Columbus, OH,
27
May
2020
|
16:24 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

10TV: Hospital Staff Helps Comfort Grieving Families

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10TV 11P Thumbprint Heart Cards 5.24.20

For frontline healthcare workers, it's difficult not being able to comfort families of patients during times of need. But associates at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital and others throughout the system are finding a way to spread care and compassion to patients’ families, despite the physical barriers.

Nurses and staff are creating personal cards for families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19. They stamp their own thumbprints, shape them into a heart and write their names underneath. The cards are then sanitized before being given to the patient's family.

"I couldn't imagine what they're going through, and we try to connect with them as much as possible," Jennifer Hollis, RN, BSN, a staff nurse at Riverside Methodist, told 10TV reporter Stephanie Stanavich. "We hope to let families know that their loved one was never alone and that the healthcare workers were right by their sides holding their hands."

​Though they've been creating these cards for the past couple of months, Hollis said she's ready to get back to comforting patients and families like normal. 

"I'm ready for a day when we don't have to make so many cards. I'm ready for a day when I don't have to make these phone calls to these families like this anymore," said Hollis.