BENGALURU: The pandemic has changed the way doctors and medical staff interact with the patient’s family members; counsel them in case the patient’s condition deteriorated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). It is now being done on e-platforms because of social distancing. Due to Covid, no family member is allowed inside the hospital. For intensivists, used to high levels of stress inside the ICU, the inability to communicate in person with the patient’s family is a new and emotionally challenging learning curve. Video phone calls have replaced physical interaction.
“Communication is a key skill needed for all ICU professionals. About 40 per cent of intensivists’ time is spent in counselling and communication. Covid-19 infection with the necessity for social distancing, has taken away this facet of our profession. This important humane element of sharing the family’s grief and emotions is now required to be done on e-platforms. Besides the emotional aspect, communication through a telephone wearing a donned Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) becomes physically difficult,” said Dr Sunil Karanth, chairman, Critical Care Services, Manipal Health Enterprises.
“Sitting with the family, sharing their emotions, communicating the patient’s status is much better done with the physical presence of the clinician. It is hard to fill up this void without meeting the family in person. The social distancing norms also limit the family’s ability to spend time with their sick family member in the ICU. This too is only being done on voice or video call,” he added.
“The changing times have made us adapt to the emerging needs and requirements and as a profession, we are fast learning to cope with these new norms. But a learning curve exerts new stresses on an already burdened system,” said Dr Karanth.“Communication is not only verbal, but also involves a lot of non-verbal cues like facial expressions, gestures and body language, which help augment the emotional aspect of counselling and communication. With a fully donned PPE, the clarity of the voice, lack of visibility of the doctor’s face, connectivity issues make this task very arduous,” he said.
“It is very difficult to counsel the family members over the phone. They need to trust us and believe what we tell them. It’s extremely daunting and emotionally draining for us too,” said Dr Radha, intensivist, MS Ramaiah Memorial Hospital.