Course Overview
This course prioritizes cross-professional collaboration and mutual knowledge exchange to enhance the professional diversity and foster versatility among the ranks of nurses. The core course constituents include care for critically ill clients as well as condition assessment and provision of quality assistance under stress and time pressure (Pun et al., 2019). Such a course will benefit the overall practical proficiency of nurses and improve their decision-making expertise. In addition to that, it will advance their theoretical knowledge of the ICU setting and contribute to the base knowledge of nursing concepts and theories.
Course Objectives
The students who took this course will exhibit the mastery of:
- Assessment of the need for care under time constraints and in adverse conditions;
- Provision of assistance to critically ill individuals with precision, speed, and proficiency;
- Effective use of modern machinery and equipment utilized daily in ICU setting;
- Collaboration with other professionals in the unit with a maximized synergy;
- Mastery of knowledge related to the theoretical side of care provision in the ICU unit.
Course Requirements
The main requirements are attendance and participation in all course activities. The intricate connection between all course modules does not allow for easy stand-alone learning without sufficient damage to understanding of the course material. Participation is critical for hands-on learning as well as stable progression and acquisition of key concepts of the program.
Course Outline
- Unit 1: Nursing diagnosis in ICU setting
- Critical components of diagnosing a patient;
- Working under pressure;
- Searching for the best possible criteria;
- Implementing guidelines and evidence-based practice (Robertson & Al-Haddad, 2013).
- Unit 2: Provision of assistance to critically ill patients
- Approaches and frameworks of care for critically ill patients;
- Importance of monitoring as methods of prevention of urgent situations;
- Stabilization of airway and berating circulation;
- Hemodynamic support and other methods of care.
- Unit 3: ICU equipment and electronics
- Practical functioning and importance of ICU tools;
- Development of techniques and need for knowledge update.
- Unit 4: Teamwork and collaboration in ICU setting
- Value of collaboration and practical use;
- Differences between other nursing positions and ICU;
- ICU roles.
- Unit 5: ICU theory and practice
- Nursing models of care applicable to ICU;
- Critical knowledge base update for other settings;
- Making use of one’s background.
Teaching Strategies
The course will employ all audio-visual materials available in class to effectively translate knowledge and practical wisdom. As such, handout materials, presentations, videos, oral speech, and practical demonstrations will be used to teach students. After the material is delivered, it will be assessed on the exam.
Attendance and Participation
Students will assume responsibility for attendance and participation in its entirety. All materials and topics discussed during classes and practical demonstrations will be requested to produce at the exam (Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d.).
Course Evaluation Strategies
Participation and attendance as well as depth and fullness of knowledge will be the core constituents of a final grade. Thus, the final exam will be worth 50% of the grade, take-home projects – 15%, participation – 15%, unit mini-exams – 20%.
Evaluation Methods
References
Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Course and syllabus design. Web.
Pun, B. T., Balas, M. C., Barnes-Daly, M. A., Thompson, J. L., Aldrich, J. M., Barr, J., … Ely, E. W. (2019). Caring for critically ill patients with the ABCDEF bundle: Results of the ICU liberation collaborative in over 15,000 adults. Critical Care Medicine, 47(1), 3-23.
Robertson, L. C., & Al-Haddad, M. (2013). Recognizing the critically ill patient. Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine, 14(1), 11–14.