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Wrap up and Wrap Around! Preserving patient dignity – with no ifs or butts
It’s a “cover-up” on a massive scale, as Capital & Coast DHB launches a “Wraparound Garment” initiative which will help patients preserve their dignity – and keep their bottoms warm.
It’s a problem common to hospitals around the world - hospital gowns that are open at the back for ease of access, but which tend to gape open. The solution may have been found right here, in the Capital & Coast DHB district.
C&C DHB is rolling out a “Wraparound Garment” initiative – which will offer all hospital patients a special sheet of fabric they can wrap around their midriff to protect their dignity and avoid embarrassment.
The most enthusiastic early adopters of this programme have been the DHB’s Pacific Health Team, who see this as a natural extension of traditional garments such as the lavalava.
Lavalavas are traditionally worn across the Pacific, and are becoming more common as everyday wear.
The initial idea for the hospital wraparounds was the brainchild of Jenny Kendall, who works in the DHBs operating theatres and is now also the project coordinator for the rollout of Wraparound Garments across Capital & Coast DHB’s hospitals.
“Think of it as the equivalent of wrapping a towel around yourself when you’re walking between the bathroom and your bedroom at home,” Jenny Kendall says. “The fabric we’re using is lighter than a towel, but the principle is basically the same.”
“The Pacific team really embraced this, and provided us with a supply of very colourful wraparound garments for our initial pilot programme,” Jenny Kendall says.
“Hospital gowns which open at the back will still be used, but patients will wear this wraparound underneath them. That way, when the gowns gape open at the back there’ll be nothing to see except a wraparound.”
The adoption of this initiative across C&C DHB’s hospitals follows a very successful pilot programme in which almost 90% of those offered the wraparound garments chose to use them. Some of those lavalava-style wraparounds will remain in use now that the initiative is going hospital-wide – but most of the wraparounds are in dark greens and dark blues - C&C DHB’s corporate colours.