Simply personal recommendations for core texts for training in anaesthesia and intensive care. Many questions from the FRCA are literally written by some of the authors and plucked verbatim from the books below. Certain texts below could be considered *COMPULSORY* books to buy... You will find they all have a high resale value to anaesthetists coming through exams behind you... but if you're like me, you'll hoard them in your library!

Recommended Textbooks for the Primary FRCA 

• Physics, Pharmacology and Physiology for Anaesthetists (Cross and Plunkett)

Tries to condense all topics into one friendly book. This is a good place to start everything. 

• The OSCE in Anaesthesia - (Mendonca et al) - *MUST HAVE*

    Essentially the foundation revision aid for the OSCE component of the FRCA Primary Exam. You need to read this fully, at least once.

• Pharmacology in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care - (Peck and Hill) *MUST HAVE*

I reckon most, if not all, of the pharmacology MCQ's and SBA's are plucked straight from this book. You essentially have to know it thoroughly.

• Primary FRCA Structured Oral Examination Study Guide 1 & 2 (McCombe et al) *MUST HAVE*

Everyone has a revision text that speaks to them; these are mine. They are just so well written and succinct, I think you'd be mad not to buy them. I found them useful for BOTH the MCQ paper and the VIVA.

• The Structured Oral Examination in Anaesthesia - (Mendonca et al)

Pretty much the same as the above, but I preferred McCombe et al's Primary FRCA Structured Oral Examination Study Guide 1 & 2, which are MUST HAVE books. 

• Physics in Anaesthesia (Middleton)

Probably the leading physics textbook for the FRCA. Personally, I despise physics, so anything to make life easier for me is welcome. I used a combination of actual past questions and Primary FRCA Structured Oral Examination Study Guide 1 & 2 to revise physics - and I probably should have started with this book.

• Equipment in Anaesthesia and Critical Care - (Aston et al)

You will probably need an equipment book. I have this one, but I have featured the other one below. This is a fairly modernised book, but it can have some significant gaps in what the MCQ paper requires you to know vs what the book tells you.

• Essentials of Anaesthetic Equipment (Al-Shaikh)

As above!

• Primary FRCA in a box (Armstrong et al)

Loved by many as a rapid and concise method of last minute revision prior to exams in both MCQ/SBA and VIVA/OSCE. Essentially does what it says on the tin; provides scores of revision cards. 

• Anaesthesia and Intensive Care A-Z (Yentis et al) 

As one reviewer put it: "Great anaesthesia reference book covering an enormous spectrum of anaesthesia-related topics. However, not a book I would choose to learn from routinely due to its unfriendly format." You can see for yourself on Amazon, that it's good for an A-Z of topics, but lacks the background to actually sit and revise from... With the advent of Smart Phones... You'd probably be safe to miss this book out.

• Primary FRCA MTF's and SBA's (400) - (El-Boghdadly)

If you feel you need a book to start your MCQ/SBA practice questions with, then this is probably perfect for you. I started with PasTest and OnExamination however, and acquired this at a later stage... I think in this day and age, with the use of Apps on smart phones for MCQ's and SBA's - you're better choosing those from the offset! Revision is made MUCH easier with online services.

• Dr Podcast Scripts for the Primary FRCA (Leslie et al)

Very good for rapid viva practice. I do find the endless pages of script extremely monotonous (visual learner here!), but they are nice to see model answers to common VIVA questions.

• Graphic Anaesthesia (Hooper)

Nice for visual leaners and those of you panicking that you may get asked: "Draw me X/Y/Z" from a plethora of graphs and concepts. 


(Click on the links above to see the books on Amazon. Purchasing via the links above, directly contributes to Propofology.com at no added cost to you! We are not sponsored by the individual authors.)