Fellowship of the College of Emergency Medicine

The Fellowship of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (FRCEM) is the exit examination taken by specialists in Emergency Medicine (formerly Accident and Emergency Medicine) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The examination was previously known as the Fellowship of the Faculty of Accident and Emergency Medicine (FFAEM). In order to be eligible to take the examination, candidates are normally required to have completed four years out of a five year specialist registrar rotation in Emergency Medicine.

There are four elements in the examination. The clinical component makes up 50% of the marks and is divided between a Short Answer Question (SAQ) paper and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Both clinical components must be passed at the same time. The management component makes up 25% of the marks, and an academic component the remaining 25% (divided equally between a Clinical Topic Review (CTR) and a Critical Appraisal of a paper from the current medical literature (usually a Randomised controlled trial, a Systematic review or a diagnostic paper). The examination is held twice a year and the SAQ is held one month before the rest of the examination.

Those passing the examination become Fellows of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and are entitled to use the letters FRCEM.