General Duties Clinical Judgement (SBA Practice)
Choose the single best decision across airway, critical incidents, trauma, transfer, specialist lists and complex general duties.
How to prepare for the current Final FRCA Written
Protect breadth for the 90 SBA paper, then rehearse concise CRQ answers that follow the command, mark allocation and printed answer lines.
Core concepts
Concept 1
General-duties CRQs may integrate common anaesthetic work with airway, regional, transfer, trauma, critical incidents or non-theatre constraints.
Exam cue: Extract the setting, urgency, patient risk and procedure-specific hazard before writing.
Concept 2
A strong answer is adaptable: it applies a stable planning structure to the specific patient and procedure rather than reproducing a generic checklist.
Exam cue: Use named contingencies for the two or three most consequential failures.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Ignoring the setting or available resources in a technically correct plan.
Guardrail: Answer the exact lead-in or command instead of reproducing a generic essay.
Giving the same assessment list regardless of the clinical problem.
Guardrail: Answer the exact lead-in or command instead of reproducing a generic essay.
Memory anchors
What is a reusable case structure?
Problem representation, assessment, optimisation, consent, preparation, conduct, recovery, complications and escalation.
How should an airway subpart be answered?
Address prediction, primary plan, oxygenation, attempt limits, rescue, extubation and postoperative care as marks permit.
How should a critical incident subpart be answered?
Call for help, stop the trigger where possible, support physiology, run a cause-specific algorithm, reassess and document.
What makes a transfer answer complete?
Stabilisation, personnel, equipment, monitoring, communication, destination, documentation and en-route contingencies.
Why count distinct points?
CRQ marks are assigned to specified elements; duplicate explanation cannot replace omitted requested items.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A patient with a previous easy laryngoscopy now presents with progressive stridor from a supraglottic tumour and cannot tolerate lying flat. What is the best airway principle?
During awake tracheal intubation, the patient becomes agitated, obstructed and hypoxaemic after escalating sedation. What is the immediate priority?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
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Move forward only after this module is stable.
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