Before training
Get useful anaesthetic exposure without chasing prestige
A taster is valuable when it reveals the decisions, teamwork and less visible work around anaesthesia. It is not a mandatory published CT1 certificate and watching intubations alone gives a distorted view.
Ask the right person
Contact the department's College Tutor, Foundation Programme lead, careers lead or a consultant you have worked with. Give your grade, dates, occupational-health status and two or three learning aims. Ask early; theatre access and supervision need planning.
Follow one patient through the pathway
See preoperative assessment, team brief, preparation, induction, maintenance, emergence, handover and recovery. Notice how comorbidity, surgical plan, fasting, airway, pain and postoperative destination change decisions.
Include acute and non-theatre work
If service and supervision allow, observe the emergency theatre, obstetrics, acute pain, pre-assessment, ICU referral or transfer work. Anaesthetists also respond to deteriorating patients and work outside the operating room.
Join achievable local work
Ask about a RCoA QI Compendium topic, guideline update, simulation session or trainee research-network project. A small, completed contribution with access to the team is usually more useful than an ambitious national project with no defined role.
Reflect on trade-offs
Ask what trainees enjoy, what makes nights difficult, how supervision changes after the IAC, what exam preparation costs in time and how Core and ACCS differ. Use this to decide whether the actual job fits you.
From understanding to practice
Put this topic into an interview answer
Use General Interview station for original prompts and an answer structure relevant to this topic.
Explore Anaesthetics CT1 practiceExplore the Question bank and spoken practice coming at launch.Spoken practice is launching soon. Use the free questions and guides to start preparing now.
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