Mental health difficulties commonly reported by ICU staff during the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on an unprecedented surge in critical care patients admitted to acute hospitals. Consequently, staff working in intensive care units (ICUs) have been overwhelmed with increased workloads and a variety of challenges.
Frontline healthcare workers have to face extended periods of potential exposure to the virus, alongside fears of contracting and spreading it to their loved ones (Hu et al., 2020; Urooj et al., 2020). Furthermore, they have to face the unpleasant reality of working so closely with the virus – the high mortality rate amongst COVID patients (WHO, 2020) and difficulty in providing adequate end of life support to patients and their loved ones are understandably distressing (Mohsin et al., 2020; Maguen & Price, 2020).