Amanda Kelly Engels turned a change in hospital uniform policy into an opportunity for service, compassion and care for the earth’s resources. Engels, who grew up in St. Thomas the Apostle parish and remains a parishioner, is a registered nurse in St. Peter’s Hospital.
With the standardization of uniform colors to two hues throughout St. Peter’s Health Partners (SPHP) on Jan. 1, 2019, Engels saw an opportunity to live the SPHP Mission and Core Values of being a healing presence in the community and just steward of earth’s resources. Engels, a Nursing Governance (NGC) representative for the Women and Children’s Division, proposed to her NGC peers that nurses’ “gently used” uniforms which no longer met the SPHP guidelines be collected and donated to organizations such as Salvation Army or Good Will where women and men in the community living on limited incomes could obtain them. The response of NGC representatives was an emphatic Yes.
A box where uniforms could be dropped off was placed in the Alcove behind the Security Office. Amanda created a poster detailing the project, emailed it to all NGC representatives to use as a tool to invite peer participation and personally went to units throughout SPH to explain the project and encourage staff engagement. She also identified agencies that wanted the uniforms: Salvation Army, Good Will and the Thrift Shop at Albany Medical Center (AMC). The Thrift Shop profits benefit The Children’s Hospital at AMC.
Amanda didn’t have to coax her peers to donate their uniforms: their response was “overwhelming,” she said. The box was quickly filled to overflowing. During the month that the collection project was underway, more than 25 large laundry bags filled with uniforms were donated. Amanda, with the help of nurses Carolyn Mahoney and Crystal Berger, carried the bags out to her car each night that she worked. She laundered the uniforms and brought them to the agencies that wanted them. Amanda’s sister, Martha Egan RN, an OR nurse, also assisted her in the project, often being the one to alert her when the collection box needed to be emptied.
SPH's Chief Nursing Officer lent her support from the first day the project was suggested, Amanda noted.
Doctors and patient care technicians also participated, turning in their “gently used” uniforms. “We even found some OR 'greens' in the donations and were able to return these to the hospital. Our donation project became like an 'amnesty' program," Amanda explained with a smile. "People returned the OR scrubs they had taken home and were embarrassed to bring back," she said.
“This project was a nice testament to the commitment of our nurses and staff to the community,” to living the SPHP Mission of being a compassionate and transforming healing presence, Amanda asserted. Donating the uniforms to agencies where people who need them can access them meant these clothes didn’t become waste products dumped into already over-used landfills, she explained.
Amanda’s inspiring idea made Caring for Creation …the people and the earth’s resources …a reality.
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