You will be based in Raigmore for the duration of your three-year core training programme.
Intensive Care is completed as a single 6-month dedicated block either during ACCS2 (equivalent to CT1) or during CT2 – CT3 for pure Anaesthesia Core Trainees. During your ICU block your resident OOH service will be only within Critical Care.
The theatre training will otherwise be general over the remaining 2.5 years covering different subspecialties excluding neurosurgery, neonatal anaesthesia, and cardiothoracics.
The Royal College Novice Guide describes contributing to the on-call resident rota after 6 months. In the North of Scotland, both in Aberdeen and in Inverness, there is a more supernumerary layer to the rota that trainees contribute to even before they have passed Initial Assessment of Competence (IAC).
Passing your IAC is a satisfying achievement in itself but there will be no service pressure to push you to get it signed in any particular haste. However, as emphasised above, until you have passed this milestone, you may not be left alone with an anaesthetised patient.
Raigmore is a DGH sized hospital without large numbers of overnight anaesthesia cases. It is not until you have passed your initial assessment of competence in obstetric anaesthesia that you join the next resident rota that includes night shifts.
At the start of an obstetrics or ICU block please arrange a meeting with the relevant clinical supervisor Obstetrics – Kristina Muir, ICU – Ben Greatorex. At this meeting you should set targets that you hope to achieve during the block and be clear what is required for sign off. In Obstetrics this means EPA3 and EPA4 culminating in the Milestone called the IACOA (Initial Assessment of Competence in Obstetric Anaesthesia) which is usually complete within your first 12 months of theatre anaesthesia. In Critical Care it is the ICM Holistic Assessment of Learning Outcomes (HALO) – sign off for the full domain at the end of the 6-month block.
We do not expect any of the fourteen Stage 1 Holistic Assessment of Learning Outcomes (HALOs) to be completed during CT1 (except ACCS2 trainees who will achieve ICM and potentially Procedural Sedation). Many of the Generic Professional Domain HALOs could be completed with your Educational Supervisor during CT2. The Specialty Specific Domains and Safety/QI have Designated Trainers who would sign those off towards the end of your Stage 1 training.
Training in Anaesthesia Highlands of Scotland 