What leave?
To be told that the system is coping is an insult. It is coping because Nurses give and give until they break.
Annual leave hasn’t been given in our ICU for over a year. We have been allocated a single week each, at a time not of our choosing, which is surprised on us sometimes the week before the leave.
At the time of writing this, not all staff have had their allocated week of leave.
We are tired.
We are burnt out.
A year, in pandemic conditions, without a mental break and down-time, is unsafe, unfair, and unkind.