Intensive Care Clinical Judgement (SBA Practice)
Choose the single best resuscitation, investigation, organ-support, reassessment or communication decision in critical illness.
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
An intensive-care CRQ expects prioritisation: stabilise, define the syndrome, investigate causes, support organs, reassess and communicate.
Exam cue: Use time order for emergencies and problem lists for established critical illness.
Concept 2
A high-value answer states the indication, intervention, monitoring and complications of each support choice.
Exam cue: Make uncertainty visible with a ranked differential and discriminating tests.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Presenting exhaustive differentials before treating immediate physiological threats.
Guardrail: Answer the exact lead-in or command instead of reproducing a generic essay.
Naming a therapy without dose context, endpoint, reassessment or adverse effects when these are requested.
Guardrail: Answer the exact lead-in or command instead of reproducing a generic essay.
Memory anchors
What is the first CRQ move in deterioration?
State immediate safety and ABC actions, call for help and monitor response before expanding the diagnostic plan.
How should investigations be selected?
Choose bedside, laboratory and imaging tests that confirm severity, discriminate causes or guide treatment.
What completes an organ-support answer?
Indication, modality, starting goal, monitoring, complications, escalation and liberation.
Where do communication and ethics fit?
Include capacity, family or proxy communication, prognosis, multidisciplinary decisions and ceilings when relevant to the case.
How can an answer show prioritisation?
Order actions by threat and time, identify dependencies and state what must happen in parallel.
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 septic shock remains hypotensive after an appropriate initial fluid assessment and resuscitation. Which vasoactive strategy is most appropriate first line?
A ventilated patient with septic shock has received 4 litres of crystalloid. Passive leg raising increases stroke volume by 2% and the lungs show increasing interstitial oedema. What is the best fluid decision?
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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