Studies & Degrees in Critical Care
Critical care, also called intensive care medicine, is the branch of medicine that looks after patients whose lives are at immediate risk. NHS Health Careers, the careers service of the health system in England, describes intensive care doctors as managing the sickest patients in the hospital: people who already have organ dysfunction or organ failure, and people at risk of it who need a level of care and observation that a normal ward cannot offer. The field is closely linked to anaesthesiology, whose doctors, in the words of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, focus on the care of surgical patients and on pain relief. Many university departments teach the two together.
Students and trainees learn to assess and monitor a critically ill patient and to support organs that are failing. According to NHS Health Careers, this includes respiratory support with ventilators, cardiovascular support with fluids and drugs, kidney replacement therapies, airway interventions such as intubation and tracheostomy, and the safe transfer of critically ill patients. The conditions treated range from sepsis, respiratory failure and heart failure to trauma, poisoning and recovery after major surgery. The work is done in a team with nurses, advanced critical care practitioners, physiotherapists and pharmacists.
Qualifications and levels
Critical care is not a first degree. It is a postgraduate specialisation for people who already hold a health qualification, and the route depends on the profession and on the country.
- Doctors in the United Kingdom. The first step is medical school, typically a five-year undergraduate degree in medicine. Graduates then complete a two-year foundation programme and three to four years of initial training through acute care common stem, anaesthesia or internal medicine, and only then apply for specialty training in intensive care medicine. They can train in intensive care medicine alone or together with another specialty such as anaesthesia or emergency medicine.
- Doctors in the United States. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, physicians typically need a bachelor's degree and a medical degree that takes a further 4 years, followed by 3 to 9 years of internship and residency, depending on the specialty. Subspecialisation adds a fellowship of 1 to 3 years. Critical care medicine is one of these subspecialties; the accreditation council ACGME lists it among the subspecialties of anesthesiology.
- Doctors in Spain. The bachelor's degree (grado) in Medicine has 360 ECTS credits and takes six years at the Universidad de Alcalá, which adds that the residency that follows (MIR) lasts 4 or 5 years, depending on the specialty. Spain's official list of health specialties includes Medicina Intensiva and Anestesiología y Reanimación as two separate medical specialties.
- Nurses. In the United States, the CCRN (Adult) of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is a specialty certification for nurses who give direct care to acutely or critically ill adult patients. It requires a current US nursing licence and, under the two-year option, 1,750 hours of direct care of such patients during the previous two years.
- Master's degrees. Some universities offer taught master's degrees for working clinicians. The Critical Care Online MSc of Queen Mary University of London is taught by distance learning, takes one year full-time or two years part-time, and is aimed at doctors, nurses and allied health professionals; postgraduate experience of critical care medicine is essential.
Medical students usually meet the subject as a clinical rotation. The Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care of Saint Louis University, for example, receives visiting medical students for rotations of four weeks, one of them in anesthesiology critical care.
Where to study
SpainExchange lists 8 active schools for critical care. Four are in the United States, and India, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Russia have one each. The list includes Stanford University, New York University, Saint Louis University and SUNY, The State University of New York, in the United States; the University of Delhi; the University of London; Bukovinian State Medical University in Chernivtsi; and Rostov State Medical University in Rostov-on-Don.
Clinical training takes place at the bedside, so students need the language spoken by patients and staff as well as the language of the lectures. Ask each school about both, and about the licence or registration it requires before clinical placements.
Careers
Most people trained in critical care work in hospital intensive care units, as intensive care doctors, anaesthesiologists, critical care nurses or advanced practitioners.
Official statistics rarely count critical care separately. NHS Health Careers reports approximately 783 doctors training in intensive care medicine in the NHS in England. In the United States, physicians and surgeons held about 862,800 jobs in 2025, 41,500 of them as anesthesiologists, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of physicians and surgeons to grow 4 percent from 2025 to 2035.
Frequently asked questions
Can I study critical care straight after secondary school?
No. Critical care is a specialisation that follows a first qualification in medicine or nursing. In the United Kingdom, for example, the route starts with a five-year degree in medicine and a two-year foundation programme.
Is critical care the same as anaesthesiology?
No, although the two overlap and are often taught in one department. Spain lists Medicina Intensiva and Anestesiología y Reanimación as separate specialties, while in the United Kingdom doctors can train in intensive care medicine together with anaesthesia.
Can nurses specialise in critical care?
Yes. In the United States the CCRN (Adult) certification is open to licensed nurses with 1,750 hours of direct care of acutely or critically ill adults in the previous two years, and master's degrees such as the Critical Care Online MSc of Queen Mary University of London admit nurses with critical care experience.