On the 10th of July 2023 The Swan Fund will celebrate 8 years of supporting end of life care patients and the people important to them, we are planning a birthday party, a thank you cafe at the Shropshire Education and Conference Centre at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital.
Swan Volunteers & our kind knitters of the kindness hearts have been invited. It’s an opportunity to thank the people that support us to do our privileged job.
One of the new projects we have been working on is gifting £30 to families who are unable to cover the travel costs to visit their loved one at the hardest of times. Penny Swan ,End of Life Care Administrator & Jules Swan Lead Nurse worked with the cashiers office after the team had heard about a situation when a family member couldn’t come in to visit, say goodbye due to the increase in fuel costs.
We got to work, had the idea approved by SaTH Charity and wrote a SOP to ensure we covered everything that was needed and had a audit trail, there is clear process to follow & if needed the PCT CNS’s are able to gift at weekends when we are not working.
We have only needed to access this funding twice to-date. However, the feedback and appreciation from both families has been evidence the service is required at these challenging financial times.
We already remove car registrations from the system to allow free Swan (last hours / days) parking & work with catering to gift Swan vouchers for the cafe to offer a free hot drink and cake.
Ward staff also make hot drinks for families on the Ward with gifted cups / mugs. All these things are part of the swan model of care and make a real difference at the hardest of times, because we really do only have one chance to get it right for every person, every time.
Thank you for reading this share, we really hope you will consider doing the same in your hospital to celebrate NHS 75th Anniversary & the Swan Model of Care.
Best wishes Jules & Swan Team (Part of the PEoLC Team) 💙🦢
