Dublin EDIC Autumn Examination 2022

November 9 and 10, 2022

The College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland provided two staff members to help organise and run the exam (Ruth Flaherty and Orla Doran). Without their assistance, the exam would not be possible. A technical support person was also available throughout both days of the exam and they were also useful in dealing with the computer set-up and glitches that arose.

34 candidates presented for the examination (there were 2 cancellations)

Day 1 Wednesday

We had twelve examiners and two newly appointed examiners who observed.

The pre-exam meeting was conducted from 12 noon (Dublin time – CET-1hr). Each examiner was familiar with their own CBS station and the technical requirements of the process before commencement of the exam at 2 pm local time.

The set-up consisted of four groups of three tables arranged around a large ballroom. Each computer had one set of headphones.

The internet/wi-fi was excellent and there were no drop-outs from our end.

There was only one (minor) technical issue. Two candidates had been given the same address to log into their exam ‘room’. This was quickly rectified by Ruth, who sent one of the candidates the correct address and the matter was resolved easily and no time was lost.

Day 2 Thursday

We had a similar day in terms of technical issues – excellent wi-fi and minor glitches that were easily dealt with.

The major problems on the day were

(i) Noise:

The presence of additional examiners in the room meant we could not use the headsets as the second examiner at each table would not be able to hear the candidate. This created a marked increase in ambient noise. The matter was helped in the afternoon by moving three table into an adjoining room.

In future, we will aim to have two set of headphones per table.

(ii) Shortage of examiners

We were unable to get a full compliment of examiners. We had 22/24 confirmed examiners on the day before the exam. Given the two candidate cancellations, we had arranged the timetable to have two examiners at nearly all of the tables. Unfortunately, we had two examiner withdrawals on the day of the exam (due to illness and last-minute work clash). This meant that the CCS 1 station was examined by four of our most experienced examiners on their own. When examiners did not have a candidate to examine, they redistributed to the tables with one examiner to allow two examiners to be present at that time. This was possible on the first and third session.

Given that the solo examiners in question had years of experience, they were able to accommodate the adjustment without any difficulty. Some remarked that they found it easier to examine on their own and were able to stay engaged throughout the day.

Hopefully, we will be able to recruit some additional examiners in the future. The change to 36 candidates from 27 and the two day format impacted on our available examiner pool.

We had over 24 examiners over the two days but not everyone from day 1 could do day 2 and, similarly, some examiners only attended on day 2.

Overall, there was positivity towards the exam process amongst those examiners in attendance and the Dublin centre is keen to continue to provide one sitting of EDIC 2 per year into the future.