Anaesthetics is a very hands-on specialty. Day-to-day work will have a mix of practical procedures and other clinical work such as pre-operative assessment. You will have a lot of supervision and one-on-one teaching as an anaesthetics trainee. In this article, we discuss what the specialty offers and the application process.
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Why do Anaesthetics?
- Daily 1-on-1 Consultant-led teaching
- Great mix of practical skills and diagnostic medicine
- What you do as a trainee accurately reflects your day-to-day practice as a Consultant
- No ward rounds (unless you also work within the Pain department in which you would have a Pain ward round)
- Very broad scope of practice in which you can choose to specialise within (e.g. Neurosurgery, Obstetrics, Paediatrics, Peri-operative, Pain) or remain as a generalist
- Incredibly varied – can interact with many different surgical specialties in one day
- Excellent opportunities to pursue other interests e.g. management, education
- Get to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team (surgeons, scrub staff, ODPs, midwives), sometimes within a leadership role
- Lots of exposure to the management of critically unwell patients
- Plenty of Intensive Care experience and very easy to dual train
- Excellent work-life balance
- Very supportive and diverse Consultant body
What type of person would enjoy Anaesthetics?
- Able to keep calm and take on a leadership role in an emergency
- Works well in a team environment
- Excellent communication skills
- Good at picking up practical skills
How do I build my portfolio?
- Undertaking an Anaesthetics or Intensive Care themed SSC or elective at university will show dedication to the specialty and score you points
- Organising a taster day or week
- The Royal College of Anaesthetists runs a ‘Career in Anaesthesia’ event that provides practical advice
- Publications and exams from other specialities (e.g. MRCP, MRCS) will score you points
- If you’re planning on taking a year (or more) out after Foundation Training, up to 24 months in a complimentary specialty (e.g. Medicine, Surgery, Emergency Medicine) or 6-18 months of experience in Anaesthetics or Intensive Care will score you points
- Get involved with audit or QI projects, ideally completing the audit cycle if you can
- Look at the self-assessment criteria available here to see what you can do to maximise your portfolio score
How do I apply and what are the anaesthetic training programme routes?
You can either apply through the core anaesthetics training route or acute care common stem (ACCS) route. The latter is slightly longer as it includes time spent in emergency medicine & general medicine.
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Training Pathway from 2021
The Royal College of Anaesthetists will be introducing a new curriculum from August 2021, where training will be divided into 3 stages:
Stage 1: Core Training (CT) 1, 2 & 3
There are intakes twice a year: August & February. Interviews occur in January/February for the August intake & October for the February intake. During this time, you’re expected to complete the Primary FRCA (includes MCQs, viva & OSCE).
You must re-apply for specialty training.
Stage 2: Specialty Training (ST) 4 & 5
There are intakes twice a year: August & February. Interviews occur in March/April for the August intake & October for the February intake. During this time, you must pass the Final FRCA (MCQs, short answer questions & viva) to be allowed to progress.
Stage 3: Specialty Training (ST) 6 & 7
Final specialty training years.
Application Process
The application process is managed by the Anaesthetics National Recruitment Office via Oriel. It includes an interview scored out of a total of 200 points, with interviews held across multiple cities in the UK.
Both the Core & Specialty Training interviews have the same three 15-minute stations format scored out of a total of 200 points. You need over 110 points to be appointable.
Presentation Station (50 marks) – You will be given 5 minutes to prepare a 10-minute presentation on a topic (doesn’t have to be medical) using a flipchart. There will be 5 minutes for questions.
Clinical Scenario (50 marks) – Clinical scenarios that often tests your ability to prioritise multiple unwell patients & make use of the resources available to you
Portfolio Station (50 marks x 2) – Part one is checking of self-assessment score (make sure your evidence is easy to find in your folder!) & part two is a traditional interview panel
Useful Resources
- Royal College of Anaesthetists
- Anaesthetics National Recruitment Office
- Acute Care Common Stem (ACCS) Route
By Dr Saarth Shiralkar (ST4 Anaesthetics in North West Deanery)
6 thoughts on “Applying to Anaesthetics”
Hello, is there any info regarding the MSRA exam?
We will publish a post on the MSRA 🙂 In the meantime, there are plenty of resources out there depending on what information you’re looking for.
Are there any advance critical care courses available?
The best thing would be to look at the list of anaesthetic courses available on HEE. They list the ones which they’ll fund which gives you an excellent idea of common ones people do!
Hi thanks for the post! Any info on the workload, satisfaction and training quality in different deaneries? Thanks!
Great question! Our colleagues at Medibuddy & Messly have great information on this! Check out the recommended resources 🙂