Debbie Rigby never met a holiday she couldn't celebrate. The former kindergarten teacher, now assistant nurse manager of a med-surge unit at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, decorates for every holiday at home and enjoys sharing that spirit at work.
"It's just what you do. It's important for children to have a point of reference to the seasons," said Rigby, RN-C, BS. "If they were home, they would have the expectation of some fun with their families, so why not here? It gives them something to look forward to and helps give them the sense that things are OK."
 Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special |
| Debbie Rigby painted the windows of her med-surge unit at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite with images of snowmen, Christmas trees, snow and snowflakes. 'It boosts everyone's morale,' she said. |
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It also makes Rigby's staff wonder what she will be up to next.
At Halloween, Rigby fills a jack-o'-lantern with candy and drafts another nurse to wear the peanut M&M's costume that goes with her own plain M&M's version. Who can resist the invitation of "Who wants to be 'nuts' this year?"
"The first year we walked out of the nurses' station together, [and] a surgeon just cracked up," Rigby said.
On St. Patrick's Day, Rigby plays Irish music and brings in homemade scones and brown bread with whipped cream and raspberry jam. For Thanksgiving, there were cornucopias, leaves and turkey decorations.
At Christmas, Rigby dons antlers and Santa scrubs, and she has been known to come in on her day off to paint snowmen and Christmas trees on the windows of her unit.
"I'm not an artist, but you can do a lot with triangles, squares and circles," Rigby said. "I look at primary-grade coloring books, then just close my eyes and imagine."
Lest any special day be overlooked, Rigby types up a list of holidays and nurses' birthdays for each month and posts it in the nurses' station. Nurses and doctors can look up from working on charts and learn the meaning of Flag Day or the date of the hunter's moon in October. In August, when there are no national holidays, Rigby plans a luau and back-to-school celebrations.
"One of my school principals believed that, if kids had the day off from school for a holiday, they should know why we celebrate that day. It's part of their heritage and enriches their culture," Rigby said.
Rigby also commemorates Jewish, Mexican and other holidays.
"We should be sensitive to what goes on in the world and what others celebrate. All cultures touch each other," she said.
Rigby believes that helping children enjoy the beauty of each season makes their hospital stays a little better.
"Besides," she said, "this is a family-oriented hospital, and it boosts everyone's morale."