Jo in Scotland

While I can appreciate your thoughts, as a nurse, believe me, the staff is usually much too busy to be running emails to one patient. I would seriously doubt that they would ever make it past the wastebasket. There is SO much paper work in hospitals these days, that private emails wouldn't be appreciated. Now, if she has a laptop in her room, that's another story. Gen

i am hoping to find a social worker, with her own office, to do it for us. i thot i could collate all the msgs into one compact email for the social worker to print out and hand deliver it. no need for the medical staff or the nurses stations to be involved at all. most hospitals have some kind of social worker who helps with just that sort of thing. perhaps it is different in the uk vs the usa tho. i'm sure being able to read those msgs of love and support in her own time would be good for her recovery. j.

"Gen" wrote ... While I can appreciate your thoughts, as a nurse, believe me, the staff is usually much too busy to be runn> any idea which hospital?

My MIL was in a hospital in NC that offered e-mails to patients in the form of cards that volunteers would print and deliver. You could go online, choose from a number of designs, type in your message, and it would be hand-delivered either that day or the next. This wasn't a private facility, either, just the community hospital. They've had that service for several years.

CaroleD - Retired and loving it in the foothills of NW GA >^..^< My quilts, crafts, pets, and more -

I agree with Gen. Why can't messages be sent to Tristan or to Jo's home email, for Tristan to take to her? He probably would like to know people are thinking of them both.

G> i am hoping to find a social worker, with her own office, to do it for us= .

thank you for that info, Carole. it confirms my thoughtts on how we could get msgs to our Jo and/or Nel without bothering the medical staff at all. if memory serves me the volunteers are called candystripers because of the pink/white striped uniforms they wear when volunteering. we have them here too and i'm fairly sure also in the UK. j.

"CaroleD" wrote ... My MIL was > While I can appreciate your thoughts, as a nurse, believe me, the staff is

this is now a moot point as our Jo is home and back in the arms of her ever so clever wee lad who is talking to her at only 8 weeks old and yes i am a firm believer this is so.

however, as i recall from when i was born/raised in california (i presume the same applys to the rest of the usa) that most, if not all, hospitals there have 'candy stripers' who are volunteers who do things just like taking msgs to a patient. only one person would need to click on 'print' on their computer and had the paper to the candy striper to take to the patient in their room. hardly a difficult thing to make one click and the job is done.

these volunteers also exist here in NZ with our culture based essentially on the UK where they also have volunteers who 'work' in their hospitals and nursing homes.

when my mom got sick and ended up in a nursing home in the SF bay area back in early 2001 it was a social worker there who found me and called me to tell me what had happened. tho she was a paid worker, i think, there were others there who were volunteers.

what i was attempting to do was get our msgs of love and support to one of us across the globe and in a place where being able to read out msgs would help her alot. at no point was i intending to put the medical nursing staff in the loop. i'm not a total idiot regardless of what some folks seem to think. i spent two full weeks sleeping beside my Tim when he had meningitis and nearly died back in 2001 (we were there when 9/11 happened as it turned out). so i know something about both calif and nz hospital systems and the volunteers who work there.

i'll go back into my cave now. j.

"Ginger in CA" wrote... I agree with Gen. Why can't messages be sent to Tristan or to Jo's home email, for Tristan to take to her? He probably would like to know people are thinking of them both.

G> i am hoping to find a social worker, with her own office, to do it for us.

You know, it's actually rather wonderful when you are in hospital and a nurse or auxilliary, or a Friends of the Hospital member comes in and says 'Kate/Jo/Nel - your mum/friend X/son... rang and left this message for you - ' I loved it when I was in and got a message from James! Unfortunately many hospitals don't have an email address where such messages can be left and printed off. It would be great if they did. It's certainly something the Friends might look into. Another alternative (though less private) is to look up their Hospital Radio and see if they have an email address to which messages can be sent. Hospital radios often broadcast messages from families and friends to inmates, both patients and staff. Alan certainly did that when he was a hospital radio volunteer, and I know the radio station at that hospital (Medway Maritime) had gone from strength to strength in the years since we had anything to do with it.

Some hospitals have limited access for patients to hook into the broadband internet connection. I know Nel had her computer with her until it fell sick, and had attempted to contact us through an internet cafe or similar.

I'd like to offer a BIG THANK YOU to Jeanne for trying to set this up from such a remote point. And no, I don't know a single nurse who wouldn't be glad to relay a message. It's just that most visitor/friend communications to patients in hospitals mechanisms have yet to catch up with modern communication methods. Especially in some of the more eldery and esoteric areas of the National health serviice here in the UK!

For Nel, if folk want to send her a message, please send it to me and I will get it to her, either directly or via her husband, who tries to visit her every day. My email address works if you hit 'reply to' and I'm in the directory.

One again, THANK YOU JEANNE for trying.

On Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:42:25 -0500, J* wrote (in article ):

Don't go hide. It was a great thought. And you are right, most US hospitals have volunteers whose job it is to visit with patients, deliver mail and flowers, etc.

Maureen

glad to hear she is home and recovering!

amy in CNY

You know, I'm thrilled that you wanted to send me a message of support. That is so kind, and I'm touched. To think that someone over in New Zealand was thinking of me! That is incredible, in a way. We are so lucky that we can form friendships with people who are physically thousands of miles away. What would our quilting grandmothers and greatgrandmothers have thought of that? Often when they made "album quilts" with signature patches, their friends were moving away, never to be seen or heard from again. The internet would have astounded them.

I think Jeanne was very thoughtful to remember these "candy stripers" which I have never seen, but I'm sure that those kind of volunteers must exist in hospitals in different parts of the country, and in different countries.

Thank you for your kindness and telling us about these volunteers. Perhaps when I'm stronger, I could try that sort of volunteering. (I have done many different kinds of volunteer work over the years, but not that one yet!)

-- Jo in Scotland

The lad is out for a walk beside the sea with Grandma while I put a border on a I-spy quilt for a friend's baby. It was supposed to be for the baby's arrival.. then first Christmas..... then first birthday..... aaaargh! You get the picture. I want to finish it while Grandma is here as Chief Entertainment Officer.

They don't call them candystripers in the UK, but there are many different charities that have a presence in hospitals, national and local. If you entered our local hospital at the main outpatients entrance there were always volunteers to help you find your way to the right clinic, they were usually older men for some reason, so yes, there are definitely volunteer things happening in UK hospitals.

Cheers Anne

When I was growing up we had "Gray Ladies" they were red cross volunteers in the hospitals, wore gray pinafore type aprons. "Candy Stripers" were like junior gray ladies, worked after school, their pinafore type aprons were made of red and white stripes.

I haven't seen anything like them for some time, liability might be the reason.

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA

The old gals where pink aprons here. I always thought of them as the pink ladies. They were really helpful when we were at the hospital last month. My sis works in a hospital and seems to have a lot of nice stories about the old helper folks. They are a big hearted crowd. Taria