Critical Care Nursing Course Details - Fees, Subjects, Syllabus, Duration, Eligibility, Career Scope

What is Critical Care Nursing

Critical Care Nursing - The profession of nursing has been evolving over time. The role in itself is a very broad one. Providing care for the unhealthy, advocating for health promotion and educating on the prevention of injury and illness are some of the traits that make this profession a noble one. Critical care Nursing is the field of nursing wherein the focus is on critically ill or unstable patients, i.e. people suffering from extensive injury or life-threatening diseases. It is a very challenging area. A critical care nurse is a licensed professional who ensures that such patients and their family members receive the best kind of nursing care. Professionals from this course also take care of pre- and post-operative patients. They are also known as ICU (Intensive care unit) nurses very often. More than half of the critical care nurses work in Cardiac care units, Cardiac catheter labs, Emergency departments, ICUs, Pediatric ICUs, Progressive care units, Recovery rooms and Telemetry units.

Nurses can enter critical care immediately after obtaining a license/degree, or they can transition into this speciality after years of practice. Most of them are usually registered nurses (RN) with some additional training in Critical care nursing.

Critical Care Nursing Course Highlights

Eligibility Criteria (UG & PG) of Critical Care Nursing

The eligibility criteria can vary from college to college. Nevertheless, here is a broad overview of minimum requirements for the various courses.

For Certificate Course In Critical Care Nursing

• Candidates should either have a Bachelor of Science in nursing or Master of Science in Nursing or working as a registered nurse (RN) for 2-3 years minimum.

For Bachelor Of Science In Nursing

• Candidates should have Physics, Chemistry and Biology in 10+2

For Bachelor Of Science In Nursing (Post Basic)

• Candidates should have the GNM (General Nursing and Midwifery) course after attaining the 10+2 or equivalent qualification. Science subjects are usually preferred.
• Candidates should also be an RN (Registered nurse) with any of the State Nursing Registration Councils.
• For Master Of Science In Nursing
• Candidates should have a B.Sc Nursing or a Post basic BSc nursing with at least 55% in graduation from an Indian Nursing Council recognized university.
• In case the candidate holds a B.Sc Nursing (post-basic) degree, work experience of minimum 1 year is required.

Critical Care Nursing Entrance Exams

For certification in Critical care nursing, most of the institutes, take direct admission while some may conduct their own entrance tests. For Bachelor’s and Master’s in Nursing, some of the well-known entrance exams are:

NEET: National Testing Agency (NTA) conducts NEET. It has 180 questions from Physics, Chemistry and Biology and is a national-level examination.

CENTAC: CENTAC is a state-level combined exam for getting admissions into various PG programs.

SAAT: It is a university-level exam conducted both in online and offline mode for admissions to various Undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Required Skillset for Critical Care Nursing

Critical care nursing is a very challenging area. Since the life of an individual is partially in the hands of the individual, the level of skill set should be unparalleled. Some of the important qualities that make the career graph of a critical care nurse steeper are:

Technical ICU Nursing skills: Hands-on technical complemented with proper education is the best way to kick start the list. To ensure that patients get the best of the care recruiters generally tend to prefer technically proficient nurses.

Ability to work under pressure: A Critical care nurse has to deal with many unfavourable circumstances both in the ICU as well as in front of the family of patients. Keeping that delicate balance of empathy and fortitude is very important.

Self-Care: While looking out for the patients, nurses sometimes tend to forget to heed to their own needs. In this field, job-related burnout is a common phenomenon.