Placing cache for employer (NHS hospital)

[+BethDaddyKaty]

Hi all,

 

I've been discussing with the media and comms team at the NHS hospital I work at about placing caches. One hospital is on the grounds of a manor house, the other is an ex-American war hospital so both have quite extensive grounds away from the busy parts of the site.

 

The plan is for the five paediatric wards to design and hide a cache. They will be fairly easy to find - the idea is they will be used by the play specialists who work at the hospital as a way of getting kids outdoors both at the hospital but also when they get home to find local caches.

 

I was wondering if anyone had advice about placing caches working with your employer? I'm weighing up whether to do it on my account with the permission clear in the description, create a new account on my work email, or some variant thereof.

 

The caches would be open to anyone to find. I think the media and comms team would take the account, but I feel if I am organising and placing them I should take some responsibility for monitoring and maintaining them.

 

Thank for any advice

Edited December 15, 2019 by daddybeth

[+Max and 99]

8 minutes ago, daddybeth said:

Hi all,

 

I've been discussing with the media and comms team at the NHS hospital I work at about placing caches. One hospital is on the grounds of a manor house, the other is an ex-American war hospital so both have quite extensive grounds away from the busy parts of the site.

 

The plan is for the five paediatric wards to design and hide a cache. They will be fairly easy to find - the idea is they will be used by the play specialists who work at the hospital as a way of getting kids outdoors both at the hospital but also when they get home to find local caches.

 

I was wondering if anyone had advice about placing caches working with your employer? I'm weighing up whether to do it on my account with the permission clear in the description, create a new account on my work email, or some variant thereof.

 

The caches would be open to anyone to find. I think the media and comms team would take the account, but I feel if I am organising and placing them I should take some responsibility for monitoring and maintaining them.

 

Thank for any advice

I think you should take all the responsibility!

[+L0ne.R]

53 minutes ago, daddybeth said:

do it on my account with the permission clear in the description

 

I agree this part... do it on your own account with permission clear in the description. 

[Keystone]

1.  Permission is important because hospitals are listed in the Geocache Hiding Guidelines as restricted areas where geocache placements need to be undertaken with extra care.

2.  Take care that your cache page does not promote the hospital or any of its programs, under the Geocache Hiding Guidelines governing promotional and solicitation material on cache pages.  (The "commercial caches" guideline.)

[+humboldt flier]

Interesting concept ...

 

Permission ... absolutely.

 

Nowwwwwwww ... given that it is a peds. hosp.   you might consider expanding the concept to afford "less able bodied" folks the opportunity to participate. My assumption being that some of the peds. patients may have "outside liberty".  I am thinking that long term patients might welcome a diversion from their recovery.

 

***(nothing wrong with a few caches along a wheelchair / walking / gurney pathway)***

 

 

[+Wet Pancake Touring Club]

I would place the caches under your name. However, I would also recommend that an account be created for the hospital, going to a distribution list of interested parties, and have that account 'watch' the geocaches. That way, they can get a copy of the logs directly.

[+dprovan]

1 hour ago, Wet Pancake Touring Club said:

I would place the caches under your name. However, I would also recommend that an account be created for the hospital, going to a distribution list of interested parties, and have that account 'watch' the geocaches. That way, they can get a copy of the logs directly.

Interesting point, and I understand the concern, but I'd suggest the opposite: the caches under a hospital account, and mail to it distributed, but one person in the hospital officially and unambiguously responsible for the account and the caches. The danger is, of course, that "the hospital" forgets about the account and the caches, but I don't think that dangers any larger than an individual losing interest and forgetting about the caches, especially if they leave the job, but even if they continue to work at the hospital. Having a hospital account responsible for the caches at least provides a mechanism, if used, for an orderly and logical transition when the original CO leaves or changes responsibility, in much the same way a phone number allows the person responsible for answering that phone to change over time.

 

But that implies that the OP doesn't merely get permission but also makes it an official part of the job description. If they can't or don't want to do that, then I agree it should be under a personal account and, more to the point, the OP should take full, personal responsibility for the caches.

[+Ragnemalm]

As everybody else say, permission, state clearly in the description that you have permission, and provide the reviewer with the address to your contact person. I think it is perfectly fine to state that one partial goal with the caches is to activate children at the hospital.

 

And, again, to avoid the "commerical content" problem I would not mention the name of the hospital. I don't know how far you can say that it is a hospital. I have two caches near a restaurant, and I set the "food" attribute but I don't mention the restaurant explicitly.

 

Finally, I would make sure that the area you are placing in is fully "safe", publicly accessible with no risk of being sensitive for the patients.

[+colleda]

My understanding is, If its a NHS hospital, it's a government owned non-commercial facility?

Edited December 17, 2019 by colleda
poor grammar and punctuation

[+BethDaddyKaty]

3 hours ago, colleda said:

My understanding is, If its an NHS hospital its a government owned, non commercial, facility?

Yep, it's an NHS Trust, so not a commercial site. There are already caches on site which don't in the description have permission from the Trust, however, they are large, ramblimg sites.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions. If I set it up to my work email account I can pretty easily forward log emails onto anyone who wants them.

[+HunterandSamuel]

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2019 at 6:47 PM, daddybeth said:

The plan is for the five paediatric wards to design and hide a cache. They will be fairly easy to find - the idea is they will be used by the play specialists who work at the hospital as a way of getting kids outdoors both at the hospital but also when they get home to find local caches.

I love this! Getting kids outdoors when hospitalized. Bless you!