The intensive care unit (ICU) is a place where standardized procedures and advanced technology intersect with profound human vulnerability. We explored how ICU nurses understand and enact person-centred care in this context, where protocols, clinical procedures, and machines challenge humanistic engagement. This study forms part of a broader investigation of Person-centred Practice in the ICU, drawing on McCance and McCormack’s framework and Levinas’s philosophy of the radical Other. Data were collected from 16 ICU nurses working in adult ICUs across three hospitals in Austria. Sources included focus groups, individual interviews, and the collection of person-centred moments. Our analysis identified two strategies that nurses use to shape the care environment; i) ‘creating the context’ (grounding values and beliefs to allow personhood to emerge) and ii) ‘breaking up the frames’ (responding to disruptions through the radical Other to ensure personhood can be valued and sustained). Nurses ‘create a context’ by adhering to inner credos (guiding values like recognising the person, taking responsibility, and acting ethically) applied in shaping relationships and navigating the patients journey balancing personal, clinical, and technological demands. They understand themselves as guardians of patients’ personhood. Person-centred moments emerged from challenging situations. Here, nurses were able to ‘break up the frames’ - routines, standard procedures, and even personal expectations - by opening to the situation and embracing the strangeness and disruption they faced. By going the extra mile, they created moments in which person-centred care could unfold, generating positive care experiences. Person-centred care in the ICU means caring for the person behind tubes, wires, and machines. It cannot be reduced to checklists or protocols but depends on nurses’ ability to pause, notice, and respond, supported by organizational cultures that enable such care. In this way, ‘breaking up the frames’ is not about dismantling clinical care but expanding it to include the person.