Event Beneficiary
The Department of Nursing at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has been chosen as the 2018 Black Tie Tailgate beneficiary. Proceeds from the Black Tie Tailgate will support the Department’s Patient/Family Education Initiatives – including hiring of additional nurse educators and development of resources to innovate and expand patient and family education across the CHOP network.
For the nearly 4,000 nurses, respiratory therapists and technicians at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, their work is a science, an art and a calling. They are committed to providing highly reliable, safe patient care and excellent outcomes for patients and families, while advancing education and research missions. They are part of the patient & family experience during moments of celebration, but also during the most sorrowful times. When talking with a family whose child has had an experience at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, more times than not, they want to tell you about the many ways the nurses helped to make an unimaginable event the best that it could be, for them and for their child.
Stories from the Department of Nursing
Nora
Nora had a liver transplant at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia when she was just 13 days old. In the years that followed, she visited CHOP often for follow up, and was so impressed with the nursing care she received that she decided to become a nurse herself. Today, she’s a nurse in the Hospital’s Progressive Care Unit, working alongside some of the nurses and doctors who treated her when she was growing up.
Chad
As a baby, Chad spent 318 days in CHOP’s Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit, where he received expert care from a large team of healthcare professionals, including many nurses. The nurses cared for Chad’s family, too, offering them encouragement and support when they needed it most. “They were our friends at the time when we didn’t have time for friends,” his dad says. “It’s hard to even express the gratitude that I feel for them.”
Jennifer
When Jennifer was a child, she was treated for a rare liver tumor at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Today, more than two decades later, she’s an oncology nurse at CHOP – a career choice that was inspired by her own experience at the Hospital. “When I was in treatment, all of the doctors and nurses at CHOP were so wonderful,” she says. “I want to use my experience to help other families.”
Kayla
Kayla Ottey, BSN, RN, a CHOP Home Care nurse, often travels more than 100 miles a day to care for patients in their homes and schools. Her car is stocked with personal protective equipment, central line dressings, chemo spill cleanup kits, FedEx envelopes, and forms in English, Arabic and Spanish. “You never know what you’re going to run into,” she says. “Every day is so different.”
Past Beneficiary Departments
2016 & 2017: Division of Neurology
Total raised: over $1.1 million
2014 & 2015: Division of Neonatology
Total raised: over $900,000
2012 & 2013: Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Total raised: over $850,000
2011: Center for Autism Research
Total raised: over $250,000
History
The Automobile Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia (ADAGP) made its first donation to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1986. The $50,000 donation was given after the 1986 Philadelphia Auto Show. Since then, the ADAGP and its entities have donated $7.5 million to the Hospital. Today, donations are made through the Auto Dealers CARing for Kids Foundation.