ABSTRACT
Critical care units have been at the epicentre of both danger and safety in the pandemic, a time of existential threat. This chapter examines the contexts of threat and danger as well as safety and connection experienced by staff members working in intensive care units (ICUs) in the south of the United Kingdom. The idea behind reflecting on staff experiences is to shed light on the impact of situations and stories that might otherwise go untold.
In ‘making sense’ of staff experiences, I have drawn on ideas from attachment, systemic, narrative and trauma-informed approaches. I propose that relational repair conversations present possibilities to enable people to ‘heal’ from the relational impact of the pandemic. This ability to repair could contribute to a culture of relational safety and therefore organisational resilience.
