Critical Care (Online Learning) (Taught)

The MSc Critical Care Programme is aimed at anyone driven by a desire to improve outcomes for critically ill adults. Our tutors and students reflect the multidisciplinary nature of critical care. The clinical, academic, and professional themes of the programme aim to develop healthcare professionals who question, lead, and motivate others to achieve the best care for their patients. The programme has been designed and developed in partnership between the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Who is the programme for?

We have designed the MSc Critical Care (online) programme for healthcare professionals who encounter critically ill adults in their daily practice. These professionals may include:

• nurses

• doctors in training

• senior doctors from all specialties

• allied health professionals (for example, pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics and dietitians)

Prospective students will often be working full-time in professional roles and need a flexible approach to study. The programme is therefore designed as a part-time, fully online, MSc programme.

Study options

You have the option of graduating after one, two, or three years with a postgraduate certificate, postgraduate diploma, or MSc respectively.

Alternatively, you can choose to study single or multiple courses via the Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD) scheme.

Programme overview

You will study core clinical subjects in Years 1 and 2 of the programme, covering, but not limited to:

• Recognition of critical illness

• Initial treatment and stabilisation

• Advanced organ system support

• Daily assessment and management of the critically ill adult

• Sepsis

This will provide you with a practical, and evidence-based knowledge base which can be immediately applied in the clinical setting.

Integrated into the programme is a graduated exposure to academic research practice in the core 'Unlocking the Literature' teaching theme. This starts in the second teaching block and builds over Years 1 and 2.

You will gain skills which will allow you to:

• access and appraise the biomedical literature which we hope will fuel your curiosity

• actively participate in clinical discussions on the programme and at the bedside

You will develop as an independent and critical thinker. You will be able to appraise primary and secondary research (research synthesis), and incorporate its findings into:

• personal practice

• guidelines

• work improvement

Electives

You will be able to customise your learning by choosing from elective courses as you progress through the programme.

Those who complete the full MSc programme will choose between the following two assessment options in Year 3:

• a supervised dissertation (systematic review, primary research project, comprehensive clinical guideline, or quality improvement project)

• a small critical care related project and four elective options from a range of relevant courses from across the University of Edinburgh