Chocolates and cards given out during celebration of random acts of kindness at KGH

This week is international Random Acts of Kindness Week and is celebrated around the world.

At KGH the hospital is celebrating the week by performing some acts of kindness for staff, including providing them with thank you cards, chocolates, surprise tea and coffee trolley visits, heart sweets (on Valentine’s Day) a relaxing meditation session and health and well-being checks.

KGH’s diversity and inclusion manager Chaman Verma said: “We wanted to use the week as an opportunity to thank our hard working staff for all the acts of kindness that they perform every single day while caring for our patients and their families.

“NHS staff tend to just get on with providing care and don’t always have the time to appreciate just how valuable their work is.

“We thought taking part in the Random Acts of Kindness Week would give us an opportunity to celebrate all of our staff’s hard work and for the trust to say thank you.”

The hospital’s deputy director of human resources Sue Newing said: “We very much wanted to support the kindness week concept because we know that our staff are very kind and supportive of our patients and visitors – and each other.

“The idea for the week also very much fits in with our new CARE values initiative whereby staff aim to be compassionate, accountable, respectful and engaging in everything they do.”

Kettering General Hospital’s celebrations have been supported by Kindness UK, which has donated 100 large tubs of Heroes chocolates for hospital staff and paid for the printing of more than 1,000 thank you cards.

During the week the hospital will be:

- Delivering chocolates and thank you cards to the hospital wards

- Arranging surprise visits to the wards with trolleys laden with teas and coffees

- Using ‘bricks-style’ wall paper on hospital columns in the staff lunch area – The Zone – to record examples of the many acts of kindness performed by staff

- Putting on a meditation session for staff led by a Buddhist priest from the Nagarjuna Buddhist Centre in Kelmarsh

- Arranging health and wellbeing ‘Kindness checks’ for staff carried out by First for Well-being

- On Valentine’s Day the trust’s union representatives distributed love heart sweets to staff

- Providing discounted buy one get one free baguettes by Baguettes-Away

- Putting acts of kindness screensavers on all of the hospital’s computers.

The first chocolates were delivered to Oakley Ward earlier this week by Chaman and Sue.

Lead nurse for cardiology Chika Obiechefu said: “I think this was a really nice gesture and it showed that staff are valued and appreciated for doing a good job.”

Chief executive of Kindness UK David Jamilly said: “We hope that the example that Kettering General Hospital is setting with their wonderful ‘kindness week’ will help to inspire many other people about how important being kind is.

“There is a ripple effect with all acts of kindness and Kettering General Hospital’s kindness week is setting a wonderful example.

“The hospital clearly understands how important kindness can be in the caring and healing processes and we are delighted to have been able to partner with the hospital and support their ‘kindness week’ initiatives.”