MIDDLETON, N.S. — Jennifer Sheridan will be up extra early Christmas Day. A lot of people are counting on her for their Christmas dinner.
She’ll be doing turkey with all the fixings for as many as 75 people and she’ll probably start her day at 4 a.m.
She has Christmas duty in the kitchen at Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in Middleton. She doesn’t mind a bit, because in a way she gets to spend parts of the big day with two families – her husband and two children, and her friends and colleagues at work.
She’ll join the ranks of cops, paramedics, nurses, doctors, dispatchers and others who give up a bit of their family life on Christmas Day to make sure others are safe, cared for, and in this case, well fed.
It’s just after lunch on Dec. 23 and Sheridan and staff have served up haddock, potatoes, vegetables, and big cheese biscuits. Two more sleeps to the big day. Kim McGill already has her elf suit on.
Word floating around the corridors at SMH is that those Christmas birds are basted with just a little extra love, there’s good will in the gravy, and while there is no myrrh, the aroma of the homemade stuffing makes it feel like you’re at grandma’s house.
“This is my first year working in the morning, so we’re going to get up extra early Christmas morning so my kids can open their gifts,” Sheridan said. She has a boy and a girl at home and the hope is they don’t bump into Santa – 4 a.m. is early. Gifts, breakfast, grab her chef’s hat and it’s out the door.
She’ll get to the hospital for 6:30 a.m. and cook 50 to 75 meals.
“We rotate our Christmas and New Year’s,” she said. “So we work one year Christmas Day. The next year it’s New Year’s.”
She’ll get off by 1 p.m. and go home to enjoy similar fare with her family.
When Sheridan does get home from the hospital she won’t have to cook another whole Christmas dinner for her family – that’s what moms are for.
“The years that I work she does dinner,” Sheridan said. “If I’m home, I do dinner.”
PATIENT-CENTRED
Michelle McLearn knows what makes for a good meal. And there’s nothing quite like Christmas dinner. She’s director of nutrition and food services for the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s Western Zone.
“Christmas in a hospital is something that we’re very much focused on because we’re very much patient-centered care,” she said, “and we know that those who are in hospital are unfortunate that they can’t get home or don’t have a place to go maybe. So we very much want to concentrate on the festive season providing your traditional turkey dinner over the noon hour for patients and family and their loved ones.”
She said it’s not just about providing that meal to the patients.
“If they have family coming in we get that ahead of time and we ensure that we provide a meal for the family also so it’s a whole comforting experience,” McLearn said. “It’s about compassion and making that day as wonderful as we can for that time of year. Our staff are very good. They don’t mind working Christmas Day. We rotate from year to year. We break the day up so no one’s doing a full 12-hour shift.”
THE MEAL
“We have fresh turkey, bread dressing, pie, cookies, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade gravy, tea, coffee, juice, potatoes, carrots, squash, peas,” said Sheridan.
McLearn said nobody wants to spend Christmas in the hospital, and so staff does what they can to make it more like home.
“At Christmas time it’s about family coming together and it makes it kind of feel more like a home to have that dinner – people can come in and have dinner with them while they’re here,” she said.
She looks after the nutritional needs across the region. She makes a ballpark estimate of the numbers for SMH this Dec, 25.
“This would be a smaller site compared to, say, Valley Regional, or Yarmouth, or Bridgewater, but as a community hospital it’s very much about those who are on the site, their family members that are coming in, our patients, our residents,” she said, “so I’m going to say if you think of a total, 50 to 75. That’s not just patients. It’s family and loved ones, etc.”
Included are residents of the Veterans Unit and Mayflower Unit.
REWARD
Sheridan said there is a reward in working Christmas Day.
“We all get to spend the day together. Our co-workers are kind of like our family too,” she said. “So it’s nice to be able to come in and do a little special sit-down for a few minutes and have a chit-chat about what they’re doing for their Christmas Day. So it’s kind of nice to see your co-workers because you do spend a lot of time with them.”
“On Christmas Day, we do have uniforms, but we’re okay with folks if they wear a Santa hat up on the units when they’re bringing the food,” McLearn said. “And we have some treats that various folks bring in, like chocolates and fruit and things for staff to nibble at. So it’s very much a relaxing day. We do follow our policies and standards around food safety, etc., but it’s a little bit more jolly, shall we say.”
McGill in her elf suit literally has bells on. The cafeteria is decorated with carolers, a sled, an old fence, wreaths. Cathy Sabean gets big credit for that. There’s a tree up, and tons more decorations.
McLearn said health care is 24/7.
“We don’t shut down. The folks in the kitchen know somebody has to work over the holidays,” she said. “Staff kind of figure it out themselves and everybody’s on board.”
Sheridan’s father is in hospital for Christmas in Moncton.
“I’m hoping he gets the same care in New Brunswick that we give here,” she said, “because it makes you feel a lot better knowing that when your loved one is in hospital.”
“We’re all about Christmas Day and the traditional Christmas dinner and making it the best we can for those who are still in hospital,” McLearn said.
