While spending time at Forest Park Kidney Center this week, Thomas F. Gowen, RN, the current Nurse Manager of our Village Square Dialysis Center, found inspiration for a poem:
I was at Forest Park Kidney Center working in the back office when out on the floor there arose such a clatter,
that I sprang out of my chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the unit I flew like a flash,
put on a clean gown and donned a fresh mask.
The floor was all decorated in bright Red and Green,
giving the luster of Christmas all through the scene.
What to my wondering eyes should appear,
but Nurses and Techs calling Bingo to Cheers!!
“This center knows how to get the patients involved and have a good time!” says Gowen.
“So. Many. Smiles!!!
The Christmas Bingo event is popular with both the staff and patients, who look forward to playing the game and winning small prizes. The first of what became an annual event at another of our dialysis centers, Chromalloy American Kidney Center, was started 35 years ago by Jean Audrain, RN, a former Clinical Research Nurse Coordinator at Chromalloy. Paul Roberson, the current Manager of Technical Services for dialysis operations at Chromalloy, is reported to have been the first Bingo Caller! “Back then,” says Audrain, “we didn’t have a PA system, so we used a Karaoke device!”
See pics below of the Forest Park Bingo event and read more about past WashU Nephrology Christmas Bingo events here.
