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Intensive care nursing

Discipline

As an intensive care nurse, you’ll care for patients with life-threatening conditions and complex healthcare problems. With our postgraduate intensive care courses, you’ll develop the skills to anticipate and rapidly respond to changes in your patient’s condition.

Get work-ready

Graduate ready to play a leading role in intensive care settings and high dependency units. Our postgraduate courses will enable you to enhance your professional judgement and make a difference in roles in practice, management, education and research. Deakin’s strong industry connections throughout Australia mean you’ll be able to get a taste of life as an intensive care nurse while you study.

Postgraduate

Postgraduate (further study)

A postgraduate qualification can be undertaken by students who have already completed an undergraduate degree or possess significant, demonstrable work experience. Postgraduate courses include graduate certificates, graduate diplomas, masters and PhDs, as well as specialist programs for industry professionals.

Career opportunities

With job growth of 13.9% projected for registered nurses and 23.1% for nurse managers by 2026,* there is an industry demand for nurses with sophisticated specialty skills. Our Graduate Diploma of Intensive Care Nursing will allow you to meet that demand in a variety of roles across advanced practice, leadership, management and education including:

  • ICU nurse
  • associate or unit manager
  • clinical nurse specialist
  • clinical nurse educator.

Choosing the right course

Deakin’s intensive care speciality courses are offered at a postgraduate level. You can study at either the graduate certificate or graduate diploma levels; or choose to specialise in intensive care as part of the Master of Advanced Clinical Nursing.

Are you new to this area of study?

If you haven't previously worked or studied in this area, you'll need to complete an undergraduate course in nursing before moving on to our specialised postgraduate programs.

Browse the undergraduate offerings in some of our other nursing disciplines.

The course has allowed me to work as a critical care nurse and has opened up doors for education, preceptorship and opportunities.

Emma-Rose Schroder

Postgraduate intensive care graduate

Advance your career

Our teaching approach ensures you develop skills in critical thinking, high-quality patient care delivery, teamwork and communication – all attributes highly valued in intensive and critical care units.

Research with us

Research at the School of Nursing and Midwifery is conducted through our Centre for Quality and Patient Safety (QPS) and in partnership with several major healthcare providers. Our school is ranked 20th in the world,^ and the school’s cutting-edge research is recognised as well above world standard.#

Learn more about researching with us

Who we work with

The school works in partnership with many Australian metropolitan, rural and regional hospitals to deliver our specialist postgraduate programs.

Students undertaking our postgraduate courses are normally employed by a hospital partner and work a minimum of 24 hours a week for the duration of the course while undertaking the theoretical learning through Deakin.

Learn more about our partners

Browse other disciplines within nursing and midwifery

Choose an area that you're interested in and learn how Deakin's extensive range of study options and experiences can help turn your dreams into reality.

Footnotes

*2021 Employment Outlook - for the five years to November 2026, Australian Government National Skills Commission.
^2022 ShanghaiRankings Ranking of Academic Subjects.
#Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) 2018.