Specialty overview

Intensive care medicine specialists provide comprehensive clinical management of critically ill patients experiencing severe medical, surgical, obstetric and paediatric illnesses.

Clinical practice

Intensive care medicine specialists work predominately within the public health sector to provide care for patients with life-threatening single and multiple organ system failure, patients who are at risk of clinical deterioration as well as patients requiring resuscitation or management in an intensive care unit or high dependency unit. Intensive care medicine specialists are also involved in the transport and retrieval of critically ill patients, and are experts in end-of-life care, the diagnosis of brain death and care and support of the organ donor.

Key statistics

2023 QLD Training program selections(first year)

26
eligible

26
selected

This doughnut chart shows the proportion of applications recieved vs applicants selected. Eligible applications received is 26, Applicants selected is 26.

Number of Queensland and Australian specialists

214

Number of QLD specialists

889

Number of Australian specialists

Number of Queensland and Australian new fellows

4

Number of QLD new fellows

30

Number of Australian new fellows

Number of Queensland trainees and average work hours

142

Number of QLD trainees

46.6

Average weekly hours

Information on specialists

  • 214

    Number of QLD specialists

  • 4

    Number of QLD new fellows

  • 46.6 hours

    Average weekly hours QLD

  • 49 years

    Average age QLD

  • Specialists over 60

    This donut chart shows that 13% of specialists are aged over 60 years.
  • Specialist intending to retire by 2032

    This donut chart shows that 33% of 2022 workforce intend to retire by 2032.
  • Location in Queensland

    This donut chart shows the percentage of specialists by their location: 23.9% are located in regional Queensland, 76.1% are in major cities, and 0% are in remote regions. The chart highlights that a vast majority of specialists are based in major cities.
  • Proportion Female/Male - QLD

    77.2%
    male

    22.8%
    female

    This doughnut chart shows the proportion of males and females. Males are 77.2%, Females are 22.8%.
  • Public vs Private

    15%
    private

    85%
    public

    This doughnut chart shows the proportion of public and private specialists. Private is 15%, Public is 85%.

Information on trainees

  • 142

    Number of Queensland trainees

  • 32

    Number of new Queensland trainees

  • 689

    Number of Australian trainees

  • 202

    Number of new Australian trainees

  • Proportion female/male trainees in Queensland

    63.4%
    male

    36.6%
    female

    This doughnut chart shows the proportion of males and females. Males are 63.4%, Females are 36.6%.
  • 2023 QLD Training program selections (first year)

    26
    eligible

    26
    selected

    This doughnut chart shows the number of 2023 QLD Training Program Selections (First Year). 26 Eligible applications were received, 26 of those were selected.

Number of Queensland trainees 2015-2022

This line chart shows the trend of the number of Queensland trainees from 2015 to 2022. The data points are: 2015 - 71 trainees, 2016 - 104 trainees, 2017 - 85 trainees, 2018 - 76 trainees, 2019 - 75 trainees, 2020 - 157 trainees, 2021 - 158 trainees, 2022 - 142 trainees.

Hear about our training

Intensive Care Medicine Training in Northern Queensland
Duration: 04:02

Transcript for Intensive Care Medicine Training in Northern Queensland

[Soft music plays in the background]

[Text on screen] Specialty Training in Northern Queensland, Anaesthetics.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

[Text on screen] Dr Andrea Odelli, Intensive Care Advanced Trainee

Yeah, when I finished med school, I had a pretty good idea that I liked areas such as Emergency and Intensive Care. I did a 3-month ICU rotation and I just fell in love; my first shift was absolutely chaos and there was some really sick people and it was quite sink or swim and I actually found that I really liked that.

>> Dr Melita Trout:

[Text on screen] Dr Melita Trout, Supervisor of Training, Intensive Care

To pursue a career in Intensive Care, one of the first steps is to get broad experience then secure 6 months in Intensive Care. The program itself consists then of completing 12 months of medicine, 12 months of anaesthetics, 24 months of Advanced Training in Intensive Care.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

The Queensland ICU pathway is quite unique, so they’ve got an organised system to actually look after trainees and kind of support them through their training. There’s multiple requirements you need to tick off along the way when you’re doing intensive care training. For example, you need to get experience in other specialties. So, the benefit of being up here is how supportive they are and they have arranged those requirements for me.

