Mission

The School of Nursing is committed to providing the highest quality graduate nursing education at an affordable cost to a student population diverse in terms of culture, ethnicity, gender, and age. The program combines liberal arts and nursing education to assist students to develop the knowledge, skills, and perspectives required for professional practice; it fosters intellectual development, personal growth, and professional collaboration. The master’s program educates nurses for diverse and expanded roles. The faculty is strongly committed to excellence in teaching and preparing graduates for the complex, rapidly-changing health care environment. The School provides a nurturing, inclusive, performance-based, technologically-equipped, innovative learning environment that promotes caring, competence, and professionalism. Faculty, students, and alumni contribute to the improvement of health and health care through practice, service, and scholarship activities 

Vision

• The Master of Science in Critical Care Nursing is designed to build upon baccalaureate education in nursing by preparing nurses for advanced practice in the care of patients who are acutely and critically ill across the continuum of acute care services. Students will be provided a strong background in assessment, therapeutics and technology used in critical care units.
• They will also gain clinical experience within specified critical care units where the emphasis will be placed on integrating didactic knowledge with patient management and advanced technical skills.

Industry

The outlook for the critical care nurse is very good because this is a career in high demand within the already booming health care industry. As there are always patients in need of intensive care, there is always demand for this specialized profession, so being a nurse practitioner can also being very lucrative. For those with experience in the field, there is great potential for growth. Most medical facilities and hospitals where procedures and surgeries are performed are always in need of critical care nurse, and this can mean great potential for growth. Respond to the “LABOR MARKET NEEDS”as all graduates will be employed in the intensive care departments in the hospitals

Teaching and Learning

Problem-based learning is the educational method used and it has the following characteristics:

• Real-life situations constitute the basis for working through problems and are a foundation for learning.
• Self-directed learning, the student’s own studies, activities, and responsibility for his/her own learning.
• Group work. During his/her education the student should develop self-knowledge, which involves understanding and being able to develop knowledge, skills and attitudes in interplay with others.
• Working in a tutorial group (consisting of 6-7 students and a faculty tutor) is the fundamental method of studying in problem-based learning. Other methods include lectures, seminars, resource opportunities, field studies and other types of skill practice.

Coursework and Assessment

Each course has its own assessment method for both theory and practice depending on the course requirements which will be clearly stated in each outline handed to the students in the beginning of the course, the components of which will range from, examination, assignments, case presentation, poster presentation, student seminar, feedback through encouragement of self-assessment, assessment from the teacher, peers and preceptors.
Formative and summative evaluation will be used for assessing each course, clinical setting, preceptors, lecturer and students´ contribution to her/his learning process. The results and recommendations will be highly considered for course modification