Our research

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented challenge to intensive care units across Australia and the world. As patient numbers rapidly overwhelmed critical care capacity, registered nurses from outside the ICU were urgently deployed to fill the workforce gap — often with limited time for preparation and no standardised educational framework to guide their upskilling. While the nursing workforce demonstrated extraordinary adaptability during this period, the pandemic also revealed significant gaps in our preparedness for ICU surge events.

This research seeks to address those gaps through a systematic, evidence-based examination of how upskill education was designed and delivered during COVID-19, and how future educational strategies can better equip the nursing workforce for times of disaster. The study begins with a comprehensive review of the international literature, cataloguing what is known globally about the delivery, effectiveness, and challenges of surge upskill education for non-critical care nurses. This will be followed by surveys and interviews with registered nurses who practised in Australian ICUs during surge events, generating first-hand evidence about which educational approaches supported safe and effective deployment.

The findings will inform the development of targeted educational recommendations and practical resources designed to strengthen nursing workforce preparedness for future ICU surge events.