Reference
Learn the engine, not the fourteen answers. They will run a scenario you have not seen.
The eight competencies
From the Trainee Selection Policy: MMI stations assess “real life knowledge and experience from clinical and non-clinical settings, which align with the key dermatological competencies”. Name the competency to yourself before you answer.
Reading ritual · 2 minutes
- 1Who am I here?registrar / resident / dermatologist — it changes what you can do
- 2Anyone unsafe right now?if yes, that is issue #1, always
- 3Three issue headingsPatient · People · System
- 4Which story is coming?write it BEFORE you go in — this is the one people skip
The sandwich — every answer, whatever is inside it
From the 2022 College interview-prep webinar. Whichever framework you use in the middle, it sits between these two.
One sentence establishing the principle before you touch the specifics. 'Patient safety is the first consideration in any situation like this.' It buys three seconds, signals values, and stops you starting mid-thought.
CAMP, STAR, SPIES-D, or the three-part opinion structure.
One sentence summarising what you said and linking it back to the question. Never finish on a cliff-hanger — panels will prompt you for an ending, and it sounds far better arriving on its own.
“For the purposes of answering this question, I'm going to assume [X].”
Say it out loud rather than guessing silently. It costs three seconds and it stops the panel marking you down for an assumption they never heard you make.
CAAMP — for motivation, attributes and “tell us about yourself”
It is really CAAMP, not CAMP — Academic splits into Education and Research, and Management is its own row. Most candidates collapse it to four and lose Management, which is the row that makes an answer sound registrar-level rather than resident-level.
Yours to fill in — role, rotations, hospitals, specific skills and interests.
Yours to fill in — courses and pd of note; educational delivery.
Yours to fill in — research; quality improvement activities.
Yours to fill in — service development; change to workflow; educational supervision.
Yours to fill in — geography; hobbies.
Wrapped in the sandwich above. You will not get through five rows in two minutes — pick the three the question actually asks for, and say how many you’re giving.
The three-part opinion structure
Any question beginning 'what are your thoughts on…', 'what is your opinion of…', or 'what are the challenges facing…'
- 1Motherhood statement.
- 2Part 1 — what it is, with a fact or figure if you have one you can defend. Then YOUR experience with it.
- 3Part 2 — same shape.
- 4Part 3 — same shape.
- 5In summary statement.
The 'your experience with it' half is what separates this from a policy essay. Two parts done properly beats three parts rushed.
The job you're applying for — 2026 handbook
Use this when asked what you expect of the first year, how you'd manage research alongside training, or what you know about the program. Naming Derm-CEX, ProDA and SITA correctly signals you have read the handbook rather than the website.
- — Four years full-time. Each clinical training year is 52 weeks, of which a minimum of 44 must be in an accredited training position — reduced from 46 in December 2025. The remaining 8 weeks are leave.
- — The AusDerm Curriculum applies to everyone sitting the Fellowship Examination from 2025 onwards.
- — All training and assessment must be completed within ten years of commencing.
- — 44 weeks in an accredited position; Rotation Learning Plan each rotation
- — Minimum 2 × Summative In-Training Assessment (SITA) summaries
- — 4 × Case-based Discussions (CBDs)
- — 4 × Procedural Dermatology Assessments (ProDAs)
- — 3 × Dermatology Clinical Evaluation Exercises (Derm-CEXs) — must include a full skin examination
- — Pharmacology modules and Clinical Sciences modules
- — Combined Evidence Based Medicine and first-year workshop
- — Begin the Essential/Advanced Procedures Logs, the Research Portfolio (10 points by end of year 3), Journal Club (2 presented + 2 attended by end of year 3), and ASM attendance (2 by end of year 3)
- — Year 2 — Dermoscopy module; second-year workshop.
- — Year 3 — Essential and Advanced Procedures Logs completed and observed; Research Portfolio and Journal Club requirements finished.
- — Year 4 — Supervisor training module; Fellowship Examination.
The College runs a formal FACD/PhD pathway (TPED004) — evidence it values research structurally, not rhetorically. It does not apply to you, because yours is already conferred. What is worth knowing: publications and presentations from within three years before commencing training may be considered for RPL, subject to the National Examinations Committee. Clinical work done during a PhD is not RPL-eligible unless it independently meets the RPL policy.
