Aloha … from BetheMaking wishes come true, and tears fall
After 25 years caring for area residents,
Dr. William Minsinger retires from Gifford
RANDOLPH, July 6, 2009 – The Gifford Medical Center Auxiliary has funded a host of projects aimed at improving patient care, child care and staff education at the Randolph hospital.
The Auxiliary board on June 16 reviewed “Wish List” items from hospital staff and awarded a total of $22,230 to various departments.
Items funded included:
- A digital camera, printer and equipment for the Emergency Department to photograph sexual assault, domestic abuse and neglect victims as well as sweat suits for victims to wear home (should their clothes be collected for evidence).
- A traveling laptop for nursing education.
- A family of manikins (an adult, child and baby) for nursing and emergency staff to keep their emergency skills current, including reviewing cardiac rhythms, airway education and IV insertion.
- Support of the Barron Men’s Health Program, including health outreach to men, possibly through a free screening event like the hospital has done in the past.
- A new catering cart and two new room service carts to deliver meals to the conference center and to patients’ rooms through the hospital’s popular room service program.
- A rolling crib for young inpatients.
- A loft structure for the toddler/young preschool room in The Robin’s Nest Child Enrichment Center at Gifford.
- Educational materials and snacks from the popular New Parents Group as well as free infant and child CPR classes.
- Bereavement materials for families who have lost a baby, such as through a stillbirth or fetal loss in the Birthing Center. Parents in these tragic instances are offered a memory box containing various items, family members are also offered appropriate written materials, photos and mementos, and follow-up phone calls after discharge additionally offer support.
Auxiliary President Mickie Richardson of Randolph helped hand out the award letters to winning departments.
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Gifford Medical Center’s Auxiliary, through a past “Wish List” gift, donated an automated external defibrillator to the Tunbridge Central School. Pictured with the defibrillator, from left, are Auxiliary President Mickie Richardson, Auxiliary Vice President Ruth Lutz, Tunbridge Principal Kathleen Ball, Tunbridge custodian Kevin Moran and First Branch Ambulance representatives Laura Upham, Linda Kuban and Beth Farnham. |
“I can’t tell you the feeling I get handing that envelope to somebody. I get teary,” said Richardson, tearing up again. “Just the joy that it spreads; it’s so magnificent.”
Robin’s Nest Director Susan Mascola cried upon receiving her award letter. “’I just never believed we’d get our wish filled,’” said Richardson, recalling Mascola’s words.
Like Richardson, Mascola said she couldn’t help the tears. “I’m still getting teary eyed thinking of it.
“It was just so wonderful. We are very, very happy. It’s just something that we wanted from day one when we first opened and we just didn’t have the funding,” said Mascola, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the loft structure. “It will make such a difference in the room. It’s going to be a great addition for the kids. They’re going to love it.”
In the cafeteria, Richardson received hugs.
In the Birthing Center, Director of Nursing Bonnie Hervieux-Woodbury couldn’t wait to share the news with staff.
“’It means so much to everybody,’” Hervieux-Woodbury told Richardson.
For the Emergency Department and its patients, new camera equipment could mean the difference between a conviction and a sexual predator going free.
Gifford has two specially trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in the Emergency Department. The SANE program is known nationwide and thought to better support victims and increase conviction rates because of improved training and evidence collection.
Gifford’s SANE nurses, however, are using an old Polaroid camera to photograph injuries. Its images are low quality, they fade over time and film isn’t even made for the camera anymore.
“It could make the difference in a conviction, if you had quality pictures on quality paper,” Emergency Department nurse manager Maureen Heyder said in thanking the Auxiliary. “It is a huge help to us.”
The Auxiliary supports the hospital through sales in its popular Thrift Shop. It supports a variety of hospital projects as well as scholarships for area nursing students, and began fulfilling hospital “Wish List” requests a year ago.
The practice, now done twice annually, is a throwback to the 1950s when the Auxiliary also made hospital staff members’ wishes come true.
Fresh from her shift as a volunteer “bag lady” at the Thrift Shop, Richardson said that knowing the work done there is having such a positive result is very rewarding.
Also donated in the past was money toward equipment for Gifford’s pediatric rehabilitation program, located at the hospital in Randolph. Auxiliary members pose with some of the equipment during a recent tour of the department.