The course is attended by staff working in critical care units across the Midlands region, this provides students with the opportunity to gain further knowledge and understanding of different specialities and practice techniques. Allowing students to network within the community of practice and learn from one another.
Students work in a variety of critical care units, from speciality critical care units to general critical care. This allows the opportunity for placements, where possible. These are arranged by the local critical care staff and not monitored by the University of Wolverhampton. The core academic team have a varied and expert knowledge and experience providing care to the critically ill and specialist environments.
Having this varied experience, provides students with a platform to participate in group activities and discussions on best practice and local variances to patient care. Students choosing to complete this BSC (top up) will gain practical clinical experience and theoretical knowledge to enable them to continue to develop within the critical care environment.
The adult critical care course meets the National Standards for Critical Care Nurse Education published by the Critical Care Network National Nurse leads (CC3N, 2023) and incorporates the relevant steps of the National Competency Framework for Adult Critical Care Nurses (CC3N, 2015). This ensures the adult critical care course meets the recommendations for critical care nurse education set out in the Guidelines for the Provision of Intensive Care Services (GPICS) published by the UK Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and the Intensive Care Society (FICM & ICS 2022). The course curriculum is aligned with national standards; ensuring that the award achieved remains one which is professionally recognised and transferable and will be adapted as required to continue to maintain these.
The course continues to build and maintain close working relationships between the university and the critical care units within the local region and beyond. This is maintained through yearly review meetings with the course team and unit practice development nurses (PDNs). PDN collaboration with course developments is encouraged and regular contact by the course leader with the practice areas occurs. This relationship ensures that the content of the course remains responsive to the reality of practice in the clinical environment.