Nursing in Virginia Magazine - Richmond Times-Dispatch

Winter 2009 || Contents/Letter to You | Articles | Past Issues | Index of Advertisers

NIVfeature

When A Hospital Is A Child's Home For The Holidays
Nurses and Volunteers Make It Special
BY JOAN TUPPONCE
NIVfeature

The smile on her youngest son's face when he received a stuffed bear in his hospital room on Christmas morning in 1985 was something Marge Sidebottom will never forget.

The 4-year-old was being treated for cancer at the University of Virginia Medical Center, making it impossible for him to be at home. "Christmas is always a time for the whole family to be together," she says. "It was hard on us with one child in the hospital."

The small white stuffed bear with its red holiday stocking cap remains a member of the Sidebottom family.

"It's still very much with us," says Sidebottom, who serves as the director of the offi ce of emergency preparedness at U.Va. "My son called it Snow Bear. It meant a lot to him."

No child wants to spend time in the hospital during the holiday season. That's why nurses in units that serve children do all that they can to make the season festive and include their young patients in the celebration.

In Sidebottom's case, the stuffed bear given to her son prompted her to start an annual tradition.

At the time, she was working as an administrator for emergency services at U.Va. Medical Center. Her duties included the oversight of Pegasus, the hospital's MedEvac helicopter unit.

Sidebottom asked the crew of Pegasus if they would help helicopter Santa and his bag of gifts to the hospital so he could hand the gifts out to the children who had to remain hospitalized during the holidays. At the same time, she enlisted the help of her college sorority to help round up the gifts. The annual event was a huge hit.

In 1989, the local chapter of the Student Nurses' Association of Virginia (SNAV) at U.Va. became involved with the project. "Initially we needed them to wrap gifts," Sidebottom says. "Slowly they began to take over the project."

Each December SNAV holds a fundraising toy drive.

"We get gifts for all different ages and separate them into age groups," says fourth-year nursing student Allison Rowe. "We have a huge wrapping party where we buy a bunch of pizzas and listen to Christmas music as we wrap. We look forward to it each year. It's our biggest project."

The students raise enough money to give gifts not only to hospital patients but also to their siblings. "The gifts are distributed in several units at the hospital," explains Carol Lynn Maxwell- Thompson, assistant professor of nursing at U.Va.'s School of Nursing. "Even the infants and newborns in the neonatal unit get a rattle."

The nursing students really enjoy the experience. "We know the children will be so excited on Christmas," Rowe says.
RN Rebecca Gilbert in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit has been on hand for Santa's arrival.

"The parents, siblings, patients that are alert and staff love it," she says. "The children get gifts; even the ones that are not alert get [a gift] so they will have something from Santa when they wake up."

The nurses at U.Va. Medical Center do their best to include parents in their holiday celebrations.

"The parents are going through a very difficult time and they are sometimes forgotten about," Gilbert says.

Nurses in the hospital's PICU decorate a tree as well as the doors to patients' rooms. "We try to be as festive as we can," Gilbert says. "We even have a harpist that comes in and plays Christmas carols in the hall."

U.Va. Medical Center isn't the only hospital that tries to brighten the holidays for young patients. At Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk everything is geared toward children. Nurses work in partnership with the hospital's Child Life staff to make sure the holidays are special.

"We have Santa gift bags prepared for every child," explains RN Amy Brich, director of pediatric intensive care. "We keep them on every unit. The week of Christmas we give them out to families when a child is admitted."

The toys in the bags are collected by the community. "We have a lot of community support," Brich says.

Holidays at the hospital also include visits from local celebrities and Santa as well as religious ceremonies conducted by the hospital's chaplains. "We also do a Nativity program in conjunction with the chaplains and we use patients in the program," Brich says, adding that nurses help decorate for the holidays. "We have a family that every year has donated small, fully decorated Christmas trees for every bedside."

Sometimes people forget that the nurses also miss out on family celebrations because of their work schedule. "It's hard to be here on the holidays but in a way it's neat because you are here for the families and you help them celebrate," Brich says. "We go out of our way to make it as joyful as we can."

At Children's Hospital in Richmond, the director of nursing, Patricia Anderson, and her staff work with severely handicapped children. The nursing staff partners with other departments in the hospital to decorate the hospital and to plan holiday events.

"We have several parties that go on throughout December," Anderson says. "The community donates gifts that we distribute on Christmas morning."

Various groups come into the hospital to sing or participate in holiday-related activities with the children. Young patients also get to join in a holiday concert at the hospital.

Children who can travel outside the hospital visit Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden to see the holiday lights. "We may also go to holiday plays," Anderson says.

On Christmas morning, both the children and the nursing staff dress up and open presents.

"We watch holiday DVDs and movies," Anderson says. "The atmosphere is more festive and relaxed."

In the PICU at VCU Medical Center in Richmond, RN Jenny Deaver helps many of the children in her unit create artwork that can be used as holiday decorations. "We do handprints and footprints to decorate the doors if the children are old enough and not that sick," she says, adding that some children also make colored chains. "We try to do anything that reminds them of Christmas."

Child Life helps nurses with holiday activities and arranges for outside visitors, including Santa. "He hands out stuffed animals," Deaver says.

The gifts that are donated by the community are gathered by Child Life and handed out on Christmas morning. "We rely heavily on Child Life," Deaver says. "We have a holiday party for the kids during one weekend and all that is arranged by Child Life. We try to bring Christmas here as much as we can."

Gifts, like that stuffed bear from 1985, help to raise the children's sprits. "It's something special that becomes theirs in a place where there isn't anything that is theirs," Sidebottom says.