>> Dr Melita Trout:

There’s not many places where you get the combination of Cardiac Surgery, Neurosurgery, Obstetric patients, such a high proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

Where we are, in North Queensland, lends itself to quite an interesting case mix. So, we get tropical diseases, all things weird and wonderful.

>> Dr Melita Trout:

Trainees can complete all of their components of training in the north, so the anaesthetics medicine component, emergency medicine component including retrievals.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

I will be on-call for admitting patients to the ICU. And so that will involve receiving phone calls from doctors anywhere, all over the region and that will be sometimes just for phone advice or sometimes it’s for a bit more than that and they might need to transfer the patient to us. So, if I was at a bigger hospital, I wouldn’t be getting the opportunity for the independence that I’ve had for the opportunity to kind of step up and do those on-call shifts. So, I definitely think it’s helped me grow a lot quicker.

>> Dr Melita Trout:

One of the benefits lifestyle-wise of living in North Queensland is I drive 10 minutes from home to work every day or it’s an easy cycle along the river.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

My initial intention was actually to move to the North Queensland region for one year and then I thought I’d move on and it’s 3 years later and I’m still here. So clearly enjoying myself. I’ve got a 6-month-old puppy who has a lot of energy, so we go for runs, walks most days. We’ve just bought a small sailing catamaran, my partner and I. We’re teaching ourselves how to sail out on the waters off the coast.

>> Dr Melita Trout:

Climbing up Castle Hill, that view over Magnetic Island and Cape Cleveland and the bay just really brings calm, I think, to the soul.

>> Dr Andrea Odelli:

About 6 months into my time here, when I was still quite a junior registrar, I was on night shift and in the middle of the night, we had quite a young woman who had a cardiac arrest on the ward. In the middle of the night, you don’t have consultants around, so it is just you and the other registrar you’re on with and so we were kind of working on our own basically. We managed to successfully resuscitate her, got her back alive essentially and then over a period of a few days, she completely woke up and had absolutely no deficits as a result of that happening. Which I think is a pretty amazing part of what I do. We get to have people at the sickest they ever are and that we can bring them back to normal.

[Text on screen] Explore specialty training opportunities in northern Queensland. nqrth.edu.au

All Intensive Care Medicine specialty training can be completed in northern Queensland, including the critical components of medicine, anaesthetics and advanced training intensive care medicine.

Registrars can complete placements in Cairns, Mackay, Mount Isa and Townsville.

This video was funded by the Australian Government Department of Health as part of the Regional Training Hubs initiative. Produced in partnership with northern Queensland health care providers and James Cook University.

[James Cook University crest appears on screen] Northern Queensland Regional Training Hubs. A network of medical training opportunities. nqrth.edu.au

End of transcript

What our staff have to say

Testimonial icon

Dr Mahesh Ramanan

Intensive Care Medicine Specialist
Caboolture Hospital

Intensive care medicine gives me the privilege of caring for the sickest of patients. The high illness severity and all the challenges that this brings utilises the entire breadth and depth of my accumulated medical knowledge. The specialty has an intense dedication to patient safety and quality that is unparalleled in medicine and allows me to pursue a combined clinical-academic career.

Training information


College

College of Intensive Care Medicine(CICM)


Length of training

6 years full-time


Method of allocation

College-selected trainees may be allocated to a training post by:

  • Queensland Health pathway/network (centrally coordinated)
  • Queensland Health facility (accredited for training)

Program overview

Intensive care training incorporates both core training and transition training to achieve all required competencies and demonstrate all the values, attitudes and aptitudes required of a specialist in intensive care medicine. Trainees are required to complete a minimum of 6 months at PGY3 or above at a recognised rural training location. Upon completing all requirements of the training program, trainees may apply for admission to Fellowship of the College of Intensive Care Medicine (FCICM).


Training and assessment summary

The Queensland Intensive Care Training Pathway oversees the recruitment, selection and allocation of intensive care medicine trainees to accredited adult and paediatric intensive care units across Queensland. Trainees are appointed to a pathway training hospital for 6 to 12 months.


Eligibility

Applicants must hold general registration with the Medical Board of Australia, have successfully completed a 12 month internship, have completed 6 months of supervised experience in a CICM accredited intensive care unit within the last 3 years and provide 3 structured references.


Flexibility

Minimum 40% of full-time commitment. Maximum of 12 years to complete all phases of training.


Interrupted training

Allowed however must be prospectively approved and will be individually assessed.

Training locations

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