Caring in a crisis: Understanding the stressors and uplifts for National Health Service frontline staff through the lens of clinical psychologists.

The unprecedented public health crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a significant challenge to the delivery of healthcare that has rarely been experienced before. The stress already faced by healthcare staff working in the National Health Service (NHS) has been further exacerbated during Covid-19, putting them at risk of adverse mental health outcomes. Through the lens of clinical psychologists who had provided support to frontline healthcare staff during the Covid-19 pandemic, this study aimed to better understand the stressors and uplifts healthcare staff experienced during Covid-19, the impact of these on the wellbeing of staff and patient care, and to examine the support needed to deal with the impact of a crisis. A qualitative study design using a combination of diaries followed by semi-structured interviews was utilised. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. The following five themes represented the stressors and uplifts experienced by NHS frontline healthcare staff during Covid-19, the impact on staff wellbeing and patient care: facing change; risks of working in the NHS environment; transcending the negatives; challenging professional values and haunted by patient deaths. The findings also highlight the importance of providing psychological support and suggest the need to continue to provide this support service to help NHS staff manage through subsequent waves of the pandemic. These findings can contribute towards both the management of the current Covid-19 pandemic and other similar crises in the future.