I work for Dove House Hospice and my uncle died in Rotherham Hospice. I want you all to understand that this is a serious storybook. There can be humour. There will be love but there will also be death and I want this subject to be treated with respect.
A hospice is a hospital for the terminally ill. The staff there work hard to make a person's last weeks/ months as comfortable as possible.
Setting
The setting is a small hospice in a town called Nablen, England. This location exists only for the sake of the storybook, it is not a real place. The hospice has nine beds and does not take day patients. It is not a children's hospice so all characters will be adults. The hospice only takes mobile patients. If, however, they should lose mobility in the end stages of their illness, they are entitiled to stay. The hospice only accepts patients who have an estimated remaining life-span between one and twelve months. This means that people often die. The bed of the deceased is left empty for one day out of respect and then another patient is invited in.
The hospice aims to provide a small community for their nine patients in which staff and patients become close friends, sometimes the patients even become lovers. This is encouraged. Staff to patient relationships of a sexual nature are not. For lives that are so short, the hospice wants them to be infused with love and companionship.
Layout
The hospital layout will be important. There's just one floor. I will soon edit this post with a drawn layout for you but for now here's some information about the rooms:
In the day room, there are two large sofas (four-seater), two arm-chairs and a wide-screen television in the corner furthest from the doors. In the centre there is a pool table. At the other end there is a large table with ten chairs and a games cupboard.
The dining room table is big enough to seat twenty.
Meal Times
Patients can take meals in the dining hall or in their rooms. The evening meal is cooked and served by the cook and then carried by nurses to the patient's room if so desired. Morning and afternoon meals are to be prepared by patients where possible. If the patient is bed-ridden a nurse will take them cereal/ porridge in the mornings and a light, often sandwich based meal in the afternoon.
Staff
The staff work in nine hour over-lapping shifts, four days a week. Since patients are sent to a nearby hospital for all medical operations, the staff is compromised of only nurses and a head nurse.
There are also cleaners, a cook who works two hours a day and two receptionists who work nine 'til five, alternating between four and three days a week each.
Staff List
Our characters will play the day staff who work from 10:00am until 7:00pm. Just for reference, the evening staff work 6:00pm until 3:00am and the morning staff work 2:00am until 11:00am.
1. female Head nurse (over thirty)
2. female nurse (over twenty)
3. female nurse (over twenty)
4. male nurse (over twenty)
5. female cleaner (over eighteen)
6. male cleaner (over eighteen)
Patients
The patients have a room each. If you wish to play one, please choose a room that is not yet taken, all are of a similar size and they are simply numbered one to ninep. The rooms have a wardrobe, window, bed, desk, chair, bookshelf, chest of drawers, bed-side table and a lamp. The rooms are also en-suite with a shower, bath, sink and toilet. They have dark blue carpets, white walls, light wood furniture and are beautifully decorated with paintings and a rug.
Patients are allowed to request days out and are rarely refused. They will be accompanied by a carer on these occasions but around the hospice complex they can go anywhere they please. This includes out the back into the private grounds.
Patients are all between the ages of eighteen and sixty. This is not a hospice for the elderly or young.
They do not have access to the medical storeroom or nurse's office.
Patients List
While patients are at the hospice at all times, please remember that any interaction with staff after 7:00pm and before 10:00am will not be with our characters.
1. Male (twenties) (bi-sexual and resident joker) [Taken ~ Kitty15]
2. Male (twenties) (fantasises over staff 3)
3. Male (over thirty)(slept with Hannah on two occasions)
4. Male (under twenty) (in a relationship with patient 6. No sex yet.)
5. Female (twenties) (likes patient 1, very close to patient 7)
6. Female (twenties) (in a relationship with patient 4. No sex yet.) [Taken ~ Elinor Brynn]
7. Female (over thirty) (very close to patient 5)
8. Female (under twenty)(new patient) [Taken ~ Lauren2010]
9. Male (over twenty)
Visitors
Visiting hours are 3:00pm while 5:00pm daily. Appointments have to be made one day in advance. Each patient is allowed only four visitors at one time, though exceptions might be made.
The Beginning
The storybook starts on the morning that a new patient is expected. The staff and current patients look forward to meeting her but are also still grieving for the loss of Hannah Jackson, aged 32 who passed away two days prior. Hannah was a cheerful, well loved patient who lived at the hospice for the last five months of her life.
Posting
You may post only once a day and are expected to post at least once a week. Please inform the group when you go away on holiday.
Rating
Sexual activities will be allowed but no graphic descriptions of sex scenes. Keep it short and tasteful. Limited swearing is allowed. Remember to role-play staff as being proffessional.
Character Profiles
You may have only one character to start with but if there are spaces left in one week, the remaining characters will be offered around. When a patient dies, if the storybooker does not wish to create a new patient, the space will be given to someone else. Those who haven't yet had a turn to play a patient will be given priority. Characters who are inactive for two weeks or more are liable to be killed/ removed from their positions if they are staff.
- Code
Profile:
[b]Name: [/b]
[b]Age: [/b]
[b]Gender: [/b]
[b]Position: [/b] (patient/cleaner/head nurse etc)
[b]Duration: [/b] (how long they have been at the hospice. For patients it will be under eleven months.)
[b]Illness: [/b] (patients only. Must be a terminal illness.)
[b]Expected Time: [/b] (patients only. How much longer are they expected to live? This added to their duration of stay should not excede twelve months.)
[b]Appearance: [/b]
[b]History: [/b]
[b]Personality: [/b]
[b]Family: [/b]
[b]Other: [/b]
