Friday, September 23, 2011

Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists

On the 27th May Mick and I headed to Melbourne for his final exam (ever)! It was a bit of a stressful trip  - not knowing if we would return with big smiles or frowns and fear of more study!! But it was nice to be together and to be just thinking of ourselves - and not having to worry about the kids (they stayed with Grandma and Grandad so we didn't even have to worry if they would be okay - we knew they would be loving it!). 

We arrived at our hotel in the afternoon of the day before the big exam, so Mick did some study review and I went shopping at South Wharf DFO - which was great because it was only about 100m away from our hotel front door! We stayed at the Hilton which is above the Melbourne Convention Centre - where Mick's exams were being held - it was really nice.


The next day Mick was up bright and early and heading out the door for the big event that he had been waiting for (in one way or another) for the past 5 1/2 years. He spent 2 hours being grilled by the examiners, stopped for a couple of hours break to then go back and do it all again!

He felt okay after it was all over, but very nervous about getting the results that evening. At about 5pm we met up with Shona (another trainee from Hobart) and her husband (Paul) and Darren (The Supervisor of Training at the RHH) and his partner  for 'pre result drinks' and then caught the tram down to the ANZCA College building in St Kilda. We then joined about 100 other trainees and family members nervously waiting for 'the numbers' to be posted on the board!

As soon as they were up people were rushing over to either look for their candidate number on the board (the number only being there if they were successful) or collect an envelope with the results inside.
Mick opted for the board! I was so nervous as he headed up that I felt sick!

He was candidate 203.... check it out for yourself:



He returned quickly with a pretty big smile! I had to wipe back the tears! Shona and Shakeel (another trainee from Hobart who was too nervous to actually come to the college) both passed as well, so all Royal Hobart trainees were HAPPY!

Mick... looking pretty proud of himself being congratulated by The Chief Examiner.



Shona, Tom (one of Mick's bosses, who is also an examiner) and Mick.

We returned home the next day pretty damn happy!

Mick now has a formal project to complete and will still be a trainee until the end of November (when his 6 years of Anaesthetic training is up) but after that he can then call himself an Anaesthetist and add FANZCA to the end of his name!! Yipee! I'm pretty proud of him, because it hasn't been easy.

7 comments:

Watson said...

That's awesome! Congratulations Mick and Hannah. I bet a lot of hard work and sacrifice went into that over the years. What does the letter 'F' stand for in FANZCA?

Elle said...

Well I've been busy collecting heaps of stuff about koala's for his final project, I've got pictures, a few paragraphs and some other cool stuff I thought he could use when he puts it on the poster... I LOVE projects..!!!

Hannah Challis said...

Thanks Nicki!! The F stands for fellow! There are some weird names and terms in the medical world!!

Hannah Challis said...

Lol elle! I told Mick about that just the other day - but I thought it was wombats!! lol

The Kings said...

That's so awesome!! Congrats Mick (and Hannah!).

Ange Carmichael said...

yay yay yay~!!

Ange Carmichael said...

yay yay yay~!!