100% of our delegates would recommend our courses

Our courses provide up-to-date information and advice on how to succeed in the competitive entry process for Anaesthetic / ACCS Core Training.  We guide you through the application, teach you how to score highly in the MSRA, and prepare you thoroughly for one of the most important days of your career; The Anaesthetic Interview.

Founded in 2015, our continually evolving Application and Interview Skills Courses have received consistently and resoundingly positive feedback over the last 5 years.  We design these courses to be ruthlessly focused on giving candidates the best chance of achieving their highest possible score in the Anaesthetics/ACCS Anaesthetics application process.  We did this after undertaking a multitude of generic interview skills courses ourselves when applying for our own training numbers.  We quickly realised that a much more specialty-specific approach was required in order to score well. 

We went on to design the first ever Anaesthetics focused interview course in the UK for Core Training applicants. Whilst the courses have grown beyond recognition over the years, we strongly believe they remain the best courses out there for applicants to Anaesthetic / ACCS Training with over 90% of delegates securing one of their top choice jobs.  The Anaesthetic application and interview are highly structured, and our courses are tailored specifically to maximising your score within that structure.

Implications of COVID-19
The application process and interview are undergoing significant changes this year due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.  Applicants will undergo the MSRA (Multi Specialty Recruitment Assessment) in order to be invited to interview.  For those successful, the redesigned interview will be held online via Microsoft Teams.

We are restructuring our courses to give candidates the reassurance, guidance, and confidence necessary to navigate these uncertain waters.  We will guide you throughout the process, keeping abreast of the evolving application landscape so you don't have to worry about missing any crucial information. 

We provide a personal email advice service throughout the year so you can ask anything you like 24 hours a day as those inevitable last minute queries arise.  We know it is a cliche to say that no question is a stupid question, but we genuinely mean that.  We have had 5 years experience answering every question about the application process and interview technique imaginable, and have covered pretty much everything in that time.  We answer hundreds of queries we get throughout the year as we love eventually hearing back regarding the amazing news that you have obtained your dream anaesthetics training post after all your efforts.

We understand that it is an uncertain time in your career, and that there will be a degree of anxiety regarding a novel interview structure held over an online platform, and the sitting of the MSRA.  However, be reassured that we will prepare you thoroughly for what you will face.  Key themes and techniques for scoring highly in the interview will remain consistent from previous years.  We will take you through the MSRA in detail and coach you on how to score highly.  We will teach you a structured, coherent approach to excel in every aspect of the recruitment process.

We will be holding our courses remotely this year via the webinar platform, Demio. This decision has not been taken lightly but we feel it is the safest option in terms of

• Public health implications
• Avoids potential of cancelling course last minute due to local lockdown measures
• Avoids costs and difficulties in delegates travelling across UK due to local lockdown measures, whilst making it much easier for colleagues from hundreds of miles away to attend without having to travel to London and find accommodation overnight.
• Allows delegates to experience teleconferencing from the comfort of their own home before their online interview with the Anaesthetics National Recruitment Office (ANRO).  
• Allows us to deliver the courses at a heavily discounted rate as venue hire and catering costs can be cut.  The courses can still be paid for via study budgets as in previous years.​

Thinking about a career in Anaesthetics?
Anaesthetics is the largest hospital specialty, with anaesthetists being integral to the running of any hospital. They can be found working across the hospital, in theatres, labour ward, A&E, radiology, on the wards and in various outpatient clinics. It is a job that involves far more than just ‘putting people to sleep’.

Anaesthetics is a very varied specialty, including the following areas:

• Perioperative care for a wide range of surgical specialties
• Outpatient ‘High risk’ and Obstetric clinics
• Obstetric Anaesthesia
• Pain Medicine  
• Resuscitation at arrest calls and trauma calls
• Sedation for procedures/scans
• Intensive Care Medicine
• Transfer Medicine
• Pre-hospital Medicine

There are now two routes into training for anaesthetics at CT1 level. The first is the traditional 'Core Anaesthetics Training' consisting of 18 to 21 months of pure anaesthetics, with 3 to 6 months of intensive care medicine. The second is the 'ACCS' (Acute Care Common Stem) route, consisting of 3 years broken down into 6 months each of acute medicine, intensive care, and A&E, and a further 18 months of pure anaesthetics. Both entry points are accessed through the same application and interview process, and both are followed by a further (usually less competitive) process to become a specialist registrar in either anaesthesia, intensive care, or both, via ‘dual training’.

Work-life balance is a major selling point for a career in anaesthetics. It lends itself well to less than fulltime training (LTFT) for trainees and consultants with family commitments. Out of hospital interests and travel are actively encouraged, with most trainees taking part in at least one year abroad at some stage. Trauma anaesthesia in Cape Town or Flying Doctors Service in Australia anyone?

There should be no doubt that whilst an extremely attractive career option, it is a dauntingly competitive application and interview process.   Sadly many candidates are left disappointed each year. However, with courses taught by previously successful candidates, with the opportunity to practise and perfect your interview skills in a safe environment before the big day, we believe our courses are ideally designed to put you in the strongest position possible for the rigorous application and interview process.


​Applying for Specialty Training (ST3) in Anaesthetics?
​Every year we get many enquiries from current Core Trainees in Anaesthetics as to whether our courses are suitable for them as they prepare for their Specialty Training interview.  Our answer is that whilst the lectures and course handbook are specifically designed for junior doctors applying for Core Training in Anaesthetics / ACCS, the interview format and scoring systems used by ANRO are identical for both the Core Training and Specialty Training interview days.  As such, we feel there is much to be gained by Specialty Training applicants from our December course as the techniques and preparation we teach to score highly are equally applicable to their circumstances.  Of note, the ST3 application window opens later than the CT1 window (late January rather than early November), thus there is more time to prepare for your speciality training interview if you attend our December course.

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