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UAE: Frontliners celebrate Christmas with decorations made from PPE, empty vaccine vials

Healthcare workers at the private hospital aim to spread message of sustainability

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Healthcare workers at a private hospital are spreading the message of safety and sustainability with their unique Christmas celebrations.

Promoting the 3Rs of sustainability - reduce, reuse and recycle - frontliners at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai have decorated the entire facility with defective and recycled items.

More than 100 staff from over 24 departments decked up the hospital premises with defective masks, gloves, personal protective equipment and syringes, empty vaccine vials, recycled tissue papers, plastic cups and medicine bottles, used x-ray films and CDs etc.

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They also created Christmas trees, Santa Claus, cribs and stars, which the staff said was a novel and satisfying experience of reaching out to the community during the celebrations.

The emergency department decorated a Christmas tree using defective gloves collected from all the departments and empty vaccine vials rolled with bandages and empty intravenous infusion bottles and tubes. Santa Claus was made with paper rolls and recycled jackets.

Alayka Mae Guinid, a nurse at the emergency department, noted that it was a “special and meaningful” celebration by using medical devices.

“Our celebration and decorations are based on two themes: safe and responsible celebration, and 3Rs of sustainable living. Instead of throwing away the defective items, the decision to use them for Christmas arrangements is to show the importance of these in our lives at this period. Also, ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ is important in our daily lives. Even though some medical items are not reusable, many things in our everyday lives could be. To spread that message is the only aim of this initiative,” the Filipino nurse said.

The nursing team made a bow for Santa using defective masks, angles with syringes and an attractive snowman using plastic glasses and broken spoons. The radiology department used old CDs to form a tree and star, and damaged PPE kits were converted into a man’s shape to show the efforts of the frontliners during the pandemic. The physiotherapy department made a tree using dumbbells.

Lama Abd Elsamad, nurse, radiology department, said, the cohesive effort has helped to bolster teamwork and spread festive joy.

“This year, due to the novel decorations, the celebrations have become memorable. Collecting defective and unusable items and arranging old stuff to create decorations were exciting. We gave responsibilities to different team members and made an effort to give minute details to the decorations,” the Syrian nurse said and hoped the initiative would inspire patients and community members.

The medical team got good support from patients as well, with some of them participating in the arrangements and sharing custom-made Christmas cards and wishes to decorate the hospital.

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