ST3 national selection for surgical specialty training in the UK: a comparative analysis

Abstract

Introduction National recruitment at ST3 level is the point for aspiring surgical trainees to obtain a national training number and progress to consultancy. In the 2020 recruitment year, face-to-face interviews were not possible owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. This highlighted wide ranging variability in recruitment processes for different surgical specialties. Methods Person specification details and portfolio scoring matrices were accessed through the Oriel recruitment portal. These were analysed and broken down into common domains for comparison purposes by two authors. Overall scores were totalled. Each domain was assessed in terms of its importance to each specialty by calculating its percentage contribution to overall portfolio marks. Results There was variability in all aspects of portfolio assessment and scoring. This started with how many overall ranking marks were contributed by the portfolio to each specialty. Further analysis and comparison of scoring domains demonstrated heterogeneity in how each specialty assesses and awards candidates marks based on achievements. Large emphasis is placed on certain domains by some specialties but not others. Conclusions The degree of variation in ST3 portfolio assessment and the differences between surgical specialties in how the scoring domains are valued has implications for core surgical trainees and those looking to apply for higher surgical training at ST3 level. Currently, core surgical trainees are assessed using a common process of annual review of competence progression that may not be suited to helping prepare candidates for gaining a national training number. There is no available evidence to account for variability between surgical specialty recruitment processes. Further work is needed to assess whether ST3 selection scoring variation has any impact on trainee progression to higher surgical training.