UK Diploma in Intensive Care Medicine

(With added FCICM)!

Advice from someone who's Been There

© James Austin 2012


Exciting times for the DICM, with the establishment of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) replacing the IBTICM; and the DICM itself due to be phased out after July 2012, replaced by a formal Fellowship exam. The Australians have, similarly, done away with their JFICM and replaced it with a College of Intensive Care Medicine (CICM); while each year brings small refinements to their Fellowship exam (now called the FCICM!).

Please feel very free to write to me at austin@dicm.co.uk. In particular, if anyone has emailed me or would like to email me with their experiences of the exam, I'd love to publish them here for the benefit of future candidates. The more feedback I get, the more frequently I'll update!

 

One of the things that makes the DICM tough is the fact that, being a fairly new exam, relatively few people have sat it - it's hard to know what to expect or how to prepare. This site aims to remedy that! The advice offered is entirely subjective, based largely on my and other candidates' experiences qualifying, studying and sitting for the exam. You might find some, all or none of it useful - take it or leave it! PLEASE NOTE that apart from having taken the exam myself, I have no official connection with the DICM. If you want to apply to write the exam, you need to approach the FICM.

Click on the links below for more detail.
 

Why do the Diploma in ICM?

Am I eligible for the exam?

What are my chances of passing?

What does the exam involve?

The ETR and Case Reports

The Dissertation

Studying for the exam

Last-minute preparations

The Big Day

When is the next sitting?

Useful Links, including the surprisingly popular ICM Literature Hit Parade

 

If you have any ideas for improving this site, I'd love to hear from you. Please email comments, complaints, compliments or queries to austin@dicm.co.uk. My thanks to those who have already emailed kind comments and suggestions.

 

This site was born on: 2 July 2002

Site last updated: 27 April 2011