AORN chapter reaches out to colleagues in Iraq
By Carina Stanton, MA
News Editor/Writer
 Jodi Gaski at her local post office mailing "Good Morning Boxes," care packages for deployed nurses created by Gaski, other members of AORN Chapter 1411 and members of the chapter's suburban-Chicago community. |
Plain-old every-day items can become luxuries for OR nurses working in a battle zone. Coffee can keep you going through long shifts needed to handle a steady stream of mass casualties coming through the OR doors. Ice packs can keep you cool when outside temperatures top 130 degrees F., and prepaid phone cards can help you stay connected to all-important loved ones back home. Last May, members of AORN Chapter 1411 of northwest suburban Chicago began sending such "luxuries" to OR nurses deployed in Iraq. It began as a simple way for an AORN chapter to reach out to fellow nurses serving their country abroad. Gradually, shipping off the "care packages" evolved into a community project, drawing in local healthcare workers, vendors and concerned citizens who wanted to do their part supporting U.S. troops serving in the war zone. "The outpouring of donations and support for these packages has been overwhelming, and my hospital has been so supportive" said Jodi Gaski, RN, BSN, CNOR, a perioperative nurse at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Park Ridge, Ill., and Community Outreach Chair for Chapter 1411. The packages came to be called Good Morning Boxes because "it is a good morning when you know you are remembered and prayed for," Gaski told AORN Connections. Each box includes coffee, tea, candy, cookies, pens, peanut butter, jelly, gum and aloe hand lotion to alleviate the discomfort of heat rashes. "We heard that some of the healthcare personnel serving in Iraq had developed heat rashes and that the aloe lotion really helped," Gaski recalled. "When OR nurses serving in Iraq with Major Mary-Ellen Ouellette [RN, BSN] received their packages, they were overjoyed to see the aloe lotion. We later learned from Major Ouellette that an AORN member serving with her, Major Randy Sirmans [RN, CNOR], sends thanks to us each time he uses the lotion…That's the kind of story that inspires our chapter to keep sending these packages. We know these little items and our letters and prayers help our colleagues make it through extreme conditions to care for our service members and others in need." Read the full story in your October issue of AORN Connections. |