Recently a nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit related her experiences as a member of a multidisciplinary team providing care in a complex and emotionally draining case involving the death of a child: “This one was rough on all of us, but because of our protocol, we all knew what we had to do and did it. When it was over, it helped us to cry together because we’ve all been down the same road. I know someone else understands where I’ve been, and where I need to go, and why.”
The stress of working in a critical care environment exacts its toll. As recently noted in editorials1,2 in the American Journal of Critical Care, stress can be exacerbated by perceptions of poor working conditions, which, in turn, may contribute to the challenges of recruiting and retaining caregivers. Complicating the labor shortage are shrinking budgets, which often...