Suite 101 168 Greville Street
PRAHRAN VIC 3181
Phone: (03) 9514 2888
Fax: (03) 9533 2657
cicm@cicm.org.au

Disclaimer

Trainees are required to submit a satisfactory project report during their training. Completion of training cannot be certified nor Fellowship recommended until a satisfactory project report has been received, reviewed and approved.

The report must be based on a project in which the trainee has participated to a significant extent. There are several possible forms that such a project could take:

• A quality assurance audit or a quality improvement project with a 'before and after' evaluation as for a typical 'Plan, Do, Study, Act' iterative quality cycle.
  
  
• An observational study reviewing an aspect of practice or of the management of a group of patients. Such case series could be conducted prospectively or retrospectively.
  
  
• A prospective scientific study. This might entail a randomised or pseudo randomised evaluation of a treatment or a process. Other possibilities include a before and after evaluation of the introduction of a new treatment or process. 
  
  
• A study of a particular aspect of management of patients involved in a multi-centered trial. This will likely require the assent of the principal investigator for the study. 
  
  
• A systematic review of the literature pertaining to a clinically relevant subject. A systematic review requires a reproducible literature search (with the search strategy included in the report) and may include a meta-analysis of collective data if appropriate (though this is not essential, and may not be appropriate depending on the findings of the systematic review). Descriptive reviews with an unsystematic or selective approach to the literature will not be accepted.
  
  
• A thesis accepted for a higher degree (MD, PhD). Theses must have been presented and accepted and the degree must have been conferred. The thesis must contain a minimum content of a single satisfactory study that includes all the elements described below apart from the abstract. Trainees might consider summarising a long discursive thesis to facilitate assessment and acceptance based on this principle.

The project must be reported with all the elements of a scientific publication, although actual publication is not required and may not even be appropriate. There must be an abstract. There must be an introduction that explains the background to the project including a hypothesis or a reason for conducting the study. There should be a clear explanation of the methods involved in the study. For a case series, this would include an explanation of how the cases were selected. The means for data collection are important for most studies but especially those involving clinical audit where there is a significant difference between voluntary or 'routine' reporting and data specifically collected by a focused data collection process. Full explanation of statistical methods must be provided.  Where relevant, ethics committee oversight must have been sought and approval obtained. Results of the study or the clinical details of any case series must be provided in sufficient detail to meet the objective of the study. The discussion should include a review of the relevant literature pertaining to the study and the review must be reasonably inclusive.

Reports must conform to the requirements for authors submitting manuscripts to the College journal 'Critical Care and Resuscitation'. They must be written in correct English. An English translation must be provided for reports written initially in a foreign language. Publications in peer-reviewed journals and reports submitted to other Colleges as projects can be submitted. However, all reports must meet all of the criteria for submission listed in the Formal Project Document. This includes a requirement for presentation that must have been met and documented before submission. The only exception to this requirement is candidates for the Felicity Hawker medal where the presentation may be part of the assessment process.

The project report is to be evaluated by the trainee's supervisor and the evaluation (including an assurance that the trainee has been a major contributor to the project and the principal author of the report) is to accompany the report when submitted. The final evaluation will be undertaken by the College's Formal Project Assessment Panel.

The project review process may take at least 4-6 weeks and therefore trainees are advised to submit their formal projects with sufficient time for this purpose. 

For further information, please contact Sumithra Abeygunasekera