COVID Chronicles #002 | Nacho del Moral: What Clinicians Need Now is Empathy

Welcome to COVID Chronicles with Jenny Rudolph, a just-in-time podcast checking in with friends and colleagues from the front lines of healthcare, the home front, and other unique perspectives on learning and connecting in the time of coronavirus. Ignacio del Moral (twitter.com/leading4you) is the Executive Director of the Hospital virtual Valdecilla in Santander, Spain. In a major regional hospital in Cantabria, nearly 1/3 of all patients in the hospital are COVID-19 positive. In this context, leaders must manage staff, space, and critical resources including ventilators. As an MD with a PhD in Microbiology, Nacho is well positioned to understand the crisis, but what he says clinicians need more than anything in this moment, is empathy. "We have to listen to them, instead of telling them what they have to do." Listen along to learn how in a just-in-time fashion in their simulation center, Nacho has created a space for safe, informal debriefing once the clinical day is over, to protect the psychological wellness and well-being of clinicians in his community.