Persevering: It was Inconceivable

Persevering Through A Pandemic: 2 – It Was Inconceivable

Just like a surf beach shore, waves of COVID-19 keep crashing over the world’s Intensive Care Units. The waves have been unpredictable and pattern less, ravaging the ICUs and the people that work in them, often inconceivably.

In this second episode of the “Persevering Through A Pandemic” series, you’ll hear from Intensive Care professionals about the COVID-19 pandemic which continues to affect ICUs across the globe.

Amongst other topics, US intensivists Drs Rana Awdish & Dr Hayley Gershengorn, and Critical Care nurse Simone Hannah-Clark talk honestly about their worst pandemic days, the feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and overall depletion, the effects on their family, what they witnessed in their struggling colleagues and how they dealt with the strain. You’ll also hear valuable thoughts on the nursing perspective, the difficult experience of being a patient in a pandemic, and the tension between the support from the community and the flagrant COVID-19 deniers.

There have been many emotional and heart-breaking conversations in ICUs all over the world during this pandemic. And we as their healthcare providers have emotions to express too. My belief is that we need to have conversations as colleagues, and as an Intensive Care community, about what we have been and are continuing to go through.

My hope is that this series will help you as a listener to reflect on and to process your own pandemic experience whilst hearing lessons you might take away to your Intensive Care community.

Thank you for listening to these wise and thoughtful Intensive Care clinicians tell you how they’ve been “Persevering Through A Pandemic”.

Andrew Davies

Links to featured guests

• Rana Awdish: on Twitter (@RanaAwdish);
• Rana L Awdish. Henry Ford Health System
• MIC Episode 041: Rana Awdish
• Awdish R. In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope. 2020

• Hayley Gershengorn: on Twitter (@HBGMD)
• Hayley Beth Gershengorn. University of Miami
• MIC Episode 036: Hayley Gershengorn

• Simone Hannah-Clark: on Twitter (@kiwi_yankee)
• Simone Hannah-Clark. Mount Sinai Hospital
• MIC Episode 060: Simone Hannah-Clark

Persevering Through A Pandemic Series

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Further reading and listening

• Full podcast collection on LITFL and Libsyn
• The New Normal Project podcast
• More conversation on Twitter (@andrewdavies66) and Facebook
• Audio Producer: Chris Burke of Burke Sound & Media