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Backwards from every other college: get the job first, then register. You cannot apply to CICM until you already have six months in an accredited ICU 1. Then it is a structured CV, three references and a $3,250 fee — no interview, no ranking 12. Two two-week intake windows a year 1.
The gate is a job, not an exam. CICM requires a primary medical degree, a completed internship, full general registration, and Foundation Training — six months in a CICM-accredited ICU as one 6-month or two 3-month terms, completed within three years of the application date, with leave capped at 14 days in any three months 1. Every accredited unit counts for Foundation, including rural and Foundation-only units 1. Any ICU time before registration counts as Foundation and is capped at six months, so extra unaccredited ICU buys you references and experience, not training time 1.
What is assessed. A structured CV across eight domains — qualifications, clinical ICM experience, academic awards, research, CPD and courses, rural origin and experience, Indigenous origin, relevant personal experiences — with weights unpublished and documentary evidence no longer required since 2024 2. Plus three references, all from your Foundation term: one FCICM, one FCICM who is the unit's Supervisor of Training or Director, and one senior ICU nurse, scored 1–5 across core abilities and totalled electronically 12. There is no interview and no national ranking, though the policy allows a maximum of three attempts at registration 2. Trainee registration fee $3,250 3.
The windows are short. Two intakes a year, each open about two weeks: for the 2026 cycle, 16–30 March with references due 13 April and outcomes in May, then 17–31 August with references due 14 September and outcomes in November 1. Miss one and you lose six months. The job itself comes through the state campaigns — NSW's Critical Care round advertised 22 June and closed 6 July for the 2027 clinical year 4.
The community's actual advice is about which PGY3 job to take: an SRMO or critical-care SRMO year beats jumping to registrar, because it satisfies Foundation while you are still supervised 6. And the warning that matters: entry is the easy part — First Part pass rates sit around 45–50% and the consultant market is tight 57.
r/ausjdocs — community view, not policy; verbatim, cautionary beside positive where both exist, every quote linked to the comment.
SRMO. You just don't know enough medicine as a PGY3 to safely function as an ICU registrar.
Do the SRMO year, trust me.
It'll also count for your foundation training time (6 months) in icu to allow you to apply for training.
I'm would be surprised if the college has ever turned down an eligible applicant in its entire history.
The regs I've spoken to all said it's pretty easy to get on to, it's getting out that sounds like the hard bit.
Asked 46 times on r/ausjdocs (title-regex count) · encoded by hand from the numbered sources, retrieved 12 Sept 2026; no AI wrote any of it. how the count was made
asked_count = posts in the r/ausjdocs dump (19,145 posts, 2022-09-13 to 2026-09-12) whose title matches /(?=.*(\bICU\b|intensive care|CICM))(?=.*(get(ting)? (on|onto|into)|\bapply\b|applic|applying|selection|pathway|how (do|to)|training|reg(istrar)?|foundation))/i. Quotes are the highest-scoring comments in the PGY3-job and CICM-training threads, chosen so the near-unanimous 'do the SRMO year' advice sits beside the two comments pointing out that easy entry is the trap, not the prize.