Peer-support to Swedish ICU staff during the dynamic COVID-19 crises.

Presentation Details: When Covid-19 virus hit Europe in spring 2020 the hospitals were put under enormous pressure. They quickly had to re-organize to provide for a massive influx of very ill patients. The number of Intensive care unit beds and staff to manage the rising number of patients had to increase. This was a new disease that the ICU staff had little knowledge how to deal with. For the staff this meant a larger workload both physically and psychologically i.e. longer hours, new unexperienced colleagues, an increased number of deaths, working with protecting gear and of course the risk of being infected by Covid while at work.
Through the occupational health care Stefan Dahlbergs company Competenscompagniet were asked to provide peer support on a daily basis to the ICU staff at several major hospitals in the Stockholm region. Through his network of peers from many different professions he has up till now been able to support the hospital staff during this dynamic crisis. In this presentation we will first explain the difference between a static and dynamic crisis and how peer support in an ongoing dynamic crisis like Covid 19 can be orgonised. We will explain how the support was and provided and recived. Challenges for peers working out of their professional context, with unknown colleagues and also under the threat of being infected themselves. This called for new ways of providing peer support. To support without disturb the ongoing work in the ICU. In the presentation we will use power point and a dialog between Per and Stefan.