attended. When I got together with our senior art coordinator,
Amanda Kron, we said we bet we could make a beautiful mural here
just by using our recycled bottle caps. We'd added it up and realized
we were going through more than 4 pounds of them a week and more
than 150,000 caps per year from the hospital's ORs alone. And at the
same time, we could convey a powerful message about how even very
small things accumulate over time.
There were plenty of examples of bottle cap art online. So we set up
a room, and using templates of images we wanted to create, we let
people have at it in their spare time. It's kind of like paint-by-numbers,
but with bottle caps and hot glue.
At first it was just for our staff, but now we're letting patients and
their families get involved, which is a great way for them to pass the
time when they're feeling antsy. Kids can help, too, as long as their
parents supervise. And of course, the caps are all from pre-patient-
contact materials, so there's no infection risk.
The idea has really caught on. It started in the OR, but now the bot-
tle-cap collecting has spread to dialysis, radiology and pharmacy, and
we're hanging some of our more inspired creations on our walls.
They're a reminder that beauty is sometimes the result of shared goals
and activities.
Karin Zuegge, MD
University of Wisconsin School
of Medicine and Public Health
Madison, Wisc.
zuegge@wisc.edu
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Ideas Work
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