Critical Care Nursing PGCert

Postgraduate

Patient connected to life supporting machine being looked after by a nurse

Designed for nurses currently working in critical care settings, the Critical Care Nursing PGCert provides an opportunity for you to enhance your clinical skills in this specialist field of practice.

Year of entry

2024-25 2025-26

Location

Coventry University (Coventry)

Study mode

Part-time

Duration

1 year part-time

Course code

HLST298

Start date

May 2025

How to apply

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Course overview

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. It is designed to support you to independently lead and manage specialist care provision alongside other healthcare professionals.

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 to enable you to analyse current trends, practice and knowledge in the treatment and care options for the critical care patient group and the wide range of illness encountered within the critical care environment.
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^2,5.

5 QS Stars for Teaching and Facilities

QS Stars University Ratings

Ranked 11th Modern University in UK by the Times

The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

Ranked 8th for Overall Satisfaction in PTES

Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2024

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
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^2,5. This also 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 practice⁴.

The course incorporates the National Competency Framework Step 2 and Step 3 Competencies for Critical Care Nurses as a core part of the assessment process to ensure that it is aligned to National Standards for Critical Care Nurse Education.

Focused system examination skills, simulation training and flipped classroom sessions provide the opportunity to engage you 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:

Knowledge of relevant anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology
Ability to recognise health abnormalities
Competence to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care for patients with health abnormalities
Knowledge relating to pharmacology and pharmacokinetics
Knowledge of investigations, interpretation and application of results
Knowledge of treatment modalities
Safe and effective use of equipment
Competence to manage emergency situations
Ability to demonstrate leadership, management and team skills
Ability to plan and contribute to rehabilitation alongside the wider MDT (multidisciplinary team)
Admission and discharge processes and considerations
Ability to manage the critically ill patient in a variety of patient pathways
Psychosocial care of the patient and their family
Medicines management and the challenges within critical care
Infection Prevention and Control considerations
Importance of communication and teamwork
Professionalism, accountability and defensible documentation
Vulnerability of critically ill patients (including consent, mental capacity and deprivation of liberty (DoLS))
Leadership development
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.

Collaborations with other organisations

Clinical placements^2,5 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.

What you'll study

All nurses attending this course will be currently employed within a critical care environment and therefore the course will be delivered over three semesters to allow you to attend on a part-time basis in order to accommodate your current professional role.

In addition to the modules below, you are required to complete 150 hours of placement in critical care units over the duration of the course. These placements are sourced for you by the university².

Modules

Advanced Health Assessment Practice - 20 credits

This module aims 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.

Compulsory

Fundamental Principles of Critical Care Nursing - 20 credits

This module aims 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.

Compulsory

Applied Practice of Critical Care Nursing - 20 credits

The module focuses on specific conditions and clinical disease states common within the critical care environment. You will explore treatment, management and decision-making and investigate some of the current evidence base surrounding such issues and successful completion will add to your skills of critical care practice.

Compulsory

We regularly review our course content, to make it relevant and current for the benefit of our students. For these reasons, course modules may be updated.

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 placements^2,5 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 (subject to availability).

Teaching contact hours

Each module runs for either one morning or one afternoon per week with a total of 30 hours face-to-face contact over each of the three modules.

Additionally, you will be expected to undertake significant self-directed study of approximately 150-170 hours per module, depending on the demands of the individual module.

The contact hours may be made up of a combination of face-to-face teaching, individual and group tutorials, and online classes and tutorials.

As an innovative and enterprising institution, the university may seek to utilise emerging technologies within the student experience. For all courses (whether on-campus, blended, or distance learning), the university may deliver certain contact hours and assessments via online technologies and methods.

Since COVID-19, we have delivered our courses in a variety of forms, in line with public authority guidance, decisions, or orders and we will continue to adapt our delivery as appropriate. Whether on campus or online, our key priority is staff and student safety.

Assessment

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 placements² 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.

The Coventry University Group assessment strategy ensures that our courses are fairly assessed and allows us to monitor student progression towards achieving the intended learning outcomes.

Entry requirements

Typical offer for 2024/25 entry.

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 assessments⁵.
The Course Director will use discretion to accept applications based on previous experience.

Please refer to the full requirements in the disclaimer section⁵.

We recognise a breadth of qualifications, speak to one of our advisers today to find out how we can help you.

Prospective international students currently working in the UK are able to apply for this course (subject to visa conditions, and meeting additional requirements as specified on the UK entry requirements tab and below). A Student Visa is not suitable for this course. For more information, please contact the International Office.

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 assessments⁵.
The Course Director will use discretion to accept applications based on previous experience.
Students whose first language is not English are normally required to have IELTS 6.5 (preferably with a high mark in the written component).

You can view our full list of country specific entry requirements on our entry requirements page.

Visit our International Hub for further advice and guidance on finding in-country agents and representatives, joining our in-country events and how to apply.

English language requirements

IELTS: 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component area

If you don't meet the English language requirements, you can achieve the level you need by successfully completing a pre-sessional English programme before you start your course.

For more information on our approved English language tests visit our English language requirements page.

Fees and funding

2024/25 tuition fees.

Student	Full-time	Part-time
UK	Not available	£3,733
International	Not available	£6,200

For advice and guidance on tuition fees³and student loans visit our Postgraduate Finance page.

We offer a range of International scholarships to students all over the world. For more information, visit our International Scholarships page.

Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessments, facilities and support services. There may be additional costs not covered by this fee such as accommodation and living costs, recommended reading books, stationery, printing and re-assessments should you need them.

