L-R, Christina Maiorano, Colleen Boyle
January 2017
Christina
Boyle
,
ADN,RN
SCU
Maine Medical Center
Portland
,
ME
United States
A recent example of compassion and caring in which Christina and Colleen "CoCo", for the second year in a row, have organized and delivered a special holiday gift to a struggling family in Portland demonstrated innovation, ownership, respect and integrity. This type of leadership in the Special Care Units not only assisted a struggling family it also developed and strengthened the great team. It showcases to the community the values of caring professionals working at MMC.
Christina and CoCo have impressed us with their dedication to their work family and willingness to contribute to the community. Many of our nurses are involved in the community, but what sets Christina and CoCo apart from others is their effort to develop opportunities so our SCU family can make a difference in addressing community needs by coming together as a team. We deal with a lot of death, dying and just difficult situations while we're at work. " I think it's important for our team to consistently experience good outcomes also." Christina elaborated, "It helps to make us a stronger, closer team. When peers develop relationships through these types of activities outside of work, it makes it easier to confide in them on particularly difficult days at work. It's like having our own Peer to Peer program in our unit."
Christina and CoCo approached the team in SCU about supporting a family during the holidays. With a strong endorsement by the group, they spent the next month organizing the project. CoCo reached out to her local parish that referred them to Catholic Charities of Portland to connect with a family with young kids that were struggling financially. Catholic Charities empowers and strengthens individuals and families of all faiths, by providing innovative, community-based social services throughout Maine. Christina and CoCo picked this organization as they believe in its caring principles. "This is similar to the views of one of my longtime favorite nurses, Madeleine Leininger," CoCo explained, "Leininger states that care is the essence of nursing. If you don't truly care about what you're doing for your patient, you'll more than likely fail at achieving your goals. And although this family wasn't necessarily our patients, we genuinely cared about them and their well-being."
The family chosen consisted of a mother, her two sons, and a grandfather. The father is no longer with them and the boys miss him terribly. The family lives in a tiny apartment. The mother didn't want toys but instead wanted to focus on the necessities for the children like perishable gifts such as food and clothes.
Christina and CoCo from SCU started rallying support for the endeavor a couple days after Thanksgiving. They reached out beyond the nursing department and received donations from the entire SCU team: The medical staff, managers, support staff, PT, OT, and the nurses. Christina and CoCo established a drop-off point for the perishable goods and made a secure system for collecting money. The team from SCU donated coats, boots, gloves and mittens. Not only were they able to get these necessities, they also received gift cards and $500 in cash.
They delivered the donations and the family was astonished by the generosity of the SCU team. The smiles on the boys' (ages 6 and 2) face when they opened their gifts were heartbreaking. They had never experienced such a wonderful gift of giving that the SCU team was able to demonstrate.
Sister Patricia from Catholic Charities was there to interpret for the mother who doesn't speak English. The mother sat quietly, wide eyed, and started softly crying. The boys were also quiet and reserved. Sister Patricia texted me later and said the mother was overwhelmed and didn't believe strangers would care so much.
Christina said, "Sometimes it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you constantly work with tragedy. This experience turned my holidays around." Their commitment to the community went beyond the walls of the hospital and is truly amazing. Not only did it give a struggling family hope on the West End of Portland, it gives us all hope during the holidays and unites us as a Caring team.
Christina and CoCo have impressed us with their dedication to their work family and willingness to contribute to the community. Many of our nurses are involved in the community, but what sets Christina and CoCo apart from others is their effort to develop opportunities so our SCU family can make a difference in addressing community needs by coming together as a team. We deal with a lot of death, dying and just difficult situations while we're at work. " I think it's important for our team to consistently experience good outcomes also." Christina elaborated, "It helps to make us a stronger, closer team. When peers develop relationships through these types of activities outside of work, it makes it easier to confide in them on particularly difficult days at work. It's like having our own Peer to Peer program in our unit."
Christina and CoCo approached the team in SCU about supporting a family during the holidays. With a strong endorsement by the group, they spent the next month organizing the project. CoCo reached out to her local parish that referred them to Catholic Charities of Portland to connect with a family with young kids that were struggling financially. Catholic Charities empowers and strengthens individuals and families of all faiths, by providing innovative, community-based social services throughout Maine. Christina and CoCo picked this organization as they believe in its caring principles. "This is similar to the views of one of my longtime favorite nurses, Madeleine Leininger," CoCo explained, "Leininger states that care is the essence of nursing. If you don't truly care about what you're doing for your patient, you'll more than likely fail at achieving your goals. And although this family wasn't necessarily our patients, we genuinely cared about them and their well-being."
The family chosen consisted of a mother, her two sons, and a grandfather. The father is no longer with them and the boys miss him terribly. The family lives in a tiny apartment. The mother didn't want toys but instead wanted to focus on the necessities for the children like perishable gifts such as food and clothes.
Christina and CoCo from SCU started rallying support for the endeavor a couple days after Thanksgiving. They reached out beyond the nursing department and received donations from the entire SCU team: The medical staff, managers, support staff, PT, OT, and the nurses. Christina and CoCo established a drop-off point for the perishable goods and made a secure system for collecting money. The team from SCU donated coats, boots, gloves and mittens. Not only were they able to get these necessities, they also received gift cards and $500 in cash.
They delivered the donations and the family was astonished by the generosity of the SCU team. The smiles on the boys' (ages 6 and 2) face when they opened their gifts were heartbreaking. They had never experienced such a wonderful gift of giving that the SCU team was able to demonstrate.
Sister Patricia from Catholic Charities was there to interpret for the mother who doesn't speak English. The mother sat quietly, wide eyed, and started softly crying. The boys were also quiet and reserved. Sister Patricia texted me later and said the mother was overwhelmed and didn't believe strangers would care so much.
Christina said, "Sometimes it's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you constantly work with tragedy. This experience turned my holidays around." Their commitment to the community went beyond the walls of the hospital and is truly amazing. Not only did it give a struggling family hope on the West End of Portland, it gives us all hope during the holidays and unites us as a Caring team.