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O&G ST1 · Ethics and governance

O&G ST1 ethics and governance interview

Apply professional principles to the actual clinical risk, then explain immediate care, communication, escalation, documentation and learning in the right order.

Last verified: 28 September 2026Parent guide: O&G ST1

The live national page includes an ethics and governance task but says the overall interview format is subject to change. These are original preparation prompts.

ContentsHow to approach it

How to approach it

What a strong answer needs to show

Start with the patient and immediate risk

A principle list is not a plan. Establish urgent clinical needs, decision-making capacity and the information needed before moving to longer-term governance.

  • Treat deterioration and call appropriate help before discussing a later report.
  • Clarify consent, capacity, confidentiality and safeguarding in the facts of the case.
  • Work within competence and preserve the patient's autonomy wherever possible.

Use people and process precisely

Name the senior, multidisciplinary or organisational support that fits the problem and explain what you need from them.

  • Separate urgent senior clinical advice from later educational or governance review.
  • Use interpreters, advocates, safeguarding teams or information-governance advice where relevant.
  • Document facts, reasoning, discussions and agreed follow-up without speculation.

Close the learning loop

After immediate care, consider candour, incident reporting, team learning and measurable improvement in proportion to the event.

  • Explain what the patient should be told and who should lead that conversation.
  • Raise recurring systems risks even when no harm has yet occurred.
  • Avoid promising punishment or an investigation outcome before facts are established.

Original practice questions

Questions worth practising aloud

These are original preparation prompts written around published domains and entry-level expectations. They are not recalled interview questions.

  1. A patient withdraws consent immediately before a time-sensitive procedure. How would you respond?
  2. You become concerned that a colleague is working while unwell and making mistakes. What would you do?
  3. A patient asks you not to share clinically important information with their partner. How would you approach this?
  4. You notice the same handover omission on several shifts, although no patient has yet been harmed. What should happen?
  5. A patient says they did not understand the procedure they have just undergone. How would you manage the immediate and governance issues?

Common mistakes

Where otherwise good answers lose clarity

  • Reciting four ethical principles without deciding what happens next.
  • Starting with incident reporting while an immediate clinical risk remains.
  • Treating escalation as transferring all responsibility to a senior.
  • Breaching confidentiality automatically because a relative asks for information.
  • Making allegations or promises before gathering facts.

Preparation plan

How to practise this deliberately

  • Practise consent, capacity, confidentiality, candour, safeguarding and colleague-concern scenarios.
  • For every answer, separate immediate care, communication, escalation and later learning.
  • Review current Good Medical Practice and local raising-concern routes.
  • Ask a mock interviewer to add a new risk or conflicting request halfway through.
  • Use the O&G practice route for original timed ethics and governance prompts.

Continue into practice

Practise the answer, not just the reading

Spoken O&G ST1 practice is launching soon. At launch, choose a Question bank prompt, work on your answer and use structured feedback to improve it. Explore the practice experience while you prepare with these free questions.

Explore O&G ST1 practice

Official source

Check the live recruitment guidance

Interview formats can change between cycles. This focused guide should be used alongside the official source below and the full O&G ST1 guide.

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