Parenting, pregnancy and work–family balance in intensive care medicine: an ESICM survey and a call for action

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a demanding environment, characterized by unpredictable shifts and heavy cognitive and emotional loads.Burnout [1] and moral distress [2] are well described in ICU, yet their interaction with family life has been less frequently explored.Previous studies demonstrate a significant contribution of work-family conflicts to burnout among other medical specialties [3], but limited information is available among ICU workers.To fill this gap, the ESICM NEXT Committee, the N&AHP Committee and Diversity & Inclusion Group launched a survey to explore and describe workfamily balance and support to parenthood and pregnancy among ICU professionals.