AURORA, Colo. — HCA HealthONE Aurora is celebrating National Nurses Week by bringing snack carts to each of the nursing stations around the hospital.
Nursing teams at the hospital go above and beyond, with some even making their patients handmade gifts to make them feel more comfortable.
“Nurses show up in the moments of crisis and in the small moments that show the care for our patients,” said Kyle Dahm, associate chief nursing officer at HCA HealthONE Aurora. “It’s really important to recognize the work they do. It’s a hard job, and they do a great job, and they deserve that recognition.”
Dahm pushed a snack cart around the hospital on Thursday, bringing yogurt with fresh toppings to each of the nursing stations around the building.
The treats vary throughout the week. There's been a candy cart, an ice cream cart with root beer floats, and a wellness cart with lip balms and lotions.
The interventional radiology team at HCA HealthONE Aurora, including nurses Julie Chang and Debbie Lindesmith, was one of the teams visited by the yogurt cart. They’ve been putting in extra work to make gifts, called Port Pillows, for many of their cancer patients.
“It's something that hooks onto the seat belt and protects the port when they're going home, while that site is healing and when they're traveling around,” said Chang. “We decided to start making them and giving them to our patients just so that they're getting something from us during a difficult time.”
Cancer patients often need permanent ports on their bodies so that medicine can be administered more easily. The sensitive port sites can be bothered through touch.
“Our thoughts were, let’s make something out of a bad situation of being diagnosed with cancer and make them happy,” said Lindesmith. “That's what called me to nursing is my compassion for people, and whether I'm sitting with a dying patient and holding their hand till the end, or sitting with somebody and saying I'm here… It’s what I am.”
National Nurses Week runs from May 6 through May 12.
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