It’s no secret that the last two years have been enormously challenging for nurses, medical teams, and patient families. Recognizing those challenges, one remarkable anonymous donor has stepped up to support patient and family education, mental health and wellbeing, ethics, and resilience programs.
“Hospitals nationwide are dealing with the crucial issues of improving wellness and resilience programs for nursing and improving communication with patients and families around health information,” said Kristine Taylor, Interim Executive Director, Center for Professional Excellence and Inquiry at Stanford Children’s Health. “This generous [$250,000] gift will help bolster these programs at Stanford Children’s Health, benefiting both our nurses and the patients we serve.”
To boost our nurses’ wellness and resilience, the gift will support the interprofessional HEART (Health, Engagement, Appreciation, Recognition, Teamwork) Council, which focuses on elevating wellness across the workforce.
“The donation will also strengthen resiliency programs to support our inspirational nursing team,” said Taylor. “The deep well of resilience for which nurses are so famous was depleted during these years of the pandemic. We are thankful for this donation—it will help refill that well.”
Information and clear communication are essential to promoting health education and literacy. To meet those needs, the nursing team will leverage the gift to develop culturally relevant educational material for patients and families, enhance varied methods of teaching, bolster health literacy standards with a family-centered care lens, and help create foreign-language educational materials for the hospital’s many international patients and their families.
“We regularly serve a diverse population from many different states and countries,” said Taylor. “And this gift will help us enhance the excellent care we provide to patients who come here from near and far.
“We look forward to the additional support this gift will provide to wellness, resilience, and health literacy initiatives so important to our nurses and patients,” she added.
This blog is the second in a two-part series celebrating Nurses Week and a generous, multi-pronged gift to support nurses at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.