As a medical and healthcare staffing provider, we are – as is the rest of the world! – acutely aware of the pressures being placed on all of our healthcare workers at the moment. In discussing what we could do to support both our clients and candidates we came up with an idea that would help people know we are thinking about them and that we are also here to help ...
We called it a ‘Hug for Healthcare’ as we wanted it to be a series of subtle gestures and events that we could share with our client and candidate communities. We wanted it to be soft in approach and we wanted to get lots of our network involved and boy did we …. We were overwhelmed with the support and generosity of companies and people! This blog is our way of saying thank you to everyone who contributed.
Firstly, thank you to our very own Hazel Dunn who is the Manager of our Health & Social Care division, Hazel has worked in healthcare recruitment for many years and decided to use some (most..) of her time on furlough to volunteer for the ‘Hug for Healthcare’ plan!
“I wanted to use my time on furlough to support the sector that I am passionate about and contacted a number of local companies to see if they’d be willing to donate items for some nice hampers we could make up and drop off at Care Homes and also send to our key workers. Companies including Tropic Skincare, Tunnocks, Edinburgh Shortbread Co., Gleneagles, Soapworks, Old Curiosity Distillery and the Secret Herb Garden showed a huge amount of support and donated items from their respective product ranges.”
All in all, we made up (in Hazel’s garage) and delivered 129 hampers full of treats and lovely luxury items, all of which brought a smile – which is exactly what we wanted to achieve!
Here is just some of the feedback that we received:
“Just wanted to say thank you for your kind gifts for the staff. We really appreciate you thinking of us. Please stay safe and thank you again”
“Hi, just a wee note to thank you for the lovely shortbread and soaps you so kindly donated. We remain overcome by the generosity that we are receiving at present. Thank you so much.”
“Thanks for the soaps and cakes, these have been handed out to the houses and have been appreciated.”
“We would like to say thank you so much for the gifts we received today very much appreciated.”
“I would like to express my sincere thanks during this worrying time, we are extremely grateful for the lovely soaps and teacakes that you gifted we cannot thank you enough.”
As weeks went by, we continued to discuss what else we could do. We are very lucky to know a brilliant speaker, author and leadership coach called Emma J Bell, you can find out more here. Emma had recently developed webinar coaching sessions on Personal Resilience & Self Care Strategies and offered to contribute a series of these events tailored specifically for the medical and care sector. We had people from both the UK and overseas tuning in – it was amazing to receive such brilliant feedback. If you would be interested in hearing the sessions, follow the links below
A Hug for Healthcare Session 1
A Hugh for Healthcare Session 2
Hearing what we were up to, the pre-employment screening company SureCert (who were also supporting the Healthcare Volunteering programme) offered a generous donation of 2,000 protective visors from a 3D printing company named Axial 3D based in Belfast.
Straight on the phone, Hazel contacted a number of care homes including the Balhousie Care Group, who run 25 care homes across Scotland to see how we could help.
“I called Balhousie Care Group to offer a donation of 1,400 visors which would allow each staff member to have the appropriate PPE and also allow family to visit their loved ones which they have been currently been unable to do.”
Jill Kerr, Group Chief Executive Officer at Balhousie Care Group said:
“The kindness of businesses large and small during this extremely difficult time has been overwhelming. We would like to thank Head Medical for their generosity in supplying so many protective face visors for our teams to use across our homes.”
We’ve decided to keep a ‘Hug for Healthcare’ going and we’ll continue to look at how we can help and support the sector during and post Covid-19, we’ve loved raising a smile and we want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has helped us do that over the past few months.
We’ve been happy to help where we can and we’re now also extending our Health & Social Care staffing services across Scotland.
If you’re a Care Assistant or Support Worker looking to work in care establishments on a flexible basis across Scotland, join our Facebook group to find out more or contact Hazel on 0131 240 5271 or email hazel@headmedical.com