Deakin University
Master of Advanced Clinical Nursing (Intensive Care)
- Delivery: Online
- Study Level: Postgraduate
- Duration: 36 months
Enhance your advanced clinical skills, critical thinking and leadership abilities to provide expert care in high-acuity environments such as intensive care units.
Course overview
Deakin University’s Master of Advanced Clinical Nursing with an Intensive Care specialisation prepares experienced registered nurses to manage complex and life-threatening clinical presentations. The course connects specialist workplace practice with advanced clinical judgement, leadership and research-informed care.
You will develop systematic approaches to patient assessment and learn to interpret information from clinical and technology-derived sources. This prepares you to recognise rapid changes in a patient’s condition and contribute to timely interventions for people requiring complex intensive care.
Choose the Coursework Stream to extend your expertise through further nursing and postgraduate electives or the Thesis Stream to undertake supervised research. Depending on the units completed, graduates may pursue intensive care, education, specialist, management or research roles and may be eligible to seek nurse practitioner endorsement through the applicable pathway. The course is delivered online over three years part-time.
CSP Subsidised Fees Available
This program has a limited quota of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP). The indicative CSP price is calculated based on first year fees for EFT. The actual fee may vary if there are choices in electives or majors.
Key facts
From $614 (CSP)
June, 2027
What you will study
To earn the Master of Advanced Clinical Nursing (Intensive Care), you must successfully complete units totalling 12 credit points, as detailed below. Unless otherwise noted, each course is worth 1 credit point.
You must complete the 4-credit-point Intensive Care specialisation and choose either the Coursework Stream or the Thesis Stream.
Core units
- Inquiry Into Specialty Nursing Practice
- Research in Nursing and Midwifery
- Advanced Concepts in Specialty Nursing Practice
Intensive Care specialisation
- Core Principles of Critical Care Nursing (2 credit points)
- Intensive Care Nursing (2 credit points)
Course electives
Complete 3 credit points from the course elective list.
Open electives
Complete 2 credit points from postgraduate level 7 electives available across Deakin University.
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
To be eligible for this course, applicants must meet all of the following requirements:
- Hold current registration as a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, with no conditions or restrictions.
- Have at least 24 months of clinical experience in intensive care practice in Australia, or part-time equivalent.
- Provide evidence of current employment in intensive care or an equivalent specialty practice area.
- Have independently secured ongoing employment for at least 24 hours per week in intensive care at a collaborating hospital in Australia.
- Have access to a suitable workplace that can support the required learning, clinical skills development and assessment activities.
Selection also considers academic merit, work experience, likelihood of success, availability of places, participation and regulatory requirements and individual circumstances. Meeting the minimum academic and English language requirements does not guarantee admission.
Supporting documents
Applicants must provide evidence of:
- Current registration as a registered nurse.
- At least 24 months of clinical experience in intensive care practice in Australia, or part-time equivalent.
- Current employment for at least 24 hours per week in intensive care at a collaborating hospital in Australia.
- Access to a suitable workplace that can support the course’s learning and assessment requirements.
Additional documents may be requested during the application process.
English language requirements
Applicants must provide evidence of at least one of the following:
- A bachelor’s degree completed in a recognised English-speaking country.
- An IELTS overall score of 6.5, with no individual band score below 6.0, or an accepted equivalent.
- Other accepted evidence of English language proficiency.
Contact the university for further information.
Recognition of Prior Learning
You may be eligible for recognition of prior learning if you have previously studied or have relevant work experience. This will help reduce the number of units you need to study to finish your course. Contact the university for more information.
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate expert specialty clinical practice commensurate with nursing theoretical knowledge, evidence-based practice, and person-centred care.
- Demonstrate expert communication skills to ensure the delivery of high quality, safe nursing care to patients in the specialty practice setting.
- Evaluate complex information using digital technologies to effectively disseminate relevant specialty care information to patients and/or the multidisciplinary team.
- Analyse, evaluate and critique complex data from multiple sources to inform clinical decision making in a specialty practice setting.
- Apply expert nursing knowledge to complex problems in specialty practice to optimise patient outcomes.
- Demonstrate professionalism, accountability, reflection, and personal autonomy as an expert specialist nurse.
- Establish, maintain, and lead inclusive, collaborative professional relationships with all members of the multidisciplinary team.
- Demonstrate accountability for, and expert professional judgement in behaviours that uphold ethical principles of practice within diverse social, cultural, and environmental contexts.
Career outcomes
Graduates may pursue opportunities such as:
- Intensive care nurse
- Clinical nurse specialist
- Clinical nurse educator
- Associate or unit manager
- Research roles
Fees and CSP
Indicative annual fee in 2027: $4,908 (Commonwealth Supported Place)
Indicative annual fee in 2027: $29,400 (Full-fee paying place)
Indicative annual fees are based on your first year of study.
A student’s annual fee may vary by:
- The number of units studied.
- Choice of units.
- Credit from previous study or work experience.
- Eligibility for government-funded loans.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.
Commonwealth Supported Places
The Australian Government allocates a certain number of CSPs to the universities each year, which are then distributed to students based on merit.
If you're a Commonwealth Supported Student (CSS), you'll only need to pay a portion of your tuition fees. This is known as the student contribution amount – the balance once the government subsidy is applied. This means your costs are much lower.
Limited CSP spaces are offered to students enrolled in selected postgraduate courses.
Your student contribution amount is:
- Calculated per the course you're enrolled in.
- Dependent on the study areas they relate to.
- Reviewed and adjusted each year.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.
HECS-HELP loans are available to CSP students to pay the student contribution amount.
FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee-paying domestic students with the cost of a university course.