Part 1 — issues · 45 seconds
Say the number first: “I can see three groups of issues.” Then work the buckets in this order, and cross-cut with short-term versus long-term.
- — Is anyone unsafe right now?
- — Is this patient's care compromised — clinically, or through delay, cost, access or communication?
- — Are OTHER patients at risk from the same problem? (Most candidates miss this. It's often the highest-scoring issue.)
- — Their conduct — what has gone wrong professionally?
- — Their wellbeing — why might it be happening? Almost every 'difficult colleague' scenario has a person in trouble underneath.
- — My position — am I their peer, their junior, a bystander? What standing do I actually have?
- — Anyone else affected — nursing staff, family, other trainees?
- — Process, policy, documentation, handover, resourcing, culture.
- — Is this a one-off or a pattern?
- — Would the same thing happen tomorrow to someone else?
Part 2 — approach · SPIES-D, in the order you'd do it
- 1. Make safe — Anything urgent, now.“My first priority is whether anyone is currently at risk. If they are, that comes before everything else.”
- 2. Seek information — Go to the source. Don't act on hearsay.“I'd want to hear it from them directly before I formed a view — what I've been told is secondhand.”
- 3. Act in scope — What can I personally do?“Within my own role I can…”
- 4. Escalate — Name who, and why.“I'm aware that as a registrar I'm not the primary disciplinarian here. My responsibility is to raise it with someone who is.”
- 5. Support — Patient, colleague, family, self.“EAP, JMO wellbeing, social work, interpreter, Aboriginal Liaison Officer, patient advocate.”
- 6. Document — Contemporaneously.“Notes, incident form (ims+/RiskMan), email to self.”
- 7. System fix — The longer-term answer.“Longer term I'd want to know whether this is a one-off or a pattern, because the fix is different.”
Then close on the patient. Every approach answer should end where it started.
Lines worth having memorised
- “I'll set out the issues first, then take you through how I'd approach it.”
- “Before I do anything I'd want more information, because what I have here is one account.”
- “I can see three groups of issues — one about the patient, one about the people involved, and one about the system.”
- “I'd want to separate what I've observed myself from what I've been told.”
- “I'm not the most senior person here, and that shapes what I do rather than whether I do something.”
- “I'd assume there's a reason for this that I can't see yet.”
- “I hadn't come across that approach — can I ask how you weigh it against the guideline?”
- “I'd decide my threshold before the conversation, not during it — if there were any suggestion of patient harm or impairment, I'd escalate and I'd tell them I was doing it rather than go behind them.”
- “I'd know where the line for a mandatory notification sits — impairment, intoxication, a significant departure from standards, or sexual misconduct — while recognising that most situations like this are better handled locally first.”
- “In one sentence: the immediate priority is the patient, the medium-term issue is the colleague, and the long-term issue is the system that let it happen.”
- “Ultimately, what has to be true at the end of this is that [the patient] gets [the thing they need].”
What they are actually looking for
Committed and enthusiastic; can articulate what or who inspires them; has done the research and knows how the department works; understands what it takes to get through training and gives the impression they can do it. This matters as much as clinical excellence, sometimes more.
Safe, trustworthy with the basics, learns quickly, will get through the exams. Good with patients, reliable, committed. Note what is NOT required: "you don't need to be the university medallist."
Won't put other staff or disciplines offside, will immerse themselves in the department's routines, will advocate for the department. Does not present as self-absorbed or interested only in their own progression.
Does more than the minimum, doesn't leave work for others, supervises juniors, triages problems so the boss isn't blindsided, helps with the teaching load. Doesn't generate complaints from administration. Does not act entitled, or as though the job should be organised around their needs. Almost no candidate answers with this lens in mind — and it is the one the person opposite you lives with daily.
When it goes wrong · recovery
Six stations means one bad thirty seconds costs almost nothing — if you recover. Knowing a recovery exists is most of the benefit.
Pause. Panels tolerate a silence at the START of an answer far better than they tolerate you launching in, floundering, and then going quiet in the middle. Three seconds of nothing is invisible; ten seconds of flailing is not.
