By: Vivian Nguyen Quick feet. Kind hearts. Hungry stomachs. These all describe the diligent nurses of the eighth floor at UMC Brackenridge Hospital. All night long, they go from room to room to make sure patients are comfortable and as healthy as possible. While working on the trauma floor can be difficult, they still manage to always help patients with love and care. In 2011, when a couple of UT students wanted to express their gratitude towards the nurses, they created Care Teams, a group within HOPE Austin. By delivering tasty meals/treats and adorable decorations, they were able to let the nurses know that their hard work did not go unnoticed. For this 2014-2015 academic school year, we were able to have our first Care Teams project in November. Going with a Thanksgiving theme, we created miniature peanut butter chocolate acorns, snickerdoodle cookies, and 7-layer pumpkin bars. For decorations, we made paper pumpkins (which had various thank you expressions written all over them), hand turkeys, fall leaves, and “Happy Thanksgiving” lettering to put up on their wall. When we arrived at the hospital and presented our gifts, they were absolutely overjoyed. I could hear them saying things like, “Is that for us?!” and “That looks so delicious!”. Veronica, a nurse, was grateful for the treats we had brought in. She had mentioned how it would get very busy, especially during the holidays, because the nurses were trying to comfort the patients until the doctors would come back in the mornings. So, she said our treats were a pleasant surprise and nice break. One nurse was also thrilled because she had forgotten to bring in something to eat that day.
Being able to do acts of kindness like this provides joy to the giver and receiver. I feel no greater happiness than when I do little things for others, which definitely includes showing appreciation for nurses and seeing their genuine excitement. It is so important to let the nurses know how thankful we are for their dedication, generosity, and patience, because giving back to those who work for our community is a great way to develop a foundation for love among all people. I’m glad we were able to deliver baked goods to such hard-working nurses and I am looking forward to sending them more delicious foods in the future!
1 Comment
|
Archives
November 2014
Categories |