Intensive care medicine

Intensive
Care
Medicine

In New Zealand, vocational training in intensive care medicine involves a minimum of one year of general hospital experience, after which a six year training program may begin. Candidates are registered with the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and Royal Australasian College of Physicians. The Training Program comprises three years of basic training and three years of advanced training.

Basic training is very flexible and is designed to provide trainees with the fundamentals of the practice of intensive care, medicine, anaesthesia and other related disciplines, and a sound knowledge of relevant basic sciences. This component may be completed as basic training in other specialties and cross-credited at a later date to the intensive care program. All positions have to be supervised by the relevant specialist.

Advanced training is a minimum of three years comprising two core years in intensive care and one elective year. Core training must be undertaken in accredited intensive care units, with prospective approval, and six monthly in-training Assessment.

Overall, training must include:

24 months of core intensive care training (as Advanced Training)
12 months of clinical anaesthesia
12 months of clinical internal medicine
12 months of elective training within advanced training
Satisfactory completion of a formal project
Completion of a suitable primary examination before moving into advanced training
Completion of the Fellowship examination
Completion of the Medical ADAPT Course

To be registered within a vocational scope of intensive care medicine it is expected that you would have training, qualifications and experience equivalent to or as satisfactory as a New Zealand trained intensive care specialist. To enable you to assess this answer the following questions.

Checklist

	Tick if you have completed these requirements	Intensive Care Medicine Training in New Zealand
	Have you had one year of general medical experience after gaining your undergraduate degree?	Pre-requisites are general medical experience of at least one year.
	Have you completed at least 24 months in a fully supervised intensive care training post?	JFICM core training includes 24 months in accredited intensive care units.
	Have you completed 12 months in an internal medicine post?	JFICM training includes 12 months in an internal medicine post.
	Have you completed 12 months of clinical anaesthesia?	JFICM training includes 12 months in clinical anaesthesia.
	Have you completed a further two years of training in a related discipline?	The New Zealand program is at least six years in duration.
	Have you continued learning in your branch of medicine in formal medical education programmes?	In New Zealand practitioners registered in a vocational scope will be required to participate in an approved professional development program.

Self assessment

If you cannot answer 'yes' to all the above questions and demonstrate that your training, qualifications and experience are equivalent to or as satisfactory as that of a New Zealand trained intensive care medicine specialist it is unlikely you will be eligible for registration within a vocational scope of practice in New Zealand.

To see if you meet the requirements for another pathway to registration, return to the registration self assessment checklist and complete the checklist answering no to the question “are you a qualified specialist or do you have a postgraduate qualification“.

If you have been able to answer yes to the above questions, please click here for the application form and for more information on the application process.

For more information about intensive care medicine training in New Zealand go to the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists website.

Intensive
Care
Medicine

Checklist

Self assessment

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