Abstract
Fifty-nine of the 70 Fellows of the Faculty of Anaesthetists who had passed the Final Examination in Intensive Care including that of October 1989, responded to a questionnaire on the pattern of their intensive care and anaesthetic practice and their perception of the training and examination. Responses came predominantly from Fellows who had passed the examination more than two years previously. Forty-eight (81%) were practising intensive care at least 50% of the time and 51% had become Director or Deputy Director of an Intensive Care Unit. However, 51% maintained some anaesthetic practice. Although individuals had changed the intensive care/anaesthetic distribution of their practice, the group overall had not. With one exception all Fellows were practising in public hospitals but 26% in private hospitals also. Only eight had sought intensive care as their first vocational qualification. Training and examination were generally regarded favourably except for training in research methods and experience in internal medicine.
The results suggest that the intensive care specialist is not likely to leave such practice in the long term, but there has been a reluctance to abandon altogether training and some subsequent practice in anaesthetics.