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sjch.us•
With caring hands,
two Intensive Care Unit
(ICU) nurses at San Joaquin Community Hospital
(SJCH) spend an afternoon cutting and tying
knots in polar fleece. They chat as they work. It’s a
labor of love for these nurses who hope to bring
a little comfort to their patients and families while
helping heal hearts after a loss.
They’re creating blankets for patients to use in
their final days. The project, Forget Me Knot, is
the mission of two ICU nurses, Kelly Shirley, RN,
and Allie Martin, RN. They started it for SJCH’s
comfort care patients.
Comfort care is medical care that helps or
soothes a person who is dying. When a patient at
SJCH enters comfort care, families can choose a
blanket, a handprint and even a lock of hair from
their loved one as keepsakes.
Families often cherish the blankets because
they may be one of the last things their loved one
uses before they pass. After a death, loved ones
can take the blanket home and snuggle with it
themselves. It’s a way to comfort family members
in their grieving process, and it’s also very thera-
peutic for the nurses who make the blankets and
care for these special patients.
“It gives you something else you can do for a
family in a helpless situation,” Kelly says.
Y O U + U S : C OM F O R T C A R E
GONE
BUT
KNOT
FORGOTTEN
ICU nurses offer families
sweet gifts of remembrance
“We feel so blessed to be a part of this
incredible project.”
—Allie Martin, RN (at right), and Kelly Shirley, RN,
founders of the Forget Me Knot project at SJCH.