Critical Care Nursing at Coventry University - UCAS

Course options

Course summary

Combining Health Assessment with specific modules in Critical Care this course aims to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of clinical assessment skills and their application to critical care nursing. Designed for nurses currently working in, or who aspire to work in critical care settings the Critical Care Nursing course provides an opportunity for you to enhance your clinical skills in this specialist field of practice. The aim of the course is to enable you to develop your knowledge and skills of clinical decision-making in health assessment, treatments and therapies within the critical care environment, in order to enable you to independently lead and manage specialist care provision alongside other health care professionals. 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. As you will 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. In addition to university-based knowledge acquisition and development you will also have the opportunity to undertake placements in critical care settings to embed and apply your learning in relevant contexts.

Assessment method

How you’ll be assessed You will be assessed using a range of methods to maximise opportunities for you to demonstrate your knowledge and skills. This includes tasks that enable the development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and opportunities to apply these skills to actual clinical situations during work-based placements and activities that encourage effective learning in the areas of values, attitudes and behaviours. Competency portfolios will enable you to develop communication skills, intercultural competency and team working and factual knowledge, to advance your learning and demonstrate your academic and clinical potential. You will learn and be assessed in theory, practice and application of knowledge and skills within the critical care environment. Using carefully constructed activities and feedback, different assessment types will be used to acknowledge the diversity of student learning styles. These methods may include Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), written assignments, competency portfolios and development of teaching material/packages. The assessment strategy aims to support part time study and working within your clinical role, you should receive feedback on written work in preparation for the final submission of module assignments and will have the opportunity to practise OSCE skills and receive feedback in preparation for the final OSCE assessment. Assessments are planned to be scheduled to ensure that the workload is balanced. The assessment schedule should be made available at the start of each module to enable you to plan and prepare for assessments in a timely way.


Entry requirements

Applicants must be currently employed within a UK critical care environment and remain in that employment throughout the duration of the course. Applicants can only do this course with the permission and support of their employers. Applicants must hold a professional registration in nursing and be active on the NMC register. Applicants will normally have 18 months critical care experience. Applicants with a minimum of 12 months experience will be considered if appropriate evidence of professional development is provided (e.g. completion of CC3N Step Competencies). Students will be required to attend 150 hours of placements in clinical practice and undertake clinical competency assessments The Course Director will use discretion to accept applications based on previous experience.


Fees and funding

Tuition fees

No fee information has been provided for this course

Additional fee information

2024/25 fees TBC. Please see our website for latest information.
Critical Care Nursing at Coventry University - UCAS