The Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland is the body responsible for higher professional training in Intensive Care Medicine in Ireland. It is a Joint Faculty of three post-graduate training bodies – the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. The Intensive Care Society of Ireland is the Faculty’s fourth constituent body. The JFICMI has 153 Fellows from 2011, comprising intensive care specialists with either whole time or dual specialty commitment to Intensive Care Medicine.
The beginning of Intensive Care in medicine is attributed to introduction of novel successful (ventilatory) treatment of Poliomyelitis-related respiratory failure by Ibsen et al in Scandinavia in the early 1950’s. The first ICUs in Ireland were in 1959 and ’61 at Dublin and Belfast and many ICUs then developed. A summary of subsequent Irish developments in the professional care and management of Intensive Care patients is outlined below:
1971: First Critical Care nursing certificate courses
1985: Higher diploma in Critical Care Nursing
1986: Irish association of Critical Care Nurses (IACCN)
1987: Intensive Care Society of Ireland (ICSI)
1994: Joint scientific meeting with ICS (UK) in Dublin
1994: Irish Board of Intensive Care Medicine (IBICM)
1995: Training and Examination criteria developed / agreed
1995 – 1996: Accreditation visitation programme / approval of Training ICUs
1997: First Diploma of the IBICM (DIBICM)
2007: Graduate Diploma in Critical Care Nursing
2005: Irish Critical Care Trials Group (ICCTG)
2009: IBICM becomes Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine of Ireland (JFICMI)
2009 & 2015: Joint ICSI – European society scientific meetings (Dublin)
2013: First Fellowship exam of the JFICMI
2014: Recognition of ICM as a medical specialty in Ireland
2018: Specialist register open to ICM for first time
2021: First ICM trainee in Ireland to receive a CSCST in ICM.