Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) is an approach that focuses on graduating trainees who are competent to do the work required of them. This is inclusive of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Assessments include tests of knowledge and skills, and assessments of workplace performance.
The 2013 curriculum is largely a competency-based curriculum as the learning outcomes are described in terms of the work that needs to be done, and workplace-based assessments are utilised to support learning and contribute to decisions on progression. Directions in the evolved training program will strengthen workplace assessments to improve feedback on performance and chart progress towards the competencies required to progress to the next core unit. These changes will begin in Introductory Training.
An online multiple-choice question (MCQ) assessment and Supervisor of Training (SOT)-led specified emergency scenarios (SES) on 6 topics will replace the current IAAC questions.
The multiple-choice question (MCQ) assessment in Introductory Training (IT) is a series of questions selected from knowledge-based learning outcomes for the IT core unit of the anaesthesia training program curriculum document.
The MCQ assessment consists of 60 questions to be completed within 60 minutes, and trainees must achieve 80% to successfully complete the assessment. Trainees can attempt the MCQ assessment at any time after commencing IT and have unlimited attempts to successfully complete the MCQ assessment, however, ANZCA training program administrators and the supervisor of training (SOT) will be notified after three unsuccessful attempts. Three unsuccessful attempts at the MCQ assessment may signal a need for additional trainee support.
The MCQ assessment must be successfully completed by the sixteenth week, full time equivalent (FTE), of IT and is a requirement to progress to the next core unit of anaesthesia training. If the MCQ assessment is not successfully completed by week sixteen FTE, the SOT is notified, and consideration may be given to initiating a trainee support process (TSP).
Trainees will receive immediate notification of successful completion of the MCQ assessment through the learning management system Learn@ANZCA. Trainees must present the evidence of MCQ assessment completion to the SOT who is then responsible for marking the MCQ assessment as complete in the TPS.
The specified emergency scenarios (SES) assessment is conducted by the supervisor of training (SOT), and/or an approved delegate, to assess an introductory trainee’s medical knowledge and application of clinical reasoning, problem-solving and decision making, with a focus on safe management of emergency situations.
The SES assessment will normally be completed during the last weeks of IT and should be signed off as part of the IT core unit review. However, it may be completed earlier if the trainee has approved recent anaesthetic experience.
The SES assessment is comprised of six scenarios selected from six core topic areas from the IT Core Unit learning outcomes of the anaesthesia training program curriculum document. Each scenario will take approximately 5-10 minutes to conduct (approximately 1 hour in total), and all six topics must be successfully completed for the SES assessment to be marked as complete in the TPS. It is recommended that all six topics be conducted together for the first attempt.
There is no limit to the number of attempts allowed for a trainee to successfully complete the six core topics that make up the SES assessment, however, all core topic areas must be successfully passed to progress at the core unit review.
Successful completion of each of the six core topics scenarios that form the SES assessment will be recorded by the assessor in the TPS.
The updated ANZCA handbook for training will be available here on the ANZCA Website by mid-December 2024.
Trainees who enter Introductory Training after 1 January 2025 are required to meet the following requirements to progress to the next core unit of training:
- Application and registration process for access to TPS
- 26 weeks of training
- Multiple choice question assessment
- Specified emergency scenarios assessment
- Volume of practice requirements for IT
- Workplace-based assessment requirements for IT
- 6 x Dops (same as 2024)
- 3 x mini CEx (same as 2024)
- 1 x MsF (same as 2024)
- An advanced life support course or equivalent
- A can’t intubate can’t oxygenate course or equivalent
- Clinical placement reviews
- A core unit review
- All administrative requirements
All trainees must be supervised at level 1 in any area in which they are unfamiliar. Trainees in introductory training must be supervised at level 1 until they have successfully completed
- the multiple-choice questions assessment (MCQA)
- the specified emergency scenarios (SES)
- the following required workplace-based assessments:
Trainees who have at least 13 weeks full-time equivalent clinical anaesthesia experience (including up to two weeks leave) within the 52 weeks immediately prior to the commencement of introductory training may be eligible for recent anaesthetic experience (RAE). Trainees with RAE who have successfully completed the introductory training (IT) workplace-based assessments (WBA) and the multiple-choice question assessment (MCQA) for IT may be eligible to undertake the specified emergency scenarios (SES) as early as 13 weeks into IT. If the SES is successfully completed, trainees may work with less than level one supervision, however, they must still complete all remaining IT core unit requirements and the full 26 weeks of introductory training.
Trainees who started Introductory Training prior to 1 January 2025 will be required to undertake the IAACQ and complete the IT core unit requirements as identified in the 2024 training handbook. Anaesthesia training program administrators will work with individual trainees (who started IT prior to 2025) and their supervisors to confirm activities and requirements for completion to progress to the next core unit.
For the multiple-choice question (MCQ) assessment: Trainees will be required to provide the evidence of MCQ assessment completion (email received from the ANZCA Learning Management System after passing the exam) to their SOT who will then record the date of completion in the TPS.
For the specified emergency scenarios (SES) assessment: The SOT who conducted the SES assessment will record the date each topic was successfully completed. The SES assessment is deemed to be fully completed when all 6 topics have been successfully completed.
The MCQ assessment will be completed in Learn@ANZCA, the college’s learning management system. Introductory trainees will be automatically enrolled and have to access to the practice resource and MCQ assessment from first week of Introductory Training.
Trainees will have access to the topics for the SES assessment as well as the learning outcomes addressed by each topic. Instructional/training resources such as an example of a SES will be available to support completion of the SES.
Supervisors will have access to the bank of scenarios, each with a scoring guide/rubric to ensure standardisation of the SES assessment.