Flora’s Story: Caring for Patients and Lifting their Spirits During the Festive Period

In the Edenview ward of Midlothian Community Hospital, Flora Pike, a Senior Charge Nurse, and her dedicated team, care for their elderly patients who need a period of rehabilitation after suffering illness or injury. This is how Flora and her team help lift the spirits of their patients during the festive period:

It can be a challenging time for the patients who are used to their routines and environments, so Flora and her team do all they can to make them feel comfortable and well cared for. During their stay on the ward, the staff support the patients with anything they need, from administering medication and caring for any wounds to providing emotional support and coordinating their safe discharge from hospital.

To ensure that their patients stay upbeat and have social interaction, Edenview Ward celebrates all and any annual events that may occur in the calendar, such as The Queens’s Jubilee and Remembrance Sunday. Christmas is no different! The team goes all out. Flora has spent every other Christmas caring for her patients and lifting their spirits during the festive period on the wards she’s worked on throughout her long NHS career.

In the lead-up to the big day, the staff will arrange a festive get-together on the ward and invite the patients’ families to spend quality time with their loved ones. Musicians will attend to sing Christmas tunes and pop songs that the patients will recognise. The singing makes everyone feel included and lifts spirits. They’ve also had the local primary school choir perform carols, which is very moving and gets everyone in the festive mood.

Flora remembers one Christmas party attended by an elderly gentleman receiving end-of-life care and his wife. They both loved the carol singing, and their faces lit up with joy, as the singing triggered happy memories of their lives together. The gentleman returned to his family for his last Christmas and passed away in his own home shortly after. 

Flora and her team work hard to make the arrangements so that the patients can go home for the big day to family and friends, as it is so important that they do. Many patients are just too frail to go home, so they try to make the ward less like hospital and give them a Christmas like they might have had at home.

On Christmas morning the ward staff debate on who gets to be Santa. Others act as Santa’s little helpers, placing presents at the foot of patients’ beds. Flora gives them thoughtful little gifts like nice toiletries, bed socks, or blankets, which are also practical while in hospital. The gifts are unexpected, and the patients and their families are often very touched. One female patient shared that the gift she got from the ward staff was the first in many years, and they’d given her the best Christmas day she could remember. It was a small act, but it had a big impact. It is moments like these that make their job worthwhile. 

On the big day, the staff decorate the dining room for Christmas lunch with a festive tablecloth, napkins, and crackers. The staff will be all dressed up in their Christmas scrubs. They serve a festive buffet they’ve shopped for, with treats such as festive cheese and crackers, mince pies, chocolates, crisps, and Shloer. The treats go down well, and many patients comment that it’s the first time since being in hospital that they’ve had such snacks – things you’d take for granted while you’re at home. The staff ensure the patients are just as stuffed as they might have been at a family Christmas.

The ward staff invite the families of those patients who can’t go home to join them and make the ward less like hospital for the day. They will ensure everyone can watch the King’s Speech and play fun festive games such as shooting snowballs into the inflatable Christmas tree. It brings everyone some festive cheer, and nothing brings the staff more joy than creating happy memories for patients while they are cared for in the hospital.