Why you should study this course
As you will already be working as a nurse the course has been designed to be delivered over three semesters to allow you to attend on a part-time basis in order to balance the requirements of work and study.
This course aims to prepare graduates to be capable of operating at the highest level of clinical practice who will excel as clinical leaders and are ready to move into senior clinical roles with the capacity to influence local service delivery; foster evidence informed practice; lead clinical teams and contribute to the education of the local healthcare workforce.
Knowledge and skills are attained by varied approaches to teaching and learning to give you a theoretical understanding and the opportunity to practice skills of clinical assessment and dealing with emergency situations.
Clinical placements in various local units provide practice-based teaching and learning where you can gain exposure to expertise to embed current theoretical knowledge and offers the potential for learning from others to inform practice for your own department as well as yourself. You will reflect on your own practice and engage in work-based learning guided by the competency portfolio.
Our well-established academic team have extensive clinical and teaching experience and have recently updated the course to meet the educational needs for the modern critical care nurse. The multi-million-pound Alison Gingell Building provides facilities for teaching and research, featuring hospital wards, critical care settings, operating theatre, community housing and other real life nursing environments relevant to practice.
The course incorporates the National Competency Framework Step 3 Competencies for Critical Care Nurses as a core part of the assessment process to ensure that it is in aligned to National Standards for Critical Care Nurse Education.
Focused system examination skills, simulation training and flipped classroom sessions provide the opportunity to engage students in the learning process as well as group work, seminars, interactive lectures and active group discussions and sharing experiences. Clinical competency portfolios for both the Health Assessment and Critical Care modules are designed to follow a system-based approach to assessment and care and form a key component of the learning outcomes.
The course is aligned with the CC3N standards to develop and prepare you to demonstrate:
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Knowledge of relevant anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology
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Ability to recognise health abnormalities
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Competence to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care for patients with health abnormalities
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Knowledge relating to pharmacology and pharmacokinetics
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Knowledge of investigations, interpretation and application of results
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Knowledge of treatment modalities
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Safe and effective use of equipment
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Competence to manage emergency situations
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Ability to demonstrate leadership, management and team skills
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Ability to plan and contribute to rehabilitation alongside the wider MDT
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Admission and discharge processes and considerations
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Ability to manage the critically ill patient in a variety of patient pathways
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Psychosocial care of the patient and their family
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Medicines management and the challenges within critical care
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Infection Prevention and Control considerations
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Importance of communication and teamwork
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Professionalism, accountability and defensible documentation
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Vulnerability of critically ill patients (including consent, mental capacity and deprivation of liberty (DoLS).
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Leadership development
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Legal requirement of role and ethical dilemmas that could arise in practice.
The National Standards for Adult Critical Care Nurse Education and the General Provision of Intensive Care Services have been key drivers in the development of the course. These standards have been formulated following discussion with the professional critical care nursing organisations in the UK - Critical Care Networks National Nurse Leads (CC3N), British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN), Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Intensive Care Society (ICS), Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS) and the National Outreach Forum (NOrF) - who state that educational providers must adhere to the principles and standards laid out in these documents when delivering post-registration critical care education. The standards will be viewed as a framework to assure both healthcare and academic providers that the provision of critical care nurse education is meeting the needs of service delivery and the workforce.
Modules
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Advanced Health Assessment Practice - 20 credits
The aim of this module is to enable you to develop advanced health assessment knowledge and skills to underpin advanced practice roles. The module recognises that you may already be working autonomously carrying out patient assessments that normally include formulating a diagnosis and performing investigations, as a precursor for clinical decision-making and management.
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Fundamental Principles of Critical Care Nursing - 20 credits
The aim of this module is to introduce you to the many varied aspects of critical care, building on your previous knowledge from your clinical experience. This should be achieved through deepening your theoretical knowledge and development of the skills and content, which will allow you to explore and analyse the evidence base of critical care to develop an understanding of this specialist subject area.
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Applied Practice of Critical Care Nursing - 20 credits
The module will focus on specific conditions and clinical disease states common within the critical care environment. You will explore treatment, management and decision making and investigate of some of the current evidence base surrounding such issues and successful completion will add to your skills of critical care practice.
How you'll learn
The delivery of teaching is by experienced faculty members with a strong clinical background in the fields of critical care and emergency care, and up-to-date clinical skills (staff are subject to change). This is supplemented by guest lecturers from local and regional healthcare providers to further enhance the relevance and contextualise the information and clinical skills in a wide variety of topics (subject to availability).
Focused system examination skills, simulation training and flipped classroom sessions can be used to make your learning engaging. You will also have the chance to participate in group work, seminars, interactive lectures and active group discussions and sharing experiences. Clinical competency portfolios for both the Health Assessment and Critical Care modules are designed to follow a system-based approach to patient assessment and care and form a key component of the learning outcomes. Overall the teaching and learning strategy seeks to assist you in your educational journey and is designed to develop your professional skills and personal capabilities. The strategy aims to enable you to be reflective in your own work setting and be able to recognise not only your own personal development needs but those of your team or service.
Clinical placements2 in various local units aim to provide practice-based teaching and learning where you gain exposure to expertise to embed current theoretical knowledge and offers the potential for learning from others to inform practice for your own departments as well as yourself.
Independent study will be encouraged throughout all three modules. You will reflect on your own practice and engage in work-based learning guided by the competency portfolio and by producing a teaching package on a speciality specific subject in agreement with the module leader and your departmental manager. Support will be offered by the course team together with work-based mentors or appropriate experts approved by the Course Director.
