DICM - The Dissertation

The Dissertation

Timing: On the one hand it's a good idea to get your dissertation done and out of the way as soon as possible. On the other hand, the Diploma timetable can paradoxically work to penalise those who work too far in advance: because topics are only approved four months before the deadline for submission, you could end up doing your whole dissertation a year ahead, submitting your topic outline and then being told your topic is unsuitable. Having said that, anything with a reasonable relevance to ICU should be accepted, so choose something sensible and you should have no problems. If in doubt, ask your Regional Adviser in Intensive Care Medicine. If you're particularly worried (and particularly organised!), one solution would be to submit your topic for approval for the previous year's exam. This does not commit you to entering the exam, and gives you over sixteen months to write your dissertation. If you have previously done a research thesis (e.g. for a PhD or MD), then submit this in good time to the IBTICM to see if they will exempt you from the Dissertation.

Choosing a topic: If you've already done some ICU-related research then this may be the logical thing to present as a dissertation - you will already have done most of the work, and know the field better than most. If not, I suggest you aim for a review (to start a new research project is time-consuming and could derail your whole study process, so think twice!). In picking a topic to review, choose something that seems fairly small and well-defined - no matter how focussed you think your topic is, it will start to mushroom once you read into it, so allow for this in advance! Choosing something of core relevance to ICU might save you time studying for the 'general' vivas. Most importantly, choose something that you find interesting. Click here for some examples of topics used for DipICM Dissertations.

More about timing: The further in advance you complete your dissertation, the more time you free up for swotting for the vivas. However, if you do your dissertation too far in advance, you may have forgotten much of it and have to 're-learn' it for the viva, as well as missing up-to-date references. I would suggest a reasonable goal is to finish your dissertation six months before the exam (i.e. two months before the submission deadline), for two reasons: firstly, this allows some margin for over-run and disasters like computer crashes (I speak from experience!); and secondly, this gives you chance to circulate a draft to your supervisor, Regional Adviser and/or other senior colleagues for constructive criticism.

Practical points:

Finding references: if you live within travelling distance of London, visit the library of the Royal Society of Medicine in Wimpole Street. Even if you're not a member, you can get one-day membership for £10, and it's an education in itself. It's said to be the largest medical library in Europe, and you would be hard-pressed to find a journal that's not stocked there. The staff are very helpful, and you can do photocopying and computer work on-site.
Keeping track of references: I thoroughly recommend you invest in some form of citation database software - it will make your life SO much easier. Although expensive, you may be able to obtain a substantial discount through academic institutions - I bought Reference Manager (from Adept Scientific) for around £80 by virtue of being an Open University student. Like any new program, it took a bit of getting used to, but was relatively easy to learn. It served as a database for all of my references (used and unused); a much better way of searching Medline than the PubMed search line; a means to search, sort and reformat references in any style I wanted; a huge papersaver (I didn't have to print out reams of abstracts); and most importantly, a way of automatically collating my references into my Word document and generating a sorted reference list at the end. For Mac users, there's the excellent Bookends, for US$99, with all the functionality of Reference Manager. I repeat - I cannot recommend this highly enough, all the more if you ever plan to publish anything else in future.
Computer sense: save often, and back-up regularly - it saved my life!
Fine print: read the DICM Regulations and the detailed Dissertation Advice (in the Calendar) about how the dissertation is to be presented. They prescribe a fixed structure for the abstract, a fixed style for references, line and page spacing etc., so give them what they ask for! The word limit is now 4000 - 6000 (formerly 10 000), but I don't think they're terribly strict about it - mine was well over budget! The Dissertation Advice also includes recommendations on what to look for in a supervisor, and what the examiners look for in a successful dissertation.
Critical thinking: The examiners are particularly keen on critical thinking. Don't just process what you find in the literature - point out strengths and weaknesses, meta-analyse where appropriate, apply principles of evidence.

If anyone has any other useful bits of advice for dissertation-writing, please submit them to austin@dicm.co.uk and I'll endeavour to include them.