2021 Annual Review: supporting professional development
Enhancing education and learning
2021 saw the continued enhancement of our digital education, as well as a welcome return to some face-to-face events.
Education and Events
2021 saw the continued enhancement of our digital education, as well as a welcome return to some face-to-face events. The launch of the new curriculum to provide learning to meet the demands of the NHS and delivered examinations to 4,614 candidates in total.
Across 2021 we:
- organised 62 educational events and courses
- delivered events to 9,600 delegates
- delivered 14 new webinars, which were attended by a total of 1,400 delegates
- published 25 podcast episodes, with our full catalogue being listened to 23,244 times, an 80 per cent increase from 2020
- saw over 587,281 eLearning Anaesthesia sessions launched by an average of 2,800 users every month
We continue to increase the online educational content we provide for members. RCoA educational videos have been watched over 100,000 times in 124 countries, with over 34,700 hours of viewing time. The UK had the largest audience share in terms of the location of viewers, followed by India and Australia.
Training
This year saw the launch of the 2021 Anaesthetics Curriculum, which provides a programme of learning that has been designed to provide anaesthetists with the necessary skills and experience to meet the demands, requirements and aspirations of patients and the NHS. We have worked hard to develop a suite of resources and guidance to support the implementation of, and transition to, the new curriculum, as well as delivering new functionality in the Lifelong Learning Platform to support the associated assessment methodology.
In preparation for statutory regulation of Anaesthesia Associates, we established a Founding Board to provide operational and strategic management for the development of a Faculty of Anaesthesia Associates at the College. The Founding Board is responsible for establishing the governance structure, membership offerings, Terms of Reference and Regulations of the Faculty of Anaesthesia Associates, which will provide a new professional home for these members of the anaesthetic team.
We have worked hard to develop a suite of resources and guidance to support the implementation of, and transition to, the new curriculum, as well as delivering new functionality in the Lifelong Learning Platform.
Global Partnerships
The Global Partnerships stream of work has seen the introduction of an International Affiliate Membership category, which allows non-UK physician anaesthetists to join and participate with the College. In addition we launched, in partnership with the Association of Anaesthetists and Refuaid, the Refugee Buddying scheme, which supports refugees who arrive in the UK.
We held our Global Anaesthesia event online, which was a meeting that was successfully delivered with a truly international panel of speakers from Australia, the USA, Honduras, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ethiopia, Uganda and of course the UK, attracting over 300 delegates from 27 different countries.
Examinations
During 2021, the College delivered examinations to 4,614 candidates in total: 4,028 for the FRCA and 586 across the faculty examinations. Due to the need to continue delivering exams through the uncertainty posed by the pandemic, these examinations have continued to be delivered online. We have worked hard with the suppliers who support us in the virtual delivery of our written and clinical exams to enhance our customer service and improve the online delivery of these examination components. We continue to ask more of the examiners who support these examinations in a voluntary capacity to ensure that exam places are available to as many candidates as possible.
The continuous focus on improving the experience of candidates and ensuring that the examinations are delivered to the highest standards means that an internal review of the FRCA examinations has been completed and will be reported soon. In addition, due to issues faced in some examinations in 2021, we have commissioned an independent and external review of the FRCA, FFICM and FFPMRCA examinations to report in summer 2022. The review will be extensive, scrutinising processes, delivery methods, resources, technology and communication, as well as the effect of exams on wellbeing. We therefore look forward to bringing positive change to examinations during 2022.
