These Nurses Are Teaching Themselves To Sew To Make Sleeping Mats For Homeless Using Surgical Wraps

May 31, 2019 by apost team

At one time, little children learned to sew using a sewing machine or a needle and thread. While sewing may not be as common as it once was, some nurses have recently learned to sew in order to help out homeless people. 

Operating room staff and other hospital personnel spend the large majority of their day helping people in hospitals.

Now, on top of their regular job duties, some nurses have started helping people out on the streets as well.

Hospital workers all over the US recently began sewing sleeping mats for homeless people. These mats are intended to give protection and warmth to homeless people who normally are forced to sleep on the cold ground. 

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Where does the material for these mats come from? The simple answer: surgical wraps!

The St. Clare Hospital in Fenton, Missouri, for instance, used to throw out thousands of these surgical wraps. The blue wraps, made of non-biodegradable materials, were used to sterilize surgical instruments. Since the hospital started making these sleeping mats from surgical wraps, they’ve eliminated 250 pounds of waste from their local landfills. 

The wraps are usually collected before a patient comes into the room, or before a surgical procedure occurs. They are clean at all times, and perfectly safe for the homeless to make use of. 

This touching story becomes all the more interesting when you realize that most of the nurses who now make them had never previously sewn, or even threaded a needle, before they started making those mats. 

Despite the grueling job and the busy schedules of nurses these days, they took the time to study how to use a needle and thread and created these mats.

Now the homeless in the hospital’s neighborhood sleep warmer at night by using these blue, surgical wrap-sleeping mats. 

Did you ever consider the various ways you can help the homeless in your neighborhood? And what do you think about the actions of these selfless nurses? Tell us in the comments and pass this wonderful story on to your friends and loved ones.