ANZCA CICM Dual Training Pathway

In February 2021 ANZCA Council endorsed a recommendation to develop a dual anaesthesia and intensive care training pathway in collaboration with the College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM).

The pathway offers a mechanism for combining training towards FANZCA and FCICM in less time than it currently takes to complete both training programs. The development of a dual training pathway recognises transferability of skills between the two vocational scopes and may encourage a greater number of medical graduates to undertake dual training.

Addressing community need

Anaesthetists and intensive care medicine specialists can be accommodated separately within larger Australian and New Zealand centres. In both countries, regional and rural hospitals report that one of the major barriers to staffing their intensive care and high dependency units with trained intensive care specialists is the requirement for a specialist to cover both roles as part of their job description, especially after hours.

Furthermore, relying on FANZCA-trained specialists to cover ICU has become increasingly difficult, as there is limited exposure and training in intensive care medicine during anaesthesia training.

It is desirable that patients and their communities, regardless of geography, have access to appropriately trained anaesthetists and appropriately trained intensivists. It may be highly advantageous to rural and regional Australian and New Zealand centres if the same person could work in both scopes of practice.

A successful dual training pathway will offer completion in less time (7.5 years) than both training programs undertaken separately (10.5 years), by taking advantage of skills transferability while ensuring that the dual graduate has achieved equivalent learning outcomes to graduates of each individual training pathway. The result will be a specialist who has both a FANZCA and a FCICM. It is anticipated this will help address one of the unmet needs in our communities.

Governance and development

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed between ANZCA and CICM which establishes the collaboration for joint recognition of a dual training pathway with the aim to actively cultivate and maintain the highest principles and standards in the training, practice and ethics of anaesthesia and intensive care medicine. The MOU also defines the project governance and terms of reference for the conjoint committee that will oversee the development of the dual training pathway.

The conjoint committee will be established shortly to oversee the activities of the working groups and bring to fruition the launch of the dual training pathway program.

In summary

A dual training pathway will demonstrate ANZCA and CICM’s commitment to addressing inequitable access to specialists. Along with responding to regional and rural centres across Australia and New Zealand, this joint venture will also foster relationship between the two colleges in advancing an integrated care model in perioperative medicine. For further information and queries please contact the dual training pathway team.