The numbers of skilled nurses who can work in an ICU in Nepal are limited. The quality of nursing care at ICU can only be developed by providing ICU nurses training and education opportunity. The main focus of the training is to train nurses of different hospitals outside the Kathmandu Valley. After completion of the training, the participant nurses will be provided with the certificate of completion. It is the patients, however, who receive the most benefit from having a certified nurse's care for them, because the certification fosters improved safety and quality of care. The trained nurses will help automatically improve the quality of services in the ICU in the hospitals throughout the country.

The goal of ANMF-NCCDF Scholarship Award for CCNTP is to train and certify a Nurse from outside Kathmandu Valley in the field of Critical Care Nursing that helps to develop critical care services in the country which improves the care of critically ill patients in all over the country. Moreover, as many of the ICU related training and education are concentrated in Kathmandu, this scholarship award aims to include nurses from different hospitals across Nepal.

Critical Care Medicine is now recognized as a separate specialty around the world to provide quality service to critically ill patients in various Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and other areas of the hospital. Critical Care Medicine also supervises the organizational management, surge capacity building and proper resource allocation when there is increased need of ICU beds e.g. in event of epidemics or disasters. But because of the tremendous expense of Intensive Care Units and their services the numbers of ICU beds are always limited across the globe.

The nursing practice in an ICU is highly challenging and complex. Critical care nursing is fast evolving as specialty to meet all these challenges. With increasing recognition of critical illnesses resulting in increased need for specialized ICU care, critical care has been slowly progressing in Nepal and reached its present shape. The term ‘ICU' in Nepal refers to a separate area in the hospital identified to admit critically ill patients requiring life support including administration of inotropes/vasopressors and/or mechanical support of ventilation.

In Nepal, Critical Care Services is focused only at Kathmandu valley, which lack the proper care of critically ill patients outside valley. From this project, ten Critical Care nurses across the country will be certified as trained Critical Care nurses which improves the quality of care of critically ill patients admitted in ICU.