Ask for it to be repeated — at the start, or mid-answer. Write it down. You have pen and paper. Nobody has ever lost a station for asking a question to be repeated once.
"I'm sorry, I've lost track of where I was — could you repeat the question?" You can recover fully from this. Take a breath, restart, and say something sensible; panels routinely discount a false start entirely.
Answer the part you know FIRST. You may well be moved on before you reach the part you don't.
Hand them the exit: "Would you like me to go on?" It costs four words and it stops you being cut off mid-sentence.
Let them. Immediately. Never talk over a panel to land one last point — it converts a good answer into a memorable bad impression.
The glass of water is your friend. Drink, mention your throat, ask for the question again.
"What are you reading at the moment?" "What's your favourite hobby?" The answer is genuinely irrelevant — they want to hear you talk and get a feel for you. Be natural and truthful. The failure mode is manufacturing the answer you think they want, which reads as insincere. Pivot to a strength if one is genuinely there; don't force it if it isn't.
Delivery mechanics
From the 2019 Westmead DPET notes. Written for hospital job interviews, so the content doesn’t transfer — the mechanics do.
"There are three things I'd want to cover here — first, …". If you only have time for the first, the panel still knows you had the other two. If you answer (a) well, they will often assume (b) and (c) are equally good and move you on. Say the number BEFORE the content — a candidate who says "three" and delivers two scores better than one who delivers two without saying it.
The commonest way candidates waste a station is filling in clinical detail before reaching the point. Either get to the point fast, or state the take-home message first and then run the vignette to prove it. Every detail in a story should be earning its place as evidence.
Aim to convey that for your level you are better than average — not that you are the best they'll see. "I was asked to act up as registrar and was told I did it well" scores. Adding "and I picked up errors the registrar had made" reads as arrogance and the panel will discount it even if it's true. Every assertion of capability needs evidence attached.
Interviewers see far more candidates who walk out without having mentioned their strongest material than candidates who overreach. Decide in advance the three things you will not leave the building without having said.
Most candidates default to answering as the resident. The panel is usually looking for the registrar's perspective. If the stem doesn't make it clear which role you're in, ask. It is a legitimate question and it demonstrates you noticed.
You are not expected to quote a policy. You are expected to know one exists and how you'd find it. "I'd check whether the department has a protocol for this, and if not I'd ask the Director of Training" scores; guessing at the contents does not.
The traps
- 1. Answering the clinical preamble instead of the question. ACD writes stations as a long clinical scenario followed by a question about communication, conflict or ethics — the 2025 missed-melanoma station is exactly this shape. Solving the clinical problem when they asked about the issues is the single easiest way to lose a station you understood.
- 2. Jumping to the approach without listing the issues. They asked two questions. Answer both.
- 3. Acting on hearsay. Almost every colleague scenario is designed so you have NOT personally witnessed the thing. Say so.
- 4. Escalating immediately as the first move. Reads as avoidance — unless patient safety is live, in which case escalate first and say why.
- 5. Forgetting the other patients. If a registrar's documentation is poor, it isn't poor for one patient.
- 6. Forgetting the person is a person. A candidate who only sees misconduct scores badly on Collaborator and Professional.
Vocabulary that scores
- Graded assertiveness
- Escalating concern in a structured way — e.g. PACE: Probe, Alert, Challenge, Emergency.
- Open disclosure
- Acknowledge · apologise or express regret · explain what happened · explain what will be done · follow up.
- Escalation appropriate to your position
- "I'm not the primary disciplinarian here; my role is to raise it with someone who is."
- Closing the loop
- Confirming the receiving party has acted — GP letter, community nursing, follow-up booked, not just requested.
- Shared decision-making
- The patient's values genuinely change the plan, not just their consent to yours.
- Cultural safety
- Defined by the RECIPIENT, not the provider. The sum of small interactions from the time the patient arrives. Not the same as cultural awareness or competence.
- Impact, not intent
- "The motive or intent of the perpetrator is irrelevant. It is the impact on the victim that a reasonable person would feel." Disposes of "that's just his personality".
