Alicia A. Madore, a clinical practitioner, e-mailed her peers from her deployment post, one of two hospitals treating American military and some Iraqis in Kuwait. Madore is a nurse at Moore Regional. She left in March to help in the War and won’t come home until the end of August. Her husband is a soldier who is also deployed to the Iraq War.
Two weeks ago, the idea came to Sonia Edis and Susan Beard, who work with the administration, along with others, because Madore was sending them e-mails describing shortages both nurses and even patients endure.
“She was talking about not having water, having to shower only every three days, no sanitation, no toilet paper,” Edis said. Working through Womack hospital at Fort Bragg, the effort to provide what deployed nurses needed caught fire throughout several departments at the hospital.
Nurses and others collected items at personal expense to pack in the boxes that are now on their way overseas via Priority Mail.
The boxes, weighing from eight to 30 pounds each, were trucked to post offices all over Moore County, and even to Cary, on Friday by the same employees, using their own vehicles. The hefty sum to be paid for postage came out of a fund the hospital has set aside to give each nurse on the staff a remembrance or small gift during the May 6-12 National Nurses Week.
It will take four to six weeks for the boxes to arrive at their destination in the Middle East. They include such items as baby wipes, flea collars (to fight off the sand fleas), disposable cameras, candy, magazines and other nonperishable goods.
“This year has been unique, because our nursing staff chose to support the nurses deployed for the war in Iraq by sending ‘care packages’ in a campaign called ‘Nurses Caring for Nurses,’” said Linda Wallace, vice president of patient care services at the hospital.
For the last few years, the administration has asked nurses to recommend recognitions for National Nurses’ Week. This year, through a groundswell of support for those in the war areas, not only the nurses but also many other employees chose to donate and package the goods.
Medical records, housekeeping, counselors, therapists, secretaries and nurses pulled together voluntarily for “Nurses Caring for Nurses.”
The boxes will go to two hospitals, one for the 86th combat support, and the second for the 28th at Camp Doha, both in Kuwait.
“We enclosed personal notes in the boxes, and we hope whoever gets each box will write us back ,” Beard said.
The campaign has “gone above and beyond just nurses giving,” Wallace said. “I cannot say how proud I am of our staff. Making the decision to support the nurses in the war demonstrates the true unselfishness and caring of our own staff.
“This means care far beyond FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital. It’s always easy to want the personal recognition, but to be willing to give that up and recognize other nurses who have put themselves in harm’s way says a great deal about our staff,” Wallace said.
“It lifted our morale. I hope it helps theirs,” Edis said.
