ePortfolio and exams

For Anaesthesia trainees

All core and higher trainees should use the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) Lifelong Learning Platform. If trainees require further information contact should be made via the RCoA support team via email, lifelong@rcoa.ac.uk.

If trainees are missing educational supervisors or assessors which should be appearing within the lists, they should email the RCoA support team via lifelong@rcoa.ac.uk with their details (first name, surname & email address) to be checked. Trainees will then be contacted to confirm if the individual exists on the system.

For Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) trainees

Trainees need to complete their ICM assessments on the ICM ePortfolio. The ePortfolio is part of the existing NHS ePortfolio run by NHS Education for Scotland (NES), which will be familiar to former foundation trainees and those training in specialties whose portfolio is also run by NES (e.g. Emergency Medicine, Acute Medicine, Clinical Radiology).

All new trainees starting in the ICM programme should use the eportfolio to record evidence.

The Fellowship of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA) Examinations

Information on the FRCA examinations and dates can be found on the RCoA website here.

During the core training programme, trainee Anaesthetists take their examinations in three parts (MCQ, OSCE & SOE), called the Primary FRCA. Trainees cannot be appointed to ST3-7 without having passed the Primary FRCA in its entirety.

The Final FRCA examination is also in three parts (MCQ, SAQ & SOE), and is taken during the first two years of registrar training. If a trainee has not passed FRCA final by the end of ST4 they can progress to ST5 but must pass the exam in the first six months of ST5.

FRCA exams are set and supervised by the RCoA.

FFICM Examinations

The FFICM examination is taken during stage two of training and must be completed before moving on to stage three of training. The qualification comprises two parts – an MCQ and an OSCE/Structured Oral Examination. The full details can be found on the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine website here.