Useful textbooks for the FJFICM exam

Useful textbooks for the FJFICM exam

Despite the rise of the internet, it's worth investing in some good texts for the exam. Books are easier to carry around than computers, and easier to search; you can write notes in them; they're of generally good quality; and some are specifically targeted at exam candidates. As a general tip, I'd recommend reading three or four texts once each, rather than repeating through one text three or four times. Here is a selection of books I found useful in preparing for the FJFICM.

Teik Oh's Intensive Care Manual is, with little doubt, 'the Bible' for the FJFICM. Several of the chapter authors are FJFICM examiners; and some of the chapters (such as those on Envenomation, and ICU Design and Organisation) contain information that is specific to Australasian practice and unlikely to be found in other texts. Read through it at least once.

Examination Intensive Care and Anaesthesia, by Nikki Blackwell et al., is probably the only other absolutely essential book for the FJFICM. Targeted specifically at FJFICM (and FANZCA) exam candidates, it's packed full of useful hints about studying, tackling different types of exam questions, Hot Case 'set pieces' etc. A large chapter is dedicated to summarising recent 'hot papers' from the ICU literature; and another large chapter provides an overview of the entire spectrum of data interpretation. I only discovered this book by accident - my FJFICM experience would have been much tougher without it.

Critical Care Secrets is an interesting, not-too-large book with a few pros and cons. My (3rd) edition seemed a bit dated even when it first came out; it'll be interesting to see how the new 4th edition stacks up. It's an American text, with almost all the authors coming from the USA. What commends it to me for exam preparation is its question-and-answer format; this gets you in the mode of thinking "how would I answer that if I got asked it in the exam?". Although pitched at a fairly basic level, it also includes discussions on areas of controversy, and 'recent' literature evidence.

Singer and Webb's Oxford Handbook of Critical Care is surprisingly useful for such a small book. Not only is it easy to carry around and dip into; it's also intensely practical, full of succinct 'principles of management' (just what the examiners love), drug doses, and procedural 'how-to's. However, be warned: it also contains a higher-than-average number of errors (including some worrying typos in drug doses, and the potentially lethal advice that inflation of the intra-aortic balloon pump should be timed to the R-wave of the ECG). Also available (with the same errors) in PDA format.

Clinical Examination of the Critically Ill Patient, by Lindsay (Tub) Worthley, is a gem of a book for Hot-Case preparation. It covers all the ground of more well-known clinical primers (such as Talley and O'Connor), but specifically as applied to ICU patients, and in less than half the space. It is sadly out of print, but the chances are many of your consultants may have a copy, and might be pursuaded (with difficulty!) to lend it to you. I know of no other text covering this area, and there must surely be a crying need for one - if anyone knows of any similar books, please let me know.

An exam preparation book by the Chairman of the Court of Examiners has to be worth a read, and so it is with Data Interpretation in Critical Care Medicine by Bala Venkatesh and colleagues. It does what it says on the cover: roughly a hundred data interpretation questions (with answers!) covering a wide range of data types - blood tests, monitoring data, radiology, microbiology, ECGs, you name it.

Just as valuable (and twice as big) is Clinical Data Interpretation in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, by Stephen Bonner and Chris Dodds from Middlesborough, UK. This book contains many more illustrations (radiology, ECGs, CTGs, respiratory curves, TEGs etc) than Prof Venkatesh's book; in addition, each section starts out with a few pages outlining the basic principles and interpretation of the different investigations that arise in the subsequent questions.

Radiology for Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, by Richard Hopkins et al., is another British goldmine. Especially useful were the questions on normal radiological anatomy that opened most chapters; and after working through this book, I finally feel confident about reading C-spine X-rays. Pitched at FRCA candidates, it should be just as valuable to FJFICM examinees.

Irwin and Rippe's rather long-winded title Procedures, Techniques and Minimally Invasive Monitoring in Intensive Care Medicine is a great guide to practical techniques: not only for procedures you may not have had much practice at (temporary pacing, pericardiocentesis), but also covering little-known facts and tips about routine procedures like central lines and intubations (did you know that, on meta-analysis, pneumothorax is just as common with IJ central lines as subclavians?). I was disappointed, however, to see that Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps got left out, while Aspirating Synovial Fluid from the Knee made it in!

* I've included links to Amazon so you can read other people's reviews and (in some cases) preview the book. However, most of the books are also available from Australian online booksellers such as Angus and Robertson or Shearer's.