The following are additional costs not included in the tuition fees:

Any costs associated with securing, attending or completing a placement (whether in the UK or abroad).

*Irish student fees

The rights of Irish residents to study in the UK are preserved under the Common Travel Area arrangement. If you are an Irish student and meet the residency criteria, you can study in England, pay the same level of tuition fees as English students and utilise the Tuition Fee Loan.

**EU Support Bursary

Following the UK's exit from the European Union, we are offering financial support to all eligible EU students who wish to study an undergraduate or a postgraduate degree with us full-time. This bursary will be used to offset the cost of your tuition fees to bring them in line with that of UK students. Students studying a degree with a foundation year with us are not eligible for the bursary.

How do you know if you need to pay UK or international tuition fees?

We carry out an initial fee status assessment based on the information you provide in your application. Your fee status determines your tuition fees, and what financial support and scholarships may be available to you. The rules about who pays UK (home) or international (overseas) fees for higher education courses in England are set by the Department for Education. The regulations identify all the different categories of student who can insist on paying the home rate. The regulations can be difficult to understand, so the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) has provided fee status guidance to help you identify whether you are eligible to pay the home or overseas rate.

If you meet all the criteria required by any one category, including any residence requirements, your institution must charge you the home rate. You only need to find one category that you fit into.

Facilities

Our 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 practice⁴.

Alison Gingell Building

The Alison Gingell Building features mock hospital wards, an operating theatre, critical care settings and other real-life environments.

Students and a tutor with a manikin in the hospital ward

Mock Hospital Wards

Our mock hospital wards and critical care settings give you the chance to experience patient scenarios in a real-world environment.

Community Houses

Our two full-size community homes can be used for sessions simulating working with patients outside of a hospital setting.

Careers and opportunities

Upon successful completion of the course you will be able to:

Expand your knowledge and therapeutic skills in critical care nursing to postgraduate level, beyond initial nurse registration
Manage patient/client health needs within frameworks appropriate to critical care nursing
Lead other healthcare professionals in the delivery of quality, effective and compassionate clinical care
Demonstrate competent performance without direct supervision, based upon relevant evidenced-based knowledge, intuition and established practice
Independently problem-solve complex situations and offer solutions through critical analysis and evaluation
Apply knowledge, understanding and research to relevant policies, procedures and guidelines to critically analyse and improve practice.

Completion of the course may allow you to apply for senior positions within critical care. The clinically relevant nature of the course, which aims to directly develop professional practice skills, enhances the potential for gaining advanced positions within the field of critical care nursing. Graduate employability is designed to be increased not only through the enhancement of advanced skills but also by the development of leadership, entrepreneurial and communication skills which allow graduates to contribute to service development and facilitate the professional development of colleagues within the multidisciplinary team.

How to apply

UK students

International students

Disclaimers

Coventry University together with Coventry University London, Coventry University Wrocław, CU Coventry, CU London, CU Scarborough, and Coventry University Online come together to form part of the Coventry University Group (the University) with all degrees awarded by Coventry University.

¹Accreditations

The majority of our courses have been formally recognised by professional bodies, which means the courses have been reviewed and tested to ensure they reach a set standard. In some instances, studying on an accredited course can give you additional benefits such as exemptions from professional exams (subject to availability, fees may apply). Accreditations, partnerships, exemptions and memberships shall be renewed in accordance with the relevant bodies’ standard review process and subject to the university maintaining the same high standards of course delivery.

²UK and international opportunities

Please note that we are unable to guarantee any UK or international opportunities (whether required or optional) such as internships, work experience, field trips, conferences, placements or study abroad opportunities and that all such opportunities may be unpaid and/or subject to additional costs (which could include, but is not limited to, equipment, materials, bench fees, studio or facilities hire, travel, accommodation and visas), competitive application, availability and/or meeting any applicable travel, public authority guidance, decisions or orders and visa requirements. To ensure that you fully understand any visa requirements, please contact the International Office.

³Tuition fees

The University will charge the tuition fees that are stated in the above table for the first Academic Year of study. The University will review tuition fees each year. For UK (home) students, if Parliament permit an increase in tuition fees, the University may increase fees for each subsequent year of study in line with any such changes. Note that any increase is expected to be in line with inflation.

For international students, we may increase fees each year, but such increases will be no more than 5% above inflation. If you defer your course start date or have to extend your studies beyond the normal duration of the course (e.g. to repeat a year or resit examinations) the University reserves the right to charge you fees at a higher rate and/or in accordance with any legislative changes during the additional period of study.

⁴Facilities

Facilities are subject to availability. Access to some facilities (including some teaching and learning spaces) may vary from those advertised and/or may have reduced availability or restrictions where the university is following public authority guidance, decisions or orders.

⁵Placements

Satisfactory health clearance and enhanced criminal record disclosure is also required. As part of the health clearance checks, you will be required to provide information about your immunity and vaccination status. The information you provide will be used to determine your eligibility to go on placement(s). Placements are provided at the placement provider’s discretion. The University is, therefore, unable to guarantee the provision of placements or the location and type of placement offered.

Student Contract

By accepting your offer of a place and enrolling with us, a Student Contract will be formed between you and the university. A copy of the current 2023/2024 contract is available on the website for information purposes however the 2024/25 Contract is currently being updated so please revisit this page before submitting your application. The Contract details your rights and the obligations you will be bound by during your time as a student and contains the obligations that the university will owe to you. You should read the Contract before you accept an offer of a place and before you enrol at the university.