The exam forms part of the assessment strategy of the CCT in Intensive Care Medicine training programme. The overall assessment strategy focus is to ensure that intensive care physicians in training can demonstrate to the GMC that they can provide the public with safe and effective care that meets population needs throughout the nations of the United Kingdom. The exam is a ‘gateway’ assessment between Stage 2 and Stage 3 training, and until the COVID derogations of 2020, all trainees were required to pass the FFICM exam in its entirety to enter Stage 3 training. Stage 3 is the final training stage immediately prior to the award of a CCT and eligibility for appointment to a consultant post.
The exam itself is a set of summative assessments, which use validated assessment methods to test a broad range of knowledge, understanding, skills, and behaviours that a doctor in training is required to achieve before progressing to Stage 3 ICM training. The standard required is at a more ‘senior’ level than the final exams of some of our ‘partner’ curricula, such as MRCP (taken prior to entry to specialist medical training) and FRCA which is taken with at least two more years of anaesthetic training prior to the award of a CCT.
The FFICM examination includes assessment of professionalism, clinical decision-making, and communication skills together with applied technical knowledge of the equipment, clinical monitoring and measurement used to manage a patient on a critical care unit and competence in the diagnosis and management of medical conditions seen in Intensive Care Medicine.
The purpose and process for setting the standard of the exam have not changed since its inception, however candidates sitting this exam have changed over time. In 2013 when the FFICM started, all candidates were joint CCT trainees, for whom passing the exam was not a mandatory requirement for the award of the CCT in ICM. Candidates are now mostly single or dual CCT doctors in training for whom passing the exam is mandatory for progression into Stage 3 ICM training. The 2021 COVID derogations made passing the exam mandatory for award of a CCT (at the end of Stage 3 training) for some doctors in training.
