Supporting emotional preparedness in intensive care nurses: Embedding wellbeing through curriculum redesign

Transitioning into intensive care nursing is complex and emotionally demanding for early career nurses. High attrition and psychological stress underscore the need for education that supports resilience and wellbeing alongside clinical competency.

This paper describes the integration of self-care and wellbeing strategies into a redesigned statewide postgraduate Intensive Care Nursing Transition to Specialty Practice (ICN-TTSP) program in New South Wales, Australia.

Curriculum mapping aligned the existing ICN-TTSP program with national nursing standards, identify gaps in self-care, resilience, and professional identity. A narrative literature review informed pedagogical strategies, including reflective journaling, role modelling, virtual simulation, and work-integrated learning.

The reimagined ICN-TTSP program embeds self-care and resilience through multimodal educational strategies, including ePortfolio's, video vignettes, and patient/family experience stories. These strategies normalise self-care as professional wellbeing behaviour. Preliminary evaluation shows strong engagement and improved emotional awareness amongst learners.

Embedding wellbeing into postgraduate nursing education is essential for workforce sustainablilty. Further evaluation will assess long-term impact..