The DipIMC for paramedics
I'm a consultant paramedic sitting the DipIMC myself, and DipIMC.Ninja started as my own revision. This page is what I would want a paramedic colleague to know before applying. Where anything here differs from the College's current regulations, the College is right.
Can paramedics sit the DipIMC?
Yes. The College says the exam is designed to test "doctors, nurses and paramedics who provide pre-hospital emergency care" (DIMC Regulations, March 2023). It is the same exam, to the same standard, whichever profession you come from.
- Experience: at least four years in practice after HCPC registration (Regulations section 2).
- Evidence: an authenticated copy of your registration certificate.
- Short of four years, or registered outside the UK: you can apply for special consideration, sending your CV and pre-hospital experience to the Convener.
Older textbooks (for example the Oxford Handbook of Pre-Hospital Care, 2nd ed.) give a two-year requirement. The current regulations say four.
What passing gives you
- Faculty membership: passing makes you eligible to join the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care as an Advanced Practitioner Member (RCSEd exam details).
- The Fellowship: the DipIMC is the first step towards the Fellowship in Immediate Medical Care (FIMC).
- A shared standard: it is also the phase 1 national summative assessment for doctors in PHEM training, so it puts you on the same page as the pre-hospital doctors you work with.
What will feel familiar, and what won't
The exam is blueprinted against phase 1 of the UK Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine curriculum, which is written for pre-hospital care, not for any one profession. Much of it is paramedic ground: assessment, cardiac arrest, trauma, obstetrics, the newborn and children, scene safety and extrication.
Some of it is likely to sit outside your day-to-day scope of practice. Give these time early:
- Pre-hospital analgesia, sedation and RSI
- Transfer medicine and the physiology of transfer
- Major incident tactical (silver) command
- Chemical, biological and radiological incidents
- Clinical governance and the other cross-cutting themes
The exam is based predominantly on accepted UK practice (Regulations 1.3): Resuscitation Council UK guidelines, NICE, JRCALC and the FPHC consensus statements. Where your own service's guideline differs, answer to the national one.
How to revise for it as a paramedic
- Start with a baseline. Ten or twenty questions across every domain shows where you stand. Your weakest domains are rarely the ones you expect.
- Work the unfamiliar units first. Each curriculum unit has its own page with sample questions and a drill.
- Read the sources, not just the answers. Every explanation names the book page or guideline section. Add the ones behind your wrong answers to your reading list.
- Rehearse the OSPE decisions against the clock, then practise hands-on with colleagues. See how to pass the DipIMC OSPE.
Dates for the next diet are on DipIMC January 2027.