Here are some general tips on approaching the questions in the Professional Dilemmas Paper from previous successful candidates:

• Ranking questions: try to identify the best response and the worst response first and sort the rest after, DON’T RUMINATE
• Multiple choice questions: remember it’s 3 actions you take together (not independently). Rule out options that you know aren’t appropriate to make your selection easier
• Patient safety is paramount
  • This usually comes above personal well-being (e.g. a family event) if there is an immediate threat to patient safety, but chronic institutional problems do not (e.g. shouldn’t be staying late every day to update relatives
• Always address problems promptly and directly
  • > addressing problem slowly or indirectly > addressing something unrelated to the problem
• Pay close attention to the language in the question
  • Answers which involve you ‘exploring’ a problem usually rank highly
  • Be careful about answers which say ‘always’ or ‘never’, or things like ‘argue’ or ‘confront’
• Base your answer on the information given
  • Often this is difficult as you find yourself thinking that your answer would depend on x or y, but you can only answer with the information on the page
• Try to solve the problem yourself first
  • Often good to ‘explore’ the issue yourself first e.g. if there is an issue with a dispute with a colleague
  •  Escalate within your team first if possible
• Direct communication is usually the best
  • E.g. a direct handover, or directly speaking with a patient, or encouraging colleagues to directly speak with someone else themselves
• Answers which promote learning from events are generally good
• Draw from your own experience! You may have been in similar situations, but remember what you should do may have differed from what you actually did
• Common sense! (sometimes..)