The COVID-19 pandemic has modified many aspects of clinical practice. Although the COVID-19 crisis is, primarily, a physical health crisis, in many cases physicians understood the urgency of the mental aspects as well and tried to find new ways to humanize the patients’ hospitalization. Policies designed to keep patients and medical staff safe required extreme but necessary measures, including social distancing. That meant that patients were isolated from their families until discharge, remaining in a sort of undefined mental space.That meant that patients were isolated from their families until discharge, remaining in a sort of undefined mental space. The common question that brought the patients’ relatives together was: is this really a temporary separation or a start towards a final departure? The paper shows strategies to humanize and manage the ICU treatments and mourning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
