It has now been over 6 months since the launch of our Nightingale Kind Hearts Scheme, which was set up & funded by our Directors Andy Bantock & Chris Long. The scheme, which is a benevolent fund, was set up to encourage staff to volunteer ideas and identify opportunities for good deeds, which would make a real difference to those individuals who we support.
Below we have shared a few of the good deeds which have been carried out and funded by the Kind Hearts Scheme over recent months. These wonderful gestures have had a positive impact on those we support and during these challenging times we thought it would be nice to share some positive stories.
As can happen, one of our clients was admitted to hospital for a few days, she lived at home with her husband who was not a client of ours, however he always enjoyed seeing our carers and having a chat with them when they visited his wife. Our staff were concerned that he would be lonely and miss the company, so we offered to continue visiting him whilst his wife was in hospital. That way we could check he was ok and provide him with a little company, he was absolutely thrilled with the idea. Our Kind Hearts Scheme funded the continuation of these visits 2 times a day for the duration of his wife's hospital stay. It made a real difference to him and also to his wife as she was not concerned about him being lonely.
One of our clients loved making roast dinners, unfortunately due to certain factors she had been unable to do so for quite some time. With funding from Kind Hearts we were able to purchase the ingredients & fund the time spent by one of our carers to cook the meal from scratch with the client. The client really enjoyed being able to cook again and she also enjoyed a very tasty meal!
A client of ours who is house bound, was struggling to keep cool whilst we were experiencing some very warm weather in the UK. Our carer brought this to the attention of her manager and suggested the client may benefit from the use of a fan. As the client did not have one our Kind Hearts Scheme brought a fan for the client to help keep her cool, she thoroughly enjoyed having the cool breeze on her and it made her a lot more comfortable.
A client was extremely nervous about attending hospital for an eye operation which would really improve her sight. Our carers quickly recognised that with a little reassurance and company our client would be more likely to consider attending the appointments. Our Kind Hearts funded the extra hours required so our carers could spend time reassuring the client & accompanying her to her appointments and eventually take her to her operation. The result was our client now has much improved vision enabling her to do more and in her own words, she now has hopes to get up and out and feels she has a purpose and reason to want to do so much more.
One of our clients who unfortunately became bed bound, was finding it increasingly difficult to reach her drinks & food as the table she used was not ideal, this meant she was starting to struggle when trying to feed herself, which was something she was more than capable of doing. Our staff immediately took action and requested that Nightingale Kind Hearts purchase her a table that could go over her bed, to enable her to drink and eat without any assistance. We purchased the table and set it up for the client, who was extremely happy.
At Nightingale we know the importance of supporting our clients with their hobbies and interests, sometimes changes in our clients health means they are not able to enjoy the things they used to in quite the same way. Our staff always try to do whatever they can to help with this by suggesting alternative solutions. One such client who particularly enjoyed tending to his garden, found he was no longer able to get outside to do this. With funding from our Kind Hearts Scheme our carers created a small 'garden' indoors with a number of plants and flowers, enabling him to continue with his hobby of tending to his plants and carry on doing what he really enjoyed.
Many of our clients have already benefited from the Nightingale Kind Hearts Scheme in many varied and different ways with most requiring little funding, just time in the majority of instances. We continue to identify several hours of support which will be funded by Nightingale Homecare and we actively seek nominations from staff where we can make gestures to brighten an individual’s day or make a small change which can make a big difference to their lives. If you have any ideas, please share them with your local Nightingale Homecare Branch. Nightingale Homecare will continue to financially support this scheme through allocating hours or money, especially as so many of our staff have also supported this initiative by freely giving up some of their time for the benefit of our clients.
