Covid-19: making sense of it all

By Simon Bird

FMLM Applied Associate

As Covid-19 has become the dominant theme in healthcare, many multidisciplinary teams found themselves in situations they could not possibly have predicted at the turn of the year. 

Existing teams have asked more of each other than ever before, while new teams will have found themselves put together at speed, without any of the routines which joining a new team normally brings. 

Some teams will have found themselves providing care at the sharpest point of delivery, with the sickest patients, while others will have moved into roles which are quite different to what they had imagined. But every clinician in every team will have had - and be having - a totally unique experience that is both personal and demanding.    

Clinicians are characterised as resilient and tough. They keep going - and so do their teams. The public’s appreciation for this aspect of a clinician’s sense of vocation and professional duty is at an all-time high, which is both emotionally gratifying and humbling, but may also feel burdensome to some.

There will need to be a time, very soon, for teams to slow down and make sense of their experience with Covid-19, to reflect on the practices and behaviours that supported them as a team and as an individual, as well as those practices and behaviours that were less helpful or even counter-productive.

This will be an important use of time, a window of opportunity, to learn, to bond and regroup for whatever the future holds.

To get the ball rolling, FMLM has launched Sensemaking for teams, to provide a structure for teams to process individual perspectives as well as shared experiences of managing Covid-19.

The aim is to create a window of opportunity to acknowledge the effort, contribution and commitment of teams and their constituent parts in managing the uncertainty, while providing the impetus and support to embrace change.