Procedure station. Candidates were expected to provide a systematic approach to a patient with a tension pneumothorax. The scenario provided was as follows:
“A twenty-two (22) year old male has been brought to your Emergency Department following a motor vehicle accident. He was the unrestrained driver of a car that collided head-on with a truck. The ambulance officers report that he has been dyspnoeic, tachycardic and shocked en route to the hospital. You are the only doctor available to attend to him.”
Thirteen out of twenty-three candidates passed this section.
Disclaimer: the viva stem above may be an original CICM stem, acquired from their publicly available past papers. Or, perhaps it is a slightly altered version of the original CICM stem. Or, it is a completely original viva stem, concocted by the monstrously amoral author of Deranged Physiology for nothing more than his own personal amusement. In either case, because the college do not make the main viva text or marking criteria available, almost everything here has been confabulated. It might sound like a plausible viva and it could be used for the purpose of practice, but all should be aware that it does not represent the "true" canonical CICM viva station.