The impact of a postgraduate critical care course on nursing practice

The continuing emphasis on collaboration and partnership has resulted in the development of a Trust led, University accredited postgraduate certificate in critical care nursing. This paper explores the impact of the programme on clinical practice in the first cohort of students. A descriptive phenomenological study using focus groups was chosen to examine the student experience. Following a thematic analysis the transition to specialist practitioner is discussed under the headings of: opening the window, becoming more expert, having your wings clipped, changing the goal posts and slotting back in. The paper discusses the lived experiences of the group and findings are integrated with a review of the literature. The data is used to evaluate the course and while the results cannot be generalisable to the general population, the emerging themes are compared with similar studies. A number of limitations to the study are recognised and recommendations are made for future studies including wider research into the outcomes of education.