This year has been particularly tough for me and my team. I am a team leader for the resident doctors and mostly on emergency cases at the night duty. My team is comprised of six young enthusiastic doctors out of whom two got married this year, beginning of February. Both these doctors had taken a long leave but due to the COVID crisis, I decided to call them back and join the COVID team. 

Although somewhere I was mentally preparing for the crisis, reading stories of Italy and China, the initial lockdown in India gave me hope that we will be in a more stable environment. But that is not to be, it seems. Our rosters are flooded with on-duty schedules, we have no time to sit properly and eat or rest; and sometimes it is days before any of us return home. 

But my team is holding up well so far. But what has now started to concern me is that these young people in my team are absorbing all the negativity and fear of the patients. They sometimes lose hope when treating patients and this is not right for them.

I decided to coach them in Psychological First Aid as per the WHO guidelines. My aim was that they should be in a position to counsel and help the patients who come in rather than fall into the misery they bring with them. They should be able to support and motivate people.

So, I taught them the basics of listening to people but not pressurizing them to talk; comforting people and help them to feel calm; helping people connect with information; protect them from further harm; not to probe and get into the reasons for their distress and pressurize them into telling them their feelings.

I hope that they will use the briefing to tackle the patients’ distress and not themselves absorb their distress.

Most of my team doctors end up becoming sorrowful and very depressed, when they lose a patient to the crisis and the family starts crying in front of them. And at this moment teaching them to stay stoic is important.