Ethics, AHPRA, capacity
Competence and capacity are decision-specific and time-specific. A patient may have capacity to consent to a blood pressure reading but not to an amputation. Gillick competence: can the young person understand, retain, use and weigh the information, including benefits, risks and consequences? A Gillick-competent minor generally cannot refuse life-saving treatment — and neither can their parents.
Rural and regional access
- — The great majority of Australian dermatologists practise in metropolitan areas.
- — Regional Australians present later with melanoma and have poorer survival.
- — Four levers: more rural dermatologists (STP posts); public health campaigns (SunSmart); visiting/outreach clinics; upskilling and empowering rural GPs (dermoscopy programs, teledermatology support).
- — Your own data beats generic talking points. A number you generated yourself, or a place you actually worked, outweighs any statistic you can quote.
- — One worked example from a past candidate: patients from a town 2.5 hours away had high non-attendance; a local clinic every four months took attendance to 100%.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander skin health
- — Members of the ATSI Affairs Committee sit on interview panels.
- — Rural Victorian derm ED study: 2.7% of adult and 7% of paediatric presentations identified as Indigenous; Indigenous patients significantly more likely to present aged 18–30 (43% vs 21%). The age skew is the more striking finding.
- — Cultural safety is defined by the patient. It is the sum of small interactions from arrival to discharge, not a training module.
- — Aboriginal Health Workers and Liaison Officers are substantial and under-utilised. Involve them EARLY in the patient journey, not as a last resort.
- — The College: cultural safety in the curriculum from 2022, in fellowship assessment from 2025, AIDA workshops for trainees, and a designated ATSI training position.
- — Name what you have actually done — a course you completed, people you mentored and what became of them. An intention to be involved scores nothing.
Cost, Medicare and the PBS
- — Medicare — universal insurance, MBS rebates, bulk-billing. PBS — subsidised medicines, safety net, Authority scripts.
- — In dermatology, biologics for severe psoriasis and atopic dermatitis sit behind strict PBS criteria: severity scores and prior therapy failure.
- — Other schemes worth naming: IPTAAS (isolated patients travel and accommodation), Medicare and PBS Safety Nets, Closing the Gap PBS Co-payment Programme, state patient transport.
- — When a patient can't afford a drug: check PBS eligibility and authority criteria properly; a listed alternative; generic or compounded; manufacturer access programs; public clinic referral; social work; concession status they may not have claimed. Ask rather than assume, and ask BEFORE writing the script.
Cosmetic regulation (new in 2025)
- — Lightly regulated space; the boundary between medical practice and commercial service is contested.
- — Issues: informed consent, adequate medical history, who may inject and under what supervision, advertising restrictions on prescription-only medicines, cooling-off periods, management of complications.
- — What the College can do: standards and position statements, training and CPD, advocacy to AHPRA / Medical Board / TGA, and public education about what a specialist dermatologist's qualification means.
Challenges facing dermatology in ten years
- — Rural and regional access — workforce maldistribution, later melanoma presentation, waiting times.
- — AI — triage, monitoring, reducing unnecessary surgical intervention; and the real questions of validation, equity across skin tones, regulation and liability.
- — Teledermatology — store-and-forward imaging, MBS constraints, image quality, patients without connectivity.
- — Social media and misinformation — unregulated cosmetic advertising, patients arriving with online diagnoses and online treatments.
- — Climate and sustainability — UV and heat, bushfire smoke and atopic dermatitis, disaster access; and the specialty's own footprint, including single-use products.
Logistics
- Date
- Saturday 22 August 2026
- Arrive
- 2:00 PM (10 minutes before)
- Start
- 2:10 PM AEST
- Total
- 1 hour 40 minutes total
- Address
- Level 6, 33 Chandos Street, St Leonards NSW 2065
- — 5 minute walk from St Leonards station. T1 line towards Gordon; St Leonards is the 7th stop from Central (Platform 16).
- — ~30 minutes from Sydney Airport via Central.
- — Weekend timetables are limited — CHECK TRACKWORK the week before and again the night before.
- — No onsite parking. Metered street parking; closest station Interpark, 8 Chandos Street.