An intensive care nurse with a flair for design has created memory boxes for families and a wall graphic to explain a patient’s journey in the unit.
Jennifer McLaren, Critical Care Staff Nurse at University Hospital Hairmyres, said: “I’ve always been a creative person and have loved doing crafts since I was young.
“During COVID, a colleague put out an appeal for knitted or crocheted hearts, so that relatives who couldn’t see their loved ones in the intensive care unit could have a heart left with the patients on their behalf.
“I then became the ICU link nurse for organ and tissue donation, who traditionally give out keepsakes. A colleague pointed out it would be great to keep continuity by handing keepsakes to all families whose loved one passes away in the ICU or the high-dependency unit.
“Now, knitted hearts are given to the extended family and the rest of the box is presented to immediate family. It contains forget-me-not seeds to plant and a ‘heartbeat in a bottle’ – we print off the patient’s ECG and pop it in a small bottle with their name on it.
“We also place a patient’s fingerprint in the box during ‘last offices’ – the care provided to a deceased person’s body – and a spiritual care leaflet is also in it for the families to refer to. The box is completed and sealed and it has a postcard explaining what each of these items are and who they are from.
“The feedback for the memory boxes has been tremendous. We’ve had so many thank you cards and some families have even done fundraising to help us keep stocked up. We make sure we write back to families, thanking them and updating them on how far the idea has come.”
Jennifer has now completed another project to help relatives – a large information design on a wall in the foyer of the ICU.
She explained: “In 2021, I saw a picture of a ‘journey of a loved one through critical care’ design at a hospital in England. I got in touch with their staff and they kindly shared the wording they used and the ideas that came about to produce their board.
“I worked on it in my spare time and then Lesley Mulvaney, who was secretary to the anaesthetists, came on board and helped me take it forward.
“I had lots of help from the medical illustration department in Wishaw and I also consulted the rest of the staff in the unit and got good feedback from the multidisciplinary team. Then I used the wall to lay out just the wording and even had relatives give feedback on what they liked about it and what they wanted more information on.
“I had to make it our own and I wanted to use colours that were vibrant, warm and inviting.”
