The donor-funded QEII Foundation Comfort & Care grant provides critical resources like a blanket warmer (pictured above) for patients and QEII healthcare teams. UNCHARTED MEDIA
A warm hug.
That's how Siân Lanthier and Angela Oldford describe how a warm blanket feels to a patient. A simple gesture with a powerful impact. That's why both registered nurses applied to receive funding through the donor-funded QEII Foundation Comfort & Care grant for blanket warmers in their respective care areas.
"Often, our patients come in [to the hospital] very unwell or involuntarily. Small comforts like a warm blanket are huge in being able to offer them something that physically feels comfortable," says Siân, who received a grant for the Acute Inpatient Psychiatry Unit and the Mental Health Acute Day Hospital at the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s Abbie J. Lane.
"Many of our patients are in crisis and can become agitated or violent. The gesture of offering them a warm blanket helps our staff with soothing and de-escalating, preventing agitation and aggression."
Siân said the blanket warmer will be the first one available in the mental health and addictions care areas she manages and will benefit each of the 21 patients on the unit, whose average stay ranges from two weeks to three months.
"This is a locked, secure unit, so people don't always have the privileges or the ability to go out and seek comfort at their own free will. The blanket warmer is important for extra comfort in the unit."
Angela agrees that a warm blanket helps to calm and soothe patients. She applied for a grant to fund a blanket warmer for the Cardiology Inpatient Unit at the QEII’s Halifax Infirmary.
"Oftentimes our patients come from the emergency department, and they're feeling unwell, or they are arriving in the middle of the night, or they've just had a procedure, and they're shivering and shaky. Giving them a warm blanket is a source of comfort when they're at their most vulnerable," she says.
"With a warm blanket, it's like you're tucking them in and giving them a sense of calm. They are always grateful, and they typically respond with, 'This is just what I needed.'"
Angela says that budgets are often stretched thin on the cardiology unit, which has 41 beds.
"Blanket warmers are quite expensive. Having this funding through the QEII Foundation means we don't have to put something else on the line to provide this basic level of care. Everything is vital, so how do you pick and choose? It feels like a privilege to have the funding available."
Angela's sentiment captures the spirit of the QEII Foundation Comfort & Care grant. It was created to ensure QEII healthcare providers have access to a funding source for the smaller items that aren't included in the health centre's capital budget. Each year, the Foundation provides $100,000 in grants across the QEII, with more than $2.4 million distributed since 2005 thanks to generous QEII Foundation donors.
Tanya Manthorne is the QEII Foundation's grant administrator; responsible for reviewing the applications and distributing the funds, she sees firsthand the grant's impact on patients, families and healthcare teams.
"It's pretty amazing to see how our donors' gifts translate to impact in the health centre," she says.
"The recipients are always very thankful for all our grants — they're grateful they can help patients."
And that's exactly how Siân and Angela feel.
"We all want to do the best we can for our patients," says Siân. "A lot of people with chronic, persistent mental illness who are coming in for acute stabilization already suffer with complex social inequities and unstable, inadequate, or no housing whatsoever. So, to think that while they are admitted under our care, we can go above and beyond makes us all feel like we're doing our job the best we can in a system that's already struggling to support them."
Angela says she and her colleagues don't take these small gestures for granted, as they know their impact on patients.
"These little things are what make the difference as to how somebody perceives their stay in hospital. And if we can improve that in any way, then I think we should do it," she says.
"For staff, it gives us a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that we are able to comfort patients in their time of need."
Learn more or donate to the QEII Foundation’s Comfort & Care grant.
