New Website

Thanks to the work of the amazing Dr John Newland, from now on there will be a new Course Website, which is better in every way. In a few more days this one will go completely offline.

The new website can be found here.

Aidan.

Results are coming in…

We’re already hearing some results coming in. Do please let us know how you got along with the exam.

As always, our hearty congratulations to those of you who passed–and our deep commiserations to those who didn’t manage it this time. You’ll get it next time!

Aidan.

See you tomorrow!

By now, I’m hoping you are all set with Microsoft Teams. The virtual people can attend the course wearing an oodie, or sparkling fairy wings, or even both if you like, since we can’t see you. For the rest of you, we will see you at the Level 4 Meeting Room in the Waiora Building, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 8 o’clock sharp. We’ll put up signs from the ED entrance. We’ll be there in plenty of time beforehand, so you shouldn’t find a closed door.

Thanks to incredible work by John Newland, we’re all set with the tech, and our testing has been exhaustive, and exhausting. We’re all really looking forward to it.

Aidan.

Couple more things

If you haven’t read “The Final Countdown”, the earlier post I wrote today, please do so.

The final version of the timetable for the virtual candidates is available here.

I’ve been in the teaching room today and it’s a little cool in there. Of course it’s likely to warm up with the enormous metabolic energy produced by twenty or so pulsating brains. However, I recommend you layer up, so that you don’t feel cold, and if you do feel too hot you can take something off.

Please have a think about questions you might like to put to Peter Kam on Tuesday or Wednesday evening, and you can start emailing these to me. Remember these sessions will be presented online, are entirely optional and are open to all candidates.

Aidan.

The Final Countdown

Only a few short days to go before the 2022 Part 1 Course opens. We’ve had a few emails from concerned participants with last minute questions. Hopefully this post should contain everything you need.

Last-minute change of venue

We’re delighted that this year we will be able to use the large teaching room adjacent to the anaesthetic department, on Level 4 of the Waiora Building. This room is close to ideal for our requirements: it’s a great size, and it’s conveniently close to the anaesthetic department, for catering, toilets, etc.

This year we have invested in new technology including a large smart-screen TV and room microphones, which should mean that our presentations will work well, both in the room and online.

If you’re not familiar with our hospital, the best way to get in, on Day 1, is to come in the entrance by ED, and take the steel lifts up to level 4. We will put signposts up to show you where to come. It’s actually quite easy to find, once you know your way around a bit. Don’t turn up to the Library on Day 1.

Timetable Update

The most recent version of the timetable is here.

What will I need on day one?

A functional brain, a working pair of ears, a writing hand, and a therapeutic serum caffeine level. We will provide plentiful blank paper, pens and folders.

Microsoft Teams

The online parts of the course will run on the Microsoft Teams platform. This is a versatile platform which will run on portable devices like laptops, but also phones and tablets. This means that virtual attendees will be able to access course content live, and all attendees will have access to recorded sessions afterward, so you can revisit those lectures, or parts of lectures, which you want to rewatch again. Other pertinent files (e.g. timetables) will also be available from Teams.

John Newland has sent you all invitations to our Part One Course Team, using the email address you have sent us. As of today, only two of you have responded to John’s invitation. It’s really important that you respond to this invitation request. If you don’t have access to teams, you won’t be able to get that material. If you have trouble, please get in touch right away. Make sure you’ve checked your spam filter in case John’s email has gone in there.

Could virtual attendees please send me a selfie? I promise there’s a reason for this.

Coffee Machine

The anaesthetic department has a decent coffee machine which works using pods to make different kinds of coffee. If you bring a keep-cup, you can use the machine as much as you like, provided you write your name on the honesty list. The Course will pay for your coffee consumption. There is also a plentiful supply of ordinary tea bags in the kitchen, but if you want fancy teabags, bring your own and add hot water which we will provide.

I think that’s everything right now. If you still have questions, get in touch by email. If I think of anything else, I will add it here.

Aidan.

More Updates

With exactly four weeks to go before the start of the course, there are some major updates which I want to bring to your attention. There’s going to be quite a lot in this post, so I hope you’re paying attention.

(1) You need to be bashing those books. I know I keep banging on about this, but this exam needs to be your top priority from now on. Success is in your own hands.

(2) The timetable is looking good. Jeff has put together a version of the timetable which should be just about finalised. For face-to-face attendees, click here. For virtual attendees, click here. Remember, this year we intend for all lectures to be available online afterward for all candidates.

(3) The physics book is on its way. The Physics and Measurement content was formerly delivered by Dr Alan McLintic from Auckland. Sadly Alan passed away two years ago. He used to provide printed copies of his own book for candidates studying for the Part 1 exam, but it was his express wish that his book not be duplicated electronically. We’re sending physical copies of the book to the virtual candidates. The direct candidates will get their copies when they show up to the course.

(4) Evening sessions with Peter Kam. This is new for this year. Since we have a virtual course which is limited in its interactivity, we’ve wanted to add some material which will help to compensate for that. So we’re going to set up two evening sessions with Prof Peter Kam, which will be on Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening of Week 1 (and yes, I know the timetable says Monday and Wednesday).

