Associate Professor Kate Curtis
RN, PhD UNSW Ms Nurs BN UOW GradDipCritCare Sydney
Associate Professor
M02A - 88 Mallett Street - Building A
The University of Sydney
| Telephone | +61 2 9351 0604 |
|
|
Biographical details
I am an internationally respected trauma nurse and researcher with a special interest in trauma models of care, trauma nursing and financial aspects of trauma systems. I have published extensively in the nursing and medical literature, and have been keynote speaker at several international emergency and trauma conferences.
I completed my PhD at the University of NSW in 2006, investigating the role and impact of the trauma case manager. This was the first time the effect this role has on trauma patient outcomes had been investigated and this research has since been used to implement the trauma case management model of care in other Australian Trauma Centres. Other projects have examined the financial cost of the major trauma patient to trauma centres and the impact of a dedicated trauma admitting service on patient outcomes.
I have worked in aged care, general medical/surgical, mental health and after a four-year stint in the Emergency Department at Westmead Hospital, became the Trauma Clinical Nurse Consultant at St George Hospital in 1998. I joined the University of Sydney in 2008, I work regularly as a registered nurse in Wollongong Emergency Department, and I have a passion for Emergency and Trauma Nursing. In 2010 I was appointed as an Honorary Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health, as well as a Conjoint Associate Professor with the St George Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine at the University of NSW.
I am committed to the development of Emergency Nurses and have had a long relationship with the College of Emergency Nursing Australasia (CENA), convening their international conferences in 2003 and 2005, and Scientific Co-Convenor in 2010. I am on the editorial board of the Australasian Emergency Nurses Journal, a reviewer for Injury and the lead editor of the textbook Emergency and Trauma Care, for nurses and paramedics, the first and only Australian text of its kind.
Research interests
Trauma models of care
Trauma nursing
Financial aspects of trauma systems
Teaching and supervision
2011
MPhil Co-supervisor Matthew Dutton: Exploring the Role of the Wound Care Clinical Nurse Consultant in a Tertiary Referral Hospital
Master's (Research) Co-supervisor, Medicine (St George Clinical School) Lynsey Willenberg: The cost of road trauma in NSW
MN (Hons) Co-Supervisor Elizabeth Leonard: Relationship between alcohol consumption and outcome in major trauma
MPhil Supervisor Belinda Munroe: Evaluation of an emergency nursing assessment framework on patient assessment and documentation: A feasibility pilot
2010
MPhil Co-supervisor Rebekah Ogilvie: Life threatening injury in young people: A mixed methods study
2009
PhD Co-supervisor Taneal Wiseman: Depression, Anxiety and Stress in Major trauma patients
MPhil Co-supervisor Belinda Kennedy: What makes an Emergency Nurse? Exploring the relationship between personality type and length of service within emergency nursing
Areas of teaching
Sydney Nursing School Post-registration Critical Care Program:
Trauma Nursing Program Instructor – The purpose of the program is to improve the knowledge and skills of nurses caring for trauma patients in emergency departments, intensive care and wards and to improve the health outcomes of patients suffering trauma.
Nursing courses in SES Local Health Network and Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health Networks – Coordinate and teach on several courses. These course are interactive, provide clinical updates and a more advanced level of clinical skills. Courses include:
- Advanced trauma nursing
- Trauma Nursing on the Ward
- HDU Course
- Fortnightly ward or Emergency Department in-services
Current projects
My research aims to improve the trauma patient’s experience and clinical outcomes by exploring systems and models of care in trauma with a large network of collaborators. My program of research is in collaboration with the University of Sydney, the George Institute for Global Health, the NSW Injury Risk Management Centre, UNSW, NeuroScience Research Australia (NeURA) and the Honda Trauma and Critical Care Research Program (TriCC).
Associations
- Board Member: College Emergency Nursing Australasia NSW Branch
- Member: NSW Trauma Network Committee
- Representative: NSW Trauma Services Committee
- Member: South East Sydney Network Trauma Committee
- Member: St George Hospital Clinical Nurse Consultant Committee
- Member NSW Nurse’s Association
- Member: Society of Trauma Nurses
- Member: Australasian Trauma Society (past co-convenor of conference)
- Member: College of Nursing
- Developed and maintain the Australia/NZ Trauma Network. This list is a resource for trauma nurses and is used to discuss and exchange information
Awards and honours
I was recognised in the Sydney Morning Herald's The (Sydney) Magazine (Issue December 2010) as one of Sydney’s 100 most influential people in 2010, for my work as a trauma nurse and researcher. In 2011 I was awarded the Frank McDermott Award for excellence and impact (National Trauma Research Institute). It is awarded to the research study completed and published in the last 10 years that is judged to have led to the greatest improvements in care of severely injured patients in Australia or New Zealand.
Selected grants
2012
- HiRAID: Evaluation of an emergency nursing assessment framework on patient assessment and documentation: A pilot study; Curtis K, Buckley T; New South Wales Department of Health/Research Support.
2010
- The cost of major trauma in NSW; Curtis K, Myburgh J, Black D; St George Medical Research Foundation/Establishment Grant - New Investigator.
- The Cost of Major Trauma in NSW; Curtis K, Myburgh J, Black D; NSW Institute of Trauma and Injury management (ITIM)/Project Grant.
Selected publications
-
Emergency and Trauma Care for Nurses and Paramedics (Elsevier,2011)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|