Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing

Course overview

The Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing enables students to develop specialist knowledge and skills required of a nurse in a variety of critical care areas, including coronary care, emergency departments and intensive care. This course fosters both academic and clinical competence enabling students to integrate theory into practice and further develop clinical decision making skills. Comprehensive multidisciplinary team approach is advocated to manage and support critically ill patients and their family. This course enables nurses to develop their professional autonomy and provide leadership within their chosen area of critical care nursing.

Students complete 4 units of study – 3 cores and 1 specialty elective.

Learning Outcomes

This course is designed for registered nurses wishing to further their education in the practice of critical care nursing. It enables students to:

• Develop a sound theoretical base for specialist nursing practice in a dynamic, complex and demanding critical care environment
• Apply specialist level of clinical skills and abilities to optimise person-centred care delivery for critical ill people
• Analyse complex clinical problems using critical thinking, evolved reasoning informed by national and international best practice guidelines
• Discuss legal, ethical and cultural concepts related to providing holistic health care in a safe and cohesive critical care environment
• Evaluate critical care leadership and mentoring processes which enable dissemination of knowledge, enhancement of skills and participation in collaborative research and lifelong learning
• Critically analyse own role in fostering reflective practice and effective communication for continuous improvement of standards and quality in critical care

Career outcomes

A Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing is an investment in your future and will provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to ensure better outcomes for your patients and progress your career, leading to opportunities in clinical education, management and specialist nursing roles.

Course Structure

The Graduate Certificate in Critical Care Nursing is a one year course, consisting of four 10-week terms. 3 specialty streams are available: Cardiac, Emergency and Intensive Care. In each stream students will need to complete 4 units – 3 core and 1 specialty elective. One unit is studied per term. Approximate hours of study are 12 – 15 hours per week.