“We started to care for our colleagues”: A qualitative study of statements by physicians and nurses from a COVID-19 ICU of a public university hospital in the Southeast region of Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered countless intense emotional experiences. The challenges posed by the unpredictability of this macro-phenomenon led to a “mass illness”, with impacts on mental health, particularly among healthcare providers, who worked directly with hospitalized patients, tirelessly seeking their recovery. This study aimed to interpret the symbolic meanings of statements expressed by physicians and nurses of a COVID-19 intensive care unit to assess their care experiences. This was a humanistic study using the Clinical-Qualitative method (CQM). Data were interpreted using Clinical-Qualitative Content Analysis. Six interviews were performed, which produced the following categories: Category 1 –Psychic time and rudimentary symbolizations on personal experience during the pandemic; Category 2 –Denial as a psychological defense or a psychosocial adaptation mechanism? Category 3 –Tension and family support: triggers of ambivalent experiences; and 4: The feeling of insecurity: from technique to affective dimension. Our findings indicate rudimentary symbolization of experiences in an intense context such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviewees presented discursive speech, with poor symbolic expression, as the process for psychic and cultural representation requires time, unlike the chronology of facts that respects the order in which they happen.