The new Critical Care Unit opened at Northampton General in June.
Special sky lights were one of a number of added extras funded by the charity.
A full news update will follow soon.
The brand-new Critical Care Unit (CCU), which opened at Northampton General Hospital in June thanks to a grant from the Department of Health and Social Care to upgrade and improve NHS buildings has naturally been well-received by patients and the staff working in the department.
However, prior to its opening and one potential issue that did not escape some of the staff’s attention was how some of the walls in the new state-of-the-art building would end up looking rather blank and plain.
Step in the Critical Care Unit Shared Decision-Making Council (SDC).
Shared Decision-Making Councils exist across many clinical departments in the hospital as part of the Pathway to Excellence programme.
The mission of each council is to work together to develop ideas and projects – some of which are funded by the charity – that improve patient care and staff experience in those areas.
The members of the CCU SDC wanted to develop a project that would help bring some colour to these new walls and they settled on the idea of reaching out to schools in the local area to see if pupils might be interested in entering a competition to create some fun and colourful art for the walls and corridors.
Staff Nurse, Amanda Garner who is a member of the SDC said:
During the COVID pandemic we received some amazing drawings and paintings from many children offering their kind words of hope and inspiration.
These touched the hearts of all our teams, we took comfort from them but feel also that our patients and relatives may do the same.
After contacting a number of local schools, a staggering 144 pieces of artwork were submitted for judging as part of the competition by pupils at Northampton School for Boys, Northampton School for Girls, Wootton Park School and Caroline Chisholm School.
Amanda said:
We just want to say that we are so proud of our community.
We feel lucky that we can provide such amazing facilities when people are in need.
These bare walls in the brand-new unit needed a bit of brightening up, to have a warm, less clinical feel, so we reached out to our local children.
We were shocked to receive 144 entries.
Choosing only five winners was very difficult but we are so pleased with the work we have chosen.
The children have been so kind, and all the artwork we received was fantastic.”
At the end of the summer term in July, Amanda visited the schools with her colleagues and fellow SDC members Tina Taylor and Laura Moven to surprise the lucky winners and present them with their prizes.
The winners and artwork that has been printed for display:
Hope by Alesha from Wootton Park School
Building by Stanley Gemmel, from Northampton School for Boys, Year 10
World by Abby Wood from Caroline Chisolm School, Year 11
Portrait by Tilly Noone from Caroline Chisolm School, Year 13
Not All Heroes Wear Capes by Drishi from Northampton School for Girls, Year 7
The aim is that once these beautiful pieces of art have been framed and are up on the walls, they will help to lift the mood of patients and their families during what is a very difficult time for them as well as provide a sense of wellbeing for staff.
They will help to make the clinical environment feel more welcoming.
Amanda said:
We hope that the children will feel proud to have their artwork displayed in our incredible new unit.
This will make such a difference to our patients, their families and our staff.
Thank you all so much for making a difference!
Network Lead Nurse, Sophie Mayes said:
We are so proud of our shared decision-making council for creating such an amazing project.
It has been wonderful to involve our local schools to help brighten the walls of our new unit.
The response we had was phenomenal and we can’t thank everyone enough for their support with this project.
It was extremely difficult to choose the winners as we could see how much effort everyone had put into their entries.
We are also really grateful to the health charity in supporting this project.
Without the charity we wouldn’t have been able to run this project so successfully.
We are really excited to see the new artwork on our walls where it will make such a difference to our patients, relatives and also our staff.
We cannot wait to share some photos of these amazing pictures when they are up on the walls in the unit.
You can make a donation to benefit the Critical Care Unit at Northampton General Hospital, or any ward or department across the three local NHS Trusts supported by Northamptonshire Health Charity.
Visit our dedicated page to get involved!