A | ||
Wales | 6 | TBC | ||
Scotland** | 1 | TBC |
*English LATs
Please note, English regions do not recruit to LAT posts.
**Scotland post numbers
If you are interested in working in Scotland, a breakdown of post numbers by the four Scottish deaneries is available on the Scottish Medical Training website. This has details of all specialty training post numbers in Scotland, including specialties which are not part of the nationally-coordinated process.
Please note that whilst we endeavour to keep the Physician ST3 recruitment website up to date, the SMT website will always be the more accurate one where they differ.
Interview content
The interview will consist of three questions which range between 6-10 minutes in length. You will be marked on these three questions and your communication skills, giving four scored areas in total. You will be scored by two interviewers on each question.
Including time for questioning and scenario reading, the interview will be approximately 40 minutes.
Please note that this is subject to change and will be confirmed by the date of interview.
This question will focus on your commitment to ST3 training in the specialty and give you opportunity to expand on the information provided in your application form.
This question will last approximately 7 minutes.
This question will be a discussion of professionalism and governance.
This discussion will be prompted by a short question (often a single sentence) provided by interviewers. This will not be given to you before - this will be given verbally by interviewers once the previous question is finished. This question will last approximately 7 minutes
This section of the interview is designed to assess your demonstration and understanding of professionalism and governance in a given situation.
Familiarise yourself with Good Medical Practice
Please note - assessment here is underpinned by the principles of GMC Good Medical Practice.
Following the first two questions you will be given a clinical scenario to review for a few minutes. You will be asked questions on this scenario for approximately 10 minutes.
Once this scenario has been completed, one of the interviewers will verbally give you a second clincial scenario . Unlike the first scenario, you will not be given specific time to consider it and interviewers will start questioning you about it once the initial scenario has been relayed. Questioning on the second scenario will last approximately 6 minutes.
Scenario considerations
The scenario will describe a hypothetical clinical situation which has arisen in which you are, or have become, involved. Areas to consider when reviewing the scenarios are:- what steps you would take
- any potential treatments possible
- any further information you would gather
- how you would go about communicating with any people (eg patients, family members, colleagues) involved in the scenario.
You should also take into account any other factors you deem appropriate, using your experience and professional judgement.
Areas for assessment
You will be awarded a separate mark based on your responses to each scenario, marked independently of each other.
Scoring Framework
The score of 1-5 an interviewer will award you for each assessment area is judged in relation to how well you perform against an expected level. Below is the framework used to award scores at interview, as well as interpretation of what these scores represent:
Mark
|
Rating
|
Assessment
|
1 |
poor |
not considered appointable |
2 |
area for concern |
performed below the level expected; possibly unappointable, subject to discussion and performance in other areas |
3 |
satisfactory |
performed at the level expected during CT2; the candidate is suitable for an ST3 / LAT post |
4 |
good |
above average ability; the candidate is suitable for an ST3 / LAT post |
5 |
excellent |
highly performing trainee; the candidate is suitable for an ST3 / LAT post |
As shown in the table, for each of the question areas at interview, 3/5 is considered a satisfactory score; and reflects the level of performance that would be expected of a trainee ready to progress to a specialty training programme.
Should your performance go above and beyond this expected level, interviewers can award marks of 4/5 or 5/5 as appropriate.
Conversely, should your interview performance not reach the expected level, then interviewers can award marks of 1/5 or 2/5, as reflects their level of concern over your performance.
Appointability
From the eight scores awarded during your interview, an 'appointability' status will be calculated to determine whether you can be considered for an offer.
The intention is to ensure successful candidates can display competence consistently across all areas of assessment covered at interview, rather than allowing outstanding achievement in one or more areas to make up for sub-par performance elsewhere.
Appointability is awarded automatically and is based on two factors: individual interview scores and the 'raw interview score'.
Appointability criteria
To be classed as 'appointable', you must meet three criteria below:
- none of your 8 interview scores can be 1/5
- no more than two of your 8 interview scores can be 2/5
- your RIS must be 24 or above.
If you meet all three requirements, your application will be assessed as appointable, and can progress to be considered for post offers.
However, if you fail to meet any of these requirements, your application must then be assessed as not appointable, and it will progress no further in that round.
Total Score
After interview, a weighting is applied to the scores in each area, as well as your application score.
These scores are then combined to give your total score which determines your ranking, which will in turn be used to inform how offers are made. The weighting of different sections, as well as the method by which your total score is established, is detailed in the table accessible through the link below:
|
Interviewer 1
|
Interviewer 2
|
Weighting
|
Max score
|
Question 1 |
||||
Suitability and commitment |
/ 5 |
/ 5 |
1.8 |
18 |
Question 2 |
||||
Professionalism & governance |
/ 5 |
/ 5 |
1.2 |
12 |
Question 3 |
||||
Clinical scenario 1 |
/ 5 |
/ 5 |
2.5 |
25 |
Question 4 |
|
|||
Clinical scenario 2 |
/ 5 |
/ 5 |
2.5 |
25 |
Raw interview score |
/ 40 |
|||
Interview score (w weighting) |
/ 80 |
|||
Application score |
/ 56 |
0.36 |
/ 20.16 |
|
Total score |
/ 100.16 |