Examinations Update, Professor Michael Griffin
As Committee Chair, I am pleased to provide an update for this issue of the Examinations Newsletter
The Exams department continues to be busy, with our staff currently working both remotely and in Merrion square. I am proud of all of our examiners, exam leads and our staff in the Exams department, for meeting the challenges Covid presented. Your efforts allowed our trainees to continue to progress with their exam milestones. Our exams will in future be delivered in a hybrid format beginning this Autumn 2022. Online delivery of all our written examinations (MCQs/SBAs/SAQs) will be continued and the MCAI OSCEs, Final FCAI part 2, JFICMI Clinical and the Pain Fellowship clinical will be delivered in person.
The conferring of our graduates, in-person again, this year in June, was a highlight of the year and hugely satisfying to see our graduates celebrate with friends and family.
Our medal winners this year were Dr Sarah Gaffney, Membership Medal (Autumn 2021) and Dr Darren McMahon Membership Medal (Spring 2022). The recipients of the William and Jane Brophy Medal which is awarded to the 1st Placed candidate in the Final Fellowship Examination are Dr Liyan Joanna Tan (Autumn 2021) and Dr Michael Paul Gilmartin (Spring 2022)
Huge congratulations to all of these trainees.
We continue to work on improving the quality and reliability of our examinations using our software platform, Practique, and guided by our two educationalists Drs Gareth Morrison and Helena McKeague. A few examples during 2022 : two examiners marking of the SAQ with review by our Lead if there is discrepancy; new format and marking scheme of the Final part 2 with no major case. We do realise that trainees were faced with frequent changes to the format of many of our exams over the last two years but we envisage little change next year as we settle down to the new hybrid model. I would like to thank all our examiners for participating in exams but also for writing questions, setting standards and correcting papers.
We have completed a comprehensive review of our exam regulations for all exams. This document will be available to candidates. The document outlines all issues pertaining to our exams, including provisions for disability, detailed eligibility criteria for applying and sitting our exams; regulations around appeals and script viewing and our approach to possible suspicious behaviour. This document is particularly relevant to the many issues online delivery of the examinations raises.
The College continue to support the CANECSA examinations as they grow. The number of candidates have increased significantly this year and the group are introducing an OSCE for the first time in December with College support.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the exceptional examiner support by the departments in Letterkenny Hospital and my colleagues at the Mater Hospital who had the most consultant examiner participation in 2021. Support to the College in its examinations process is highly appreciated. Without hospital departments’ support to facilitate examiner leave, we could not successfully deliver SOE examinations in the future.
Our new leads, Dr Fauzio Bano, Lead Pharmacology SOE, Dr Patricija Ecimovic, Lead FCAI SBA, Dr Emer Curran, Lead FCAI SAQ, Dr Jubil Thomas, Lead SOE 2, Dr Ruth Aoibheann O’Leary, Lead SOE 3.
A sincere thank you to our retirees: All of whom have given many years of service to our examinations.
New staff arrangements in College : Ruth Flaherty, Department Manager, Orla Doran, Eoin Lumsden, Rachael Kilcoyne and Andrew Tighe.
Thank you to our retirees.
A sincere thank you to our retirees, Dr Ed Carton, Mater University Hospital and Dr Kieran Crowley, St Vincent's Hospital. Both of whom have given many years of service to our examinations.
Ms Adele Meredith invigilated for the last time at the recent Final Fellowship examinations. Adele invigilated with the College for almost three decades.
We thank her for her many years of great service and hope she enjoys her well earned retirement.
'I am proud of all of our examiners, exam leads and our staff in the Exams department, for meeting the challenges Covid presented'
Lead Examiners 2022
Dr Peter Hooker
Lead MCAI
MTF paper
Nenagh, Hospital
Dr Edel Duggan
Lead MCAI SBA
Beaumont Hospital
Dr Suzanne Cronly
Lead OSCE exam
Our Lady's Children, Crumlin
Dr Fauzio Bano
Lead Pharmacology SOE
Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda
Dr Adriana Nizam
Lead Physiology SOE
Beaumont Hospital
Dr Patricija Ecimovic
Lead FCAI SBA
Waterford University Hospital
Dr Emer Curran
Lead FCAI SAQ
University Hospital Galway
Dr Fergus Walsh
Lead SOE 1
Cork University Hospital
Dr Jubil Thomas
Lead SOE 2
Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda
Dr Ruth Aoibheann O’Leary
Lead SOE 3
Beaumont Hospital
Examiner Participation 2021
Examiner Participation 2021
We would like to acknowledge the exceptional examiner support by Letterkenny University Hospital and The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital departments who had the most consultant examiner participation in 2021.
These hospitals have provided support to the College in its examinations process over the last number of years and for this we are most appreciative. Without the hospital departments’ support, we could not successfully deliver the examinations.
Welcome to all our newly appointed Examiners in 2022.
Dr Abdulatif Albasha, Qatar
Dr David Devlin, Beaumont Hospital
Dr Thomas Drew, Rotunda Hospital
Dr Pierce Geoghegan, Beaumont Hospital
Dr Sean Keane, St. James’s Hospital
Dr Zulfiqar Memon, Our Lady of Lourdes, Drogheda