BSc (Hons) Critical Care

New for 2009

Graduate Diploma/Graduate Certificate in Critical Care

A Critical Care pathway at degree, graduate diploma and graduate certificate levels, has been validated in response to service requirements for specific education within critical care areas at degree level. The Critical Care pathway has been endorsed by the members of the Critical Care Education forum and this represents the view of those relevant acute Trusts in North Wales.

Who is eligible to apply?

The pathway will be accessible for all relevant health care practitioners working in critical care environments. At present the programme applies to students undertaking the following modules: Coronary Care Nursing, High Dependency Nursing, Renal Nursing, Intensive Care Nursing Module, and Emergency/Unscheduled Care; all at degree level 6. It is envisaged that in the future additional appropriate critical care modules can be included once they are at degree level.

Students entering the Critical Care degree level pathway will be required to have achieved the credit equivalent of a diploma (120 credits at Level 5). The range of modules that applicants may have studied at level 5 will all have relevance to critical care. Modules completed prior to entering the BSc (Hons) Critical Care pathway and Graduate Diploma pathway will represent the underpinning knowledge for the more specialist study at level 6. As indicated above, critical care is ‘without walls’ therefore all nurses or healthcare professionals entering the pathway will have accumulated experience relevant to critical care from diverse settings.

However at the point of applying for the either the BSc (Hons) or Graduate Diploma in Critical Care pathway, individuals will be required to be working in a designated critical care setting.

For the BSc Critical Care (Hons) pathway there are two compulsory modules:

The speciality module of 60 points at level 6 (e.g. Coronary Care Nursing, Intensive Care Nursing, High Dependency Nursing, Renal Nursing; Emergency/Unscheduled Care).
The level 6 Research module (30 credits).

These two compulsory modules will give the student a total of 90 credits at degree level 6. In addition the student has a choice of relevant optional modules to achieve the total required 120 credits for the proposed Critical Care Award.
The assessment strategy at level 6 will ensure that students pursuing identified optional modules will be applying the content of the modules to critical care delivery. The time frame for completing the course on a part time basis would be a minimum of 2 and maximum of 4 years.

What is the Graduate Diploma?

Students who are already graduates and currently working in critical care may pursue the Graduate Diploma in Critical Care, which has an Exit Award of Graduate Certificate in Critical Care. In this pathway one of the Critical Care compulsory modules must be undertaken (60 credits LEVEL 6) to achieve the level of the Graduate Certificate, plus 60 credits from the list of optional modules for the Graduate Diploma (see Appendix 1). It is proposed that the Infection Control module will also be added to the list when it has been validated at degree level.

Awards

Successful undergraduate students will gain the following qualifications:
BSc (Hons) Critical Care (Coronary care)
BSc (Hons) Critical Care (Intensive care)
BSc (Hons) Critical Care (High Dependency)
BSc (Hons) Critical Care (Renal)
BSc (Hons) Critical Care (Emergency/Unscheduled Care)

Successful graduate entrant students will gain the following qualifications:
Graduate Diploma in Critical Care (Coronary Care)
Graduate Diploma in Critical Care (Intensive care)
Graduate Diploma in Critical Care (High Dependency)
Graduate Diploma in Critical Care (Renal)
Graduate Diploma in Critical Care (Emergency/Unscheduled Care)

Click here for further course details and module information.

Contact:

Patricia Ogle on +44 (0)1248 - 383172, or email hsse01@bangor.ac.uk