Published January 26, 2022
Gather your coins, your wishes and your friends and head to the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN. During Heart Health Month this February, Mall of America will donate all the coins tossed in the Coins for a Cause* pond to Children’s HeartLink!
“Tossing a coin in a fountain and making a wish makes you feel like anything is possible. It brings out the kid in all of us!” Jackie Boucher, Children’s HeartLink president says, “We want to honor nurses in pediatric cardiac care, who throughout this pandemic have continued to nurture and care for children with congenital heart disease. Day in and day out nurses support heart warriors and help them to feel like kids again. We are dedicating all the coins to the Mary McMahon Busch Nurse Training Fund which supports nurses in underserved parts of the world.”
Nurses are patient advocates and skilled care providers who are vital contributors to the care. Oftentimes, they’re the closets to the child after heart surgery. Yet, in underserved parts of the world, academic training doesn’t prepare nurses for the responsibilities and demands of a pediatric cardiac care setting.
About the Mary McMahon Busch Nurse Training Fund
Mary McMahon was a passionate advocate for saving the lives of children with heart disease. As a cardiac nurse and Children’s HeartLink board member, she intimately understood the vital role nurses play on pediatric cardiac care teams.
The Mary McMahon Busch Nurse Training Fund provides specialized training for nurses to equip them in caring for children with heart disease. For every 10 children with congenital heart disease, 9 lack access to adequate heart care. For every four babies born with a heat defect, one will require surgery in their first year of life to survive.
The Children’s HeartLink trainings empower nurses to contribute more substantially to their pediatric cardiac care teams. They’re designed to improve nurses’ knowledge and skills, develop nurses into leaders and promote nurses as key partners of multidisciplinary teams. As a result, nurses provide higher quality care and help improve patient outcomes.
Training During a Pandemic
Throughout the pandemic Children’s HeartLink has continued to offer remote trainings to nurses at our 18 partner hospitals in Brazil, China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam. Between April 2020 to March 2021, we offered 17,000 hours of specialized training to 3,000 nurses. With our sustainable model, these nurses will go on to train more nurses, helping to build the specialized nurse workforce that is needed to provide high-quality cardiac care for children in underserved countries.
Our Wish: All Children Have Access to Heart Care
When you toss a coin into the pond at Mall of America during February 2022, you’re helping to transform heart care across the globe.
*The Coins for a Cause pond is located outside of Nordstrom on the main level and north end of the building.
Can’t make it to the pond? Support nurses now with an online donation!
Want to make an even bigger impact? Donations to the Little Hearts, Big Change campaign in February are being doubled thanks to a matching gift from Boston Scientific.
