Wednesday 09 December 2020
Last Saturday, to celebrate the Year of the Nurse and Midwife 2020, health and social care staff added their Compassion Tree to the collection of other trees in the Town Church Christmas tree festival.
The Compassion Tree was launched by HSC in 2019 as part of its Care Values Framework, to understand what compassion meant to different people using health and care services in the Bailiwick. The interactive tree was created by the Guernsey Arts Commission and sponsored by cancer support charity MacMillan.
Suzanne Fallaize, Critical Care Nurse said:
'The Compassion Tree has moved around various sites within HSC departments where people have been invited to leave comments about what compassion means to them. This sharing of emotions has helped us to understand compassion and what it means to others. It is important to learn about compassion because it helps us to understand how, as nurses and midwives, we can help make situations better for people and alleviate suffering.
The Town Church Christmas tree festival allows us to showcase our wonderful Compassion Tree within the beautiful setting of the Town Church, alongside some of the other lovely Christmas trees representing other good causes in the Bailiwick. This is the second year we have displayed the compassion tree in this festival and this year we have chosen to celebrate the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.
This year we are inviting the people of Guernsey to leave a Christmas message to their fantastic nurses and midwives, who have pulled together during this difficult year and continued to give compassionate, holistic care.'
The tree will remain in the Town Church for the duration of the Christmas tree festival and islanders are encouraged to drop in and see the beautiful trees on display and add a comment to the compassion tree.