During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) global pandemic, there has been a need to develop surge capacity. Since the disease is uncommon in children, working on a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) has required an expansion of roles and responsibilities outside established confines. The most drastic change in practice involved having to care for both critically ill adults and children side by side on the PICU. Redeployment to work on an adult critical care unit as required was similarly momentous. Based on our experience of managing this surge in one of the UK's worst hit tertiary hospitals, we are sharing our reproducible approaches that benefitted trainees. This will be relevant to paediatricians globally who are assisting in critical care strategies and future pandemic planning.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the International Pediatric Research Foundation, Inc.