Barrie nurse raises $1,000 for food bank with reusable operating-room caps

Hats off to Barrie surgical nurse Jen Miller – or should that be caps?

Fellow nurse Terri Lynn Pickard said Miller deserves a public pat on the back after she decided to make reusable operating-room caps for the surgical unit at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre.

Miller sold the caps for $10 each, raising more than $1,000 for the Barrie Food Bank.

“She is such a well-respected individual in our workplace and has taken her time to make sure everyone gets a hat that suits their needs,” Pickard said in an email. “As always, she is thinking of others before herself.”

Pickard said operating-room caps have been a precious commodity during COVID-19 and Miller’s reusable caps ensure there are enough to go around.

“There has been such a shortage on disposable surgical caps,” Pickard said. “The same disposable hats are also used for patients, so Jen figured if we used cloth hats we could save the disposable ones for patients.”

Daily mask and hat counts are done during the pandemic to monitor the supply, Pickard said.