Critical Care
When healthcare practitioners are more knowledgeable, they can challenge practice in order to advance patient care. The course will allow students to grow and develop as questioning and autonomous practitioners.
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Key Course Details
The course will provide opportunity for healthcare professionals to be forward thinking practitioners who are armed with ability to utilise current evidence-based practice and to problem solve in a more autonomous manner.
DESIGNED FOR
Developing your knowledge and understanding and ability to demonstrate application and clinical competence, which will be evidenced through Critical Care Steps 2 competencies and Critical Care Steps 3 competencies.
Skills taught
- Flexibility
- Adaptability
- Empathy
- Organisation and time management
Module Overview
Course content will include the application of a range of real examples (scenarios) that the student would likely meet whilst working in critical care. These will range from simple to complex in order to reflect the type of scenarios the students will meet in practice. These will include moral, legal, ethical and professional issues, as well as the debating the differing ranges of therapeutic interventions that may be needed for particular condition/disease processes.
Year One
Applied science to the assessment of the critically ill patient
Advancing Assessment and Management of the Critically ill
Contemporary Issues in Critical Care
Analysis and problem-solving are integrated throughout the 3 modules as a result of the dynamic nature of critical care. Module assessments will enable students to select topics relevant to their own personal area of interest to help them develop their knowledge and understanding and ability to demonstrate application and clinical competence is evidenced through Critical Care Steps 2 competencies and Critical Care Steps 3 competencies, which are embedded within Module 1 and 2.
Applied science to the assessment of the critically ill patient
The aim of this module is to enable students to explore the impact disease has on the critically ill patient by exploring and critically analysing the pathophysiology of ill health. This module will take a system-based approach to explore the physiology and pathophysiology related to disease processes.
Advancing Assessment and Management of the Critically ill
The aim of this module is to enable students, to develop advanced health assessment knowledge and skills to underpin current practice roles. This module is patient focused and explores the underpinning evidence base for assessment and monitoring techniques utilised to prioritise patient care delivery.
Contemporary Issues in Critical Care
The aim of the module is for the student to acquire the theoretical understanding of a range of themes to inform contemporary critical care. The aim is to explore effective coordination of care with a focus on rehabilitation, ethics as well as psychosocial aspects relevant to caring for critically ill patients.
Course Highlights
How you’ll learn
A range of teaching, assessment and learning activities will be used as a means of offering appropriately real life challenging learning opportunities, allowing flexibility and a range of resources that encourage engagement. Learning will be scaffolded week on week to build on and develop knowledge which can then be demonstrated in clinical practice. The course modules will be delivered in a flexible manner through a mixture of on campus and online virtual learning environment settings.
Modules will be sequential to avoid assessment bunching and a range of different assessment types will be adopted as requested by clinicians and to meet Steps 2 and Steps 3 competencies.
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Facilities
We have a fully equipped Emergency Department, ambulance and ITU room. The use of much of this equipment will require specific digital skills and the ability to trouble- shoot and problem solve. The equipment used by our students is very advanced and we will enhance their experiences and knowledge in a safe environment including using their digital fluency within their roles as healthcare professionals.
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ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Typical qualification requirements:
Applicants must be currently employed within a critical care environment and remain in that employment throughout the duration of the course. The Course Leader will use discretion to accept applications based on previous experience aligned to Step 1 and Step 2 competencies confirmed by line manager or education lead from the named Health Board.
Applicants can only study this course with the permission and support of their employers.
Applicants must hold professional registration with the NMC or HCPC and be active on that said register. Applicants must have completed Step 1 competencies and 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 Step 1 competencies).
Additional Requirements:
Applicants must be currently employed within a critical care environment and remain in that employment throughout the duration of the course. Their employment must nominate them and support them for the duration of the course.
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence please view our dedicated country pages.
English language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Contextual Offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
We're here to help
Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch and we'd to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.
Fees and Funding
£785
per 20 credits*Additional Costs
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
A1 poster summative submission required.
Cost: £11 from Print and Design USW
University Quality Assurance
At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.
If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.
Life at USW
Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS. You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time.)
Advanced entry
If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
International admissions
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.