Amidst this pandemic crisis, fear and anxiety have taken over everybody. In order to ease people’s distress, US doctors are coming up with clever ways to make their patients feel better. It’s true that a smile can make a huge difference in making someone feel better. And that’s exactly what we need during these scary times. Health workers, in particular, always wear a smile to reassure their patients that they’re in good hands.
But here’s the problem with the coronavirus situation. Medical staff have to wear layers of protective suits from head to toe to minimize exposure to the contagious virus. Health care workers on the front lines have to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect themselves from infection. And this includes head covers, masks, eye protection and respirators which altogether cover the entire face. Consequently, it makes it impossible for them to show their reassuring smiles to their patients. Furthermore, patients often feel uncomfortable when seeing doctors in a full-body protective shell.
US doctors and nurses are now wearing laminated badges to show their smiling faces
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Robertino Rodriguez, a respiratory therapist at the Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, stumbled upon a brilliant idea online. Since his patients aren’t able to see his facial expression behind his mask, Robertino decided to put a photo of him smiling on his PPE. This way, he can get his smile out for his scared patients, hoping that it could make them feel better. He printed out a photo of himself, laminated it and taped it on his hazmat suit. Even if his patients can’t see his face, his smile on the photo would make up for it.
“Yesterday I felt bad for my patients in ER when I would come in the room with my face covered in PPE.”, Robertino wrote on his Instagram page. “A reassuring smile makes a big difference to a scared patient. So today I made a giant laminated badge for my PPE. So my patients can see a reassuring and comforting smile.”
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Robertino’s idea inspired other health care workers with many of them following suit. He also shared photos of his co-workers with their own laminated photos taped to their hazmat suits. Not long after, it wasn’t just American hospital staff following his lead but other health care workers from other countries as well. Indeed, our modern day heroes aren’t just dedicated in keeping us healthy but they’re also committed in making us happy and comfortable.
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Take time to thank the health care workers and show your appreciation to their invaluable service. Every word of gratitude could really lift their spirits up. And as they keep reminding us, doing our part of staying at home and obeying social distancing could really help them a lot. Besides, this is the least we can do to help our courageous front liners.
Here’s what people have to say about the ingenious movement among medical staff