These sessions are voluntary; you don’t have to attend, and you don’t have to stay all the way through.

These sessions will be purely virtual for everyone, but all candidates are welcome.

The idea is that you can submit, in advance, a question about any part of the syllabus, and Peter will then address it with you, in such a way that you can understand it. Ideally these questions would be focussed, so “Can; you explain tubulo-glomerular feedback for me?”, not “Can you explain renal physiology for me?” We’ve all had the experience of reading the same page over and over, and it just won’t go in. This is hopefully going to help.

The sessions will run for approximately one hour each night. We will aim to start after dinnertime (e.g. 7pm) and run for about an hour. Peter is very generous with his time, so we’ll be on hand to make sure things don’t run too late.

Please give some thought over the next couple of weeks to questions you might like to pose to Peter.

(5) Sessions for the virtual attendees. The timetable is structured in such a way that half the group does viva practice, while the other half does small-group teaching (listed as SGT on the timetable). As we’ve already explained, the virtual attendees won’t be participating in the viva practice. So if you look on your timetable, you will see blank spaces, which are free for you to study in your own time.

However, we have set up some alternative sessions for virtual attendees. One of these sessions will be a staged viva session, with two actual examiners, and one (acting) candidate. We’re going to make this session as realistic as possible, to ideally let you see what the questioning looks like, and what good (and bad) viva performance looks like.

In addition, we’re going to set up some virtual viva practice, which will take place online only, with the virtual candidates. We’re not quite sure what form this will take, but it will be the best we can do given the limitations of the technology–and a whole lot better than nothing at all.

That’s all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or Claudine.

Aidan.

Part 1 Course 2022: Update

Hi All,

This is just an update from our end to let you know how things are progressing with the Part 1 Course.

The first part of this email will be relevant to all of you; the second part will be relevant only to those of you registered to attend the virtual course.

1: Spaces will be available for the face-to-face course.

As a result of various significant life events, we have had a couple of people withdraw from the face-to-face course. Next week we will be offering these places out. If you are interested in getting one of them, please email Claudine to tell her you want a place, asap. If you want a place, you will need to be able to (a) get leave to come along, and (b) pay your fee promptly. If we only get a couple of applicants, we will give them a place. If we get a dozen, we’ll prioritise the NZ applicants and randomise the rest.

2: We’re getting ready, and so should you be.

Jeff has put together a pretty final version of the timetable, which I will update here on the website. The faculty at this end are locked in. That’s to say, they won’t be allowed out of that cupboard until they agree to do their teaching.

Meanwhile, you all need to be seriously bashing those books. You need to have the major areas of the syllabus in your cranium before you show up here.

3: Exciting new technology.

This year, for the very first time, we’re going to be offering the lecture parts of the course online to virtual attendees. We’ve invested in some new tech to make this happen. Since this is somewhat experimental, we’re giving away virtual places at a very low cost ($500 for 2 weeks). The basic platform will be Microsoft Teams. John is our incredible tech guru and he reckons he can make it all work, including not simply screens and cameras but an interactive screen which we can draw on and you can all see.

The good news (for everyone) is that lectures should all be available afterward for you to review at your leisure. That means you should be able to revisit the content you want as often as you want. This is (we hope) going to be a helpful feature for everyone on the course.

4. Peter Kam is coming.

After a break of 2 years because of COVID restrictions, Prof Peter Kam is joining us again this year. We’re excited to be hosting Peter for all of Week 1. He will be doing vivas, and small group tutorials.

5. New sessions.

Virtual attendees: I’m afraid you’re going to be somewhat disadvantaged compared to the face-to-face crew. There’s just no way to extend our viva practising to you.

However, we’re going to introduce two new sessions. These will be online only, and open to all candidates, virtual and face-to-face. They will take place on the evening of Tuesday of Week 1 and Wednesday of Week 1. The idea is that these sessions are optional, and hosted by Peter Kam. What will happen is that you will send us, in advance, questions or topics that you want Peter to cover or explain in a short time, and he will then tackle that topic with you. If you don’t have questions, that’s fine. If other people’s questions don’t grab you, that’s fine. You can sit in, or sit out, as suits you best. We will limit these sessions to about an hour–we will let them go on a bit if Peter is willing and you’re desperate, but we won’t let them run on all night.

Don’t send us your topics just yet, but by all means start thinking about those puzzling concepts you’ve never quite been able to figure out.

6. Cost for virtual course.

Last year (again, a COVID thing) we had a candidate who was trapped in Australia, having paid her fee. We attempted to stream the course to her, with surprising success, using only a webcam and a portable microphone. She managed to get here for Week 2.

We always thought that an online version of the course would just not be possible, but this was an ideal natural experiment, and it worked really well. As a result we’re rolling it out this year.

We’ve thought a lot about this. We’re going to try to give you (the virtual attendees) as much material as we can provide online. We’ve bought a load of new tech which should make the actual streaming pretty good (i.e. you should be able to see the slides and hear the presenter, and even see diagrams, etc being drawn in real time).

