The ‘Blue Peter’ skills of a NHS Forth Valley children’s occupational therapist has made life ‘smiles better’ for patients at the Bellfield Centre, part of the new Stirling Health and Care Village.Sarah Dove, who has been redeployed there to help assess rehabilitation support after people have been discharged, came up with the idea to create laminated badges which can be pinned onto Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to make communication with patients easier and staff appear less scary.Sarah explained: “Communication whilst wearing PPE is challenging for both staff and patients.
I realised quickly that it could be distressing and confusing for the patients not being able to see our faces whilst communicating and also never seeing a smile,