Founded in 1854, Rhode Island College is the oldest of the three public institutions of higher learning under the state's Board of Governors for Higher Education. Its MSN program actually has two tracks: the critical care specialty, as well as the track dedicated public health/community leadership. The former is the longer of the two: a 45-credit program consisting of courses such as Acute Care/Critical Care, Advanced Nursing Research, Health Care Systems, Advanced Pathophysiology and Differential Diagnosis for Nurse Practitioners. RIC's nursing practitioner-critical care program is designed for completion in two years.
Rhode Island College
600 Mount Pleasant Avenue
Providence, RI 02908
401-456-8000
ric.edu
Another of the public institutions of higher learning under the Board of Governors for Higher Education, the University of Rhode Island is the state's principal public research university. URI offers two nursing practitioner tracks: Family Nurse Practitioner for students interested in family nursing practice, and Gerontological Nurse Practitioner for those who wish to take care of older patients. Each consisting of 42 credits over a two-year span, the nursing practitioner programs at URI, in addition to the critical care courses, have a 14-credit requirement made up of five courses: Theoretical Study of the Phenomena in Nursing, Nursing Research, Theories of Practice for Nursing, Advanced Leadership in the Health Policy Process and a graduate study seminar.
The University of Rhode Island
14 Upper College Road
Kingston, RI 02881
401-874-1000
uri.edu
People who wish to attend a nurse practitioner-critical care program in Rhode Island also have the option of earning their degree online. This eliminates the hassle of physically going to a campus, and it enables students to do coursework on their own timeline and choice of location. Some universities, such as the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Drexel University, offer the online option. Drexel's online program in particular has Rhode Island as one of the locations for its compulsory clinical practicum rotations; it consists of 55 credits, with courses such as Biostatistics, Advanced Physical Assessment & Diagnostic Reasoning, Confronting Issues in Contemporary Health Care Environments, and Advanced Ethical Decision Making in Health Care.