After three decades of serving on the frontline of healthcare, Professor Kate Curtis has been awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in the General Division as part of The King’s Birthday 2025 Honours list.
The Coledale local was awarded for distinguished service to trauma and emergency nursing, critical care research, tertiary education and professional organisations.
“It's lovely to get acknowledgement for the work that we've done and all the differences we've made, but more importantly, it's great that nurses are being acknowledged for the work that nurses do,” Kate says.
Kate grew up in Figtree and has been an emergency nurse since 1994. She works as a registered nurse at Wollongong Emergency Department (ED) and is currently Director of Emergency and Critical Care Research at Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD).
Kate has been a professor of Emergency and Trauma Care at University of Sydney since 2008, and is an honorary professional fellow at the George Institute for Global Health and the National Health and Medical Research Council.
She says all of her work is informed by first-hand experience working as an emergency nurse.
“Nurses are responsible for the safety and quality of patient care, and if we get it wrong, the outcomes can be catastrophic – it’s a huge responsibility,” Kate says.
“All the work that I do comes from seeing it – being a clinician and working on the front line in the emergency department, thinking that perhaps we could do this better, or perhaps we shouldn't be doing this, and coming up with ideas to improve patient care and the way we deliver care.”
Leader in emergency nursing
Throughout her career, she has worked as a clinical nurse consultant in the Illawarra and Sydney, as well as acting as a mentor for more than 50 clinicians. She is the world’s most published author in the field of trauma and emergency nursing, having published 57 research papers, largely focusing on the improvement of clinical processes for better patient care, and championing the work of nurses.
“You should always have in the back of your mind that nurses are doing the very best they can, and the reason we are nurses is because we want to help people. We want to give patients the best possible opportunity to have the best experience," Kate says.
“It can be very challenging for us to do that in the environment in which we work, particularly in the emergency department, where we’re really at the front line and anything can walk through the door, it’s unpredictable and it can be unsafe,
“We provide care for people from ages zero to 100 but we’re always learning, we’re always trying to help you. I would say to patients, if you feel concerned you should always raise concern and escalate to the nursing staff if you are worried about something.”
Recognised for improving patient care
Kate completed Masters of Nursing at the University of Wollongong in 2002, and a PhD through the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of NSW in 2006. Since then, she has received a number of awards for her contributions to emergency nursing, including being named 2019 Nurse of the Year (HESTA), NSW Premiers Award 2019, and receiving the 2011 Frank McDermott Award for research leading to the greatest improvements in care for severely injured patients in Australia and New Zealand. Last year she received an Emergency Nurses Association (USA) Nurse Researcher Award.
“It's quite exciting to see the fruition of many projects that take many years of work looking at change in policy and practice and to be used by other nurses around the world to improve patient care,” Kate says.
Proud to help ED nurses
Kate is most proud of her work as co-founder and lead investigator at project HIRAID (History, Infection risk, Red flags, Assessment, Interventions, Diagnostics). It is the only validated framework to support emergency nurses in assessing and managing emergency department patients after triage, and has led to a 50 percent reduction in patient deterioration associated with care delivered in the emergency department. The framework has been successful across rural, regional and metropolitan EDs and is used in Illawarra and Shoalhaven and Southern NSW local health districts.
“I am proud of us completing the largest ever clinical trial with emergency nurses in the world, and showing that if emergency nurses all use the same structure in their initial assessment and management of the patient after triage, patients have a much better experience,” Kate says.
“Nurses feel way more confident in escalating their concerns to doctors, nurses do a much better assessment and start the right treatment. They document much better and it doesn’t take any more time – most importantly, patients have significantly fewer adverse events.
“We have now implemented this framework across Tasmania, South Australia and parts of Victoria and New South Wales. We’re working with colleagues to implement this in Thailand, Sweden, Denmark, South Africa and Hong Kong too, so that all emergency nurses are using the same language and using evidence in their practice.”
Over 800 Australians honoured
The King’s Birthday 2025 Honours List recognises 830 Australians, including Kate, for their service, integrity, achievement, creativity, and care across the country.
“There’s a big list of people for me to thank, but at the end of the day, none of the work that our team does would be possible without a supportive management in the hospitals who encourage us to research innovative things,” Kate says.
“The nurses and doctors on the frontline who are willing to change their practice and be part of research,
“And then I’ve had excellent parental role models, a very supportive husband and kids, and an excellent public school education at Figtree High School.”
Kate and other recipients will attend an investiture ceremony at Government House Sydney in the coming months to receive their insignia.
