Our need to bring our best selves to work has become more important in the face of this COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe.

Many intensive care clinicians are presently overwhelmed by escalating numbers of critically ill COVID-19 patients whilst many others are carefully preparing for seemingly inevitable local outbreaks.

There is an eerie feeling where I live and work in Melbourne especially with the online reports and accounts from our heroic colleagues in harder hit places like China, Italy and even parts of the USA.

My wife, Claire Davies, and I thought it would be useful to record a conversation about what's going through our minds, right now in mid-March 2020, as public health officials and healthcare organisations around the world are either managing or preparing for the onslaught of individuals infected with the virus whilst also enacting public health measures such as social distancing and airline travel restrictions.

Claire, who was a previous interview guest on episode 29, spent almost 2 decades as an intensive care nurse before retraining in pastoral care and now works in that role at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne.

Claire and I fully recognise that colleagues in some parts of the world have significantly more experience with the novel Corona virus than we do but if, like us, you are thinking a lot about this pandemic and fearful of what is about to happen I hope you find some value in this conversation between Claire and I.

In it we talk about:

Our gratitude for those clinicians working in the overwhelmed areas
Claire's hope they know they are not alone
Claire's own current fears and how this has manifest
Balancing the need to manage our fears whilst doing our crucial jobs
Claire's perspective on how we bring our whole selves to work
The likely moral distress of making "war time-like" decisions about rationing ventilators
The unknowns of providing pastoral/spiritual care in this situation
Useful ways to help look after ourselves during the outbreak
Recognising that if we don't transform our personal trauma, we transfer it
Trying to eat well, drink less alcohol, sleep well and to get in some exercise
Trying to have deep compassion for people making the big decisions
The opportunity this pandemic provides to bring us closer together as an intensive care community
Being grateful and caring for each other in these times

We are definitely all in this COVID-19 thing together.

Andrew Davies

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About the Mastering Intensive Care podcast: The podcast is aimed to inspire and empower you to bring your best self to the intensive care unit, through conversations with thought-provoking guests. The hope is you'll glean insights to move you closer towards being the best and most human healthcare professionals you can be, so you can make the most valuable contribution to your patient's lives.