The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has substantially burdened intensive care units (ICUs). Patients with COVID-19, particularly those with severe illness, require ICU care—mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and other invasive monitoring and support to treat symptoms of the disease. The surge of patients experienced in ICUs across the globe overwhelmed ICUs and hospital supply chains (eg, for ventilators, personal protective equipment). More specifically, the rapid increase in the number of patients with COVID-19 resulted in an exponential increase in demand for critical care nursing. As a result, nurse leaders in critical care settings are well positioned to address the challenges before, during, and after increases in ICU utilization following a disaster and more specifically, COVID-19.

Nurse leader competencies related to disaster preparedness are not well described, and leadership during disaster response and recovery has been discussed even less. 1  Veenema and colleagues 2  reported that institutional awareness of available resources, understanding of...

You do not currently have access to this content.