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St George's anaesthetist create custom-made theatre caps to raise money for the hospital
St George's anaesthetist Dr Nazima Hoque creates custom-made theatre caps in aid of St George's Paediatric Theatre waiting area.
Dr Naz, one of the incredible Anaesthetist doctors here at St George's, is using her spare time and energy to make bespoke caps for those working in theatres in hospitals across London. Not only are the handmade caps made with different patterned materials, from simple stripes to the more personalised Frozen and Harry Potter themed, they also feature people's names on them to ensure that communication and teamwork is improved during surgery.
Naz states that the original idea came from an Australian guy called Rob Hackett who created 'The Theatre cap challenge' as he was fed up of people working in teams not knowing each other. Naz felt exactly the same and took it upon herself to change this. She says, "I had been working in a hospital for 9 months and it had become quite embarrassing and frustrating when people tap you on the shoulder and you don't know who they are… I found some nice fabric from the charity shop and made bandana hats out of it, it went viral, all over the hospital. Once everyone had one I decided to experiment with other patterns; I went into Marvel and Disney fabrics. I have always tried to keep it different from the theatre cap challenge by just having the name on the front, not the role, to abolish the hierarchy".
She's now been doing this for a year and enjoys using her creativity to make the personalised caps which take roughly half an hour per cap. She has received some amazing feedback so far. Naz stated that, "After hours, or on call, staff felt wellbeing and communication was better, people felt valued and recognised and acknowledged each other better whilst wearing the caps". Moreover, she has taken it upon herself to keep things bespoke as she has found that "People like to have a hat that shows their personality. Someone was a gamer and wanted a Mario hat. Some want a blue one as blue is their favourite colour".
Naz's mission is for this to be standard practice across all specialities in the future in order to improve team collaboration which not only ensures everyone keeps their identity but also directly impacts patient care in theatre.
What makes this fun and creative idea even more special is the fact that she is creating the caps alongside raising funds for St George's Paediatric Theatre waiting area. Dr Naz is aiming to raise money to make the waiting areas more fun for children in what can be an anxious time for them.
To see some of her amazing work visit her Instagram page - hatsbydrnaz and if you'd like to donate to this worthy cause then visit her JustGiving page.
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