ABSTRACT
The need for family-centred care was highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic with disruptions to support for the family facing life-threatening illness and bereavement. This collaboratively written chapter will explore the experiences of a family cared for in a Scottish Hospital ICU department during the pandemic. Following the death of the patient from COVID-19, his wife and children, aged 14 and 10, chose to share their written and verbal (recorded) perspective with the practitioners concerned for the purpose of learning and reflection. Some of the complexities faced during this time, when guidance was regularly altered, and difficult decisions were being faced by team members are highlighted, including how we meet our duty of care to children in the family. Health inequalities may worsen if we are not proactive on behalf of those families who cannot self-advocate. We also need to consider how we create systems that support us as practitioners to offer person-centred and family-centred care. This may also allow us to be more honest about how much we are working with uncertainty, and the toll that providing clinically complex and emotionally challenging care can take.
