Hello Eshita,

The MRCS examination determines whether a surgical trainee possesses the correct knowledge, skills and attributes to complete basic training and to progress to higher levels of specialist surgical training.

The examination content is based on the findings of a Job Task Analysis (JTA), which describes the overall tasks that an RCS is expected to perform on the job and general areas of knowledge that are needed to perform the tasks.

One is advised to have a good grip on concepts that cover the following areas:

• Basic Life Support (BLS)
• Basic math skills (formulas, exponents, decimals, scientific notation)
• Basic pharmacology
• Cardiac abnormalities
• Cardiac embryology
• Cardiovascular anatomy
• Electrophysiology
• General anatomy
• Hemodynamics
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
• History and physical
• Medical ethics
• Medical terminology
• Pathophysiology
• Physiologic maneuvers
• Physiology
• QA procedures
• Recognize basic cardiac anatomy obtained using other imaging modalities
• Safety practices for patients and staff
• Ultrasound instrumentation
• Ultrasound physics
• Ultrasound modalities

You can refer to the following books as they are recommended resources for the preparation of the examination:

1. Publications and Reports of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), Raleigh, NC. All new ASE Guidelines published on www.asecho.org/Guidelines.
2. Anderson, Bonita. Echocardiography: The Normal Examination and Echocardiographic Measurements. 2nd ed. Manly, Australia: MGA Graphics, 2007.
3. Anderson, Bonita. A Sonographer’s Guide to Assessment of Heart Disease. Manly, Australia: MGA Graphics, 2013.
4. Armstrong, William F., Thomas Ryan, and Harvey Feigenbaum. Feigenbaum’s echocardiography. 7th ed. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010.
5. Braunwald, Eugene, Douglas P. Zipes, and Peter Libby. Heart disease: a textbook of cardiovascular medicine. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2011.
6. Edelman, Sidney K.. Understanding ultrasound physics. 3rd ed. Woodlands, Tex.: ESP, 2005.
7. Kremkau, Frederick W., and Flemming Forsberg. Sonography principles and instruments. 8th ed. St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier/Saunders, 2011.
8. Miele, Frank R.. Ultrasound physics & instrumentation. 4th ed. Forney, TX: Miele Enterprises, 2006.
9. Oh, Jae K., J. B. Seward, and A. Jamil Tajik. The echo manual. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006.
10. Any general text on nursing management and care of the cardiac patient.

Hope this helps you. We wish you the best for your future endeavours!

Regards