How to appoint a senior house officer.

How to appoint a senior house officer One of the first jobs a newly appointed consultant may need to do is to appoint one or more senior house officers (SHOs).Appointments in medicine are a two stage proce- dure.The curriculum vitae (CV) is used to shortlist candi- dates, and the final decision on appointment is made at interview, taking into account CVs and references.It is worth remembering that there are other means of assessment such as personality testing or practical testing of skills which are used in other professions, and it is possi- ble that the way we appoint doctors at all grades could be improved.The medical staffing department will advertise the post, acknowledge applications, obtain references and so on, but the choice of candidate is made by the accident and emergency (A&E) consultant.This article describes how one person approaches the subject.Before appointing any member of staff it is important to ask oneself these questions: * Can they do the job?(that is, do they have the ability and are they physically fit enough to do the job?) * Will they do the job?(that is, do they have the motivation to do the job?) * Are they compatible?(that is, with consultants, other junior staff, nursing staff, patients.)If one cannot answer yes to all three of these questions, it is unwise to appoint, even if there is only one applicant.Usually there will be more applicants than posts and it is necessary to make a choice.In appointing a person for a service role, the aim is of course to select the person who will do the job best.This will usually (but not always) be the best qualified and most experienced candidate.However, SHOs are in training posts and, for the sake of both post and candidate, one should only appoint a person who will benefit from that training.Although it is useful to have experienced staff working in the department, a person applying for a second job in A&E should be quizzed carefully about their career plans and, if appointed, plans should be made for them to gain additional training by, for example, attending courses or doing a research project.It should be exceptional to appoint a person with more than 12 months A&E experience to an SHO post in the specialty.It is sometimes thought that appointments are a lottery or even a game, but they should not be.The theoretical basis to selection is that personality does not change and that the best predictor of a person's future performance is not what they say they will do but their past performance.A doctor, qualified 18 months, who already has the first part of a higher qualification and certification in ATLS and ALS has more "drive" and is likely to achieve more than an equally able person without these qualifications.The person who upsets the nursing staff in both medical and surgical house officer posts will probably do the same in A&E.