Southern Health recently welcomed local school children delivering their hand-written postcards to Ark Royal Ward at Gosport War Memorial Hospital.
The heart-warming collaboration came about as part
of King’s Academy Bay House’s participation in the GoBeyond award, for one of their tasks, year 7 students designed and hand-wrote postcards for patients on Ark Royal Ward. The postcards were initially due to be sent through the post, but Consultant Nurse, Emma Neal and Inpatient Matron, Kate King, helped to co-ordinate the visit with the school so that the students could deliver their messages in person.
Patients from Ark Royal Ward and Collingwood Ward gathered to receive their postcards and spend some time with the students. The room was filled with smiles and laughter as students and patients nattered away, sharing stories, and playing a few spirited games of bingo together, organised by Connie Waterfield, Hospital to Home Co-ordinator.
The patients said they would definitely take part again, Kevin said, “It was brilliant!” and "The children were so lovely”. Another patient, Daff, mentioned that she used to be a schoolteacher, and how much she enjoyed talking with the children. As well as creating the opportunity for patients to talk to a new set of faces, events like these allow them to practice transferring between beds and chairs, encouraging them to engage with their rehabilitation. Theresia Stuckey, Occupational Therapy Team Leader said: “It’s good for the children, but it’s so good for the patients as well to get them up and moving”.
When asking the children if they enjoyed themselves, they responded wi
th vigorous enthusiasm, saying that they enjoyed hearing about the patients' lives. One boy said, “The best bit was speaking to Diane, we talked about her life and things, she was alive during the war which was interesting”.
Teacher and GoBeyond supervisor, Miss Northcott was thrilled to see conversations sparking across the room, saying “This exposure really helps them to speak to other generations, to work on their communication skills. Their engagement and the conversations have been really good, this has been really valuable for them”.
Other GoBeyond activities have included beach clean-ups and reaching out to teach younger children about life in as a secondary school pupil.