However, this course is already a massive undertaking, and we’re going to make it more massive. So it’s likely (nay, almost inevitable) that there will be slipups and glitches and other unforeseen problems.

As a result, we’re making the fee only $500 this year. This is partly an apology in advance for any technological errors we make, and an apology that we can’t give you every single part of the course. However, we still reckon $500 is a very low fee for what we hope will be a truckload of the best teaching that we can provide.

So that’s it for now. Keep your eyes on this page for future updates. As the course gets closer, I’ll be posting more details here.

Aidan.

Applications are Closed

The applications are all in for the face-to-face course, and we won’t be accepting any more.

We are willing to continue to accept applications for the virtual course for the time being. Please refer to the previous post: the virtual course doesn’t contain any examination practice or direct face-to-face content.

We’ll be sorting through the applications in the next couple of days and we will contact you with your results as soon as we can.

Aidan.

Applications are Open

Applications are currently open. Get your application in right now by sending email to Claudine. The applications will close next Monday at 9am. If we haven’t received your application, you’ve missed the boat.

All details are in the previous post.

Aidan.

Important Information about the 2022 Course

Sorry for keeping you all waiting. Here is some important information about the 2022 Part 1 Course at Waikato Hospital. I know some of you have been emailing me about this; here it all is.

Course Dates

This year the course will run from Monday 27th June to Friday 8th July.

Applications will open on Monday 31st January and will remain open for a week. To apply, all you need to do is to email Claudine Pearson, one of our anaesthetic administrators, with something like “Part 1 Course Application” in the subject line. She’ll need to know your name, where you work, and some statement of confirmation that you’re intending to sit the Primary FANZCA examination at the August 2022 sitting. Some basic contact details (email, mobile) would also be helpful.

The applications will close at 9am on Monday 7th February 2022. If we haven’t received your application by then, you’ve missed the boat.

I know that many of you Follow this page, so you will get this information by email, but I’m sure your colleagues will appreciate it if you let them know about this.

What happens next?

We will allocate the places as follows. We will offer 20 face-to-face course places. We will prioritise Midland NZ trainees in the first instance. We will then offer places to candidates around New Zealand. If we receive more applicants than places, we will allocate them using a blinded, randomised computer program. We will offer any remaining places to Australian applicants, again selected randomly by the computer.

Why have you changed this system? You used to offer an equal chance to Australians.

In the 2021 course, we offered course places to Australian applicants. Three were unable to travel to the course because of COVID restrictions, and ended up missing it. However, it did give us the opportunity to attempt some sort of online streaming of course content. We threw this together at short notice, but it was deemed successful enough that (with a bit of investment in the tech) we are reasonably confident of being able to offer online course content to a potentially indefinite number of applicants for this and future years.

As I write, with the threat of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 looming over us, it’s not possible to predict what travel may or may not be permitted across the Tasman sea in six months’ time. We don’t want people to have the bother of securing a place, and booking flights, only to be denied permission to travel at the last moment.

Getting a Place

Claudine will email you on Tuesday 8th February (or thereabouts) to do one of three things: (1) offer you a face-to-face place on the course; (2) offer you a virtual place, but give you the news that you are on the shortlist, and therefore have a non-trivial chance of being upgraded to a face-to-face place, because each year we have one or two candidates who pull out of the course after being offered a place, or (3) offer you a virtual place without you being on the shortlist.

Every applicant will be offered at least a virtual place.

As in previous years, the face-to-face course fee will be NZ$3,000, but we will offer a greatly reduced fee to virtual attendees.

Why would I bother coming in face-to-face when I can just sit at home and watch?

We strive to make this course the very best that we possibly can. We believe our lecture content and small-group tutorial content is as good as we can make it, and as good as you will find on any other course out there. However, we also believe that one of the core strengths of this course is the simulated exam practice: vivas, SAQs and full-length mock exams, which are marked with considerable individual feedback to allow candidates to improve their technique.

We don’t think it will be possible to offer any sort of simulated exam practice to virtual applicants. Sure, we can set you some SAQs, but we cannot mark them or get them back to you in any way. Also, the environment of being in a large group all focussed on a single objective is conducive to motivation: it’s the difference between watching the game live in the stadium, versus watching it on the telly at home.

What will the online course look like?

As a natural experiment, we attempted to stream the course to an Australian applicant last year. She told us that the audio and video quality were good enough that she was able to follow the lectures from her laptop.

This year we are hoping to upgrade our video and audio facilities to improve the quality of streaming we offer. We hope we will be able to offer access to an archive of recorded lectures (for all candidates) which should mean that you can revisit part or all of a previous lecture at your leisure. At the moment, the barriers to this are the huge amount of data required, and permission from lecturers to be recorded (some may refuse). But we don’t think it will overall be insurmountable.

That’s all the information I have right now. I will update this page reasonably frequently as more information becomes available. If you have any questions meantime, drop me a line.

Aidan.