Everybody (Pink Glove) dance now
Hospital workers don pink gloves, dance to support breast cancer awareness
Topics: Marketing, Oncology, Service Lines, People Skills, Skill Development, Workforce
October 25, 2011
Juliette Mullin, staff writer
To be settled this Friday: Who does the nation's best "Pink Glove Dance"?
Hundreds of hospitals are chasing the new prize, designed to increase breast cancer awareness through online music videos. Several contenders discussed how their staff are acting, dancing, and lip syncing their way to stardom.
The original Pink Glove dance: A YouTube hit
More than 200 organizations—primarily hospitals and medical centers—have submitted music videos for this year's Pink Glove Dance video competition, sponsored by medical supply maker Medline. After spending days rallying staff members and organizing hundreds of people into choreographed routines, hospital officials say the initiative has boosted breast cancer awareness and strengthened hospital-community relations.
The competition is based on a wildly popular video created in 2009 by the staff at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., to promote breast cancer awareness and Medline's pink gloves, which are sold to raise funds for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
Across a two-day period, 200 employees—including physicians, nurses, administrators, and janitors—danced through the medical center's café, labs, ORs, library, and waiting rooms to the music of Jay Sean's R&B hit "Down," the Oregonian reported.
With more than 13 million YouTube hits to date, the response to the video "took everyone by storm," says Jean Powell Marks, the public relations manager for Providence's Oregon region. Although the dance boosted branding—Powell Marks notes that nurses applied for St. Vincent positions after seeing the video—it has had the biggest impact on breast cancer patients, survivors, and their loved ones.
Using Facebook and YouTube, people from across the United States shared their breast cancer stories with St. Vincent. For example, a woman from Michigan wrote, "Just got my 'news' today. This video lifted my spirits." Similarly, environmental services technician Monte Crawford, who widely is considered to be the dance's star, used the video to help him and his family endure treatment after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Hospitals recapture 2009 video's magic
For many of the hospitals participating in this year's competition, making a Pink Glove dance video was a way to support local breast cancer patients and survivors and promote timely breast cancer screening. Officials from three participating hospitals discussed their experience with the Briefing, highlighting the impact on hospital staff and the community.
With the help of an employee who also is a certified dance instructor, Rochester, N.Y.-based Highland Hospital organized hundreds of staff members from every department, says Barbara Ficarra, Highland's public relations director. The video opens with a Julliard-trained staff member playing the piano in the newly renovated hospital lobby, where COO Cindy Becker starts a flash mob to the beat of The Best Day Ever's "You Don't Dance Alone."
Meanwhile, Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Ky., framed its entry around Katy Perry's "Firework." The video follows the hospital's own "Firework," breast cancer survivor Jane, as she dances through the facility encouraging 225 staff members to don pink gloves and help boost breast cancer awareness.
"A hospital is a serious place," notes Dona Rains, the hospital's director of marketing and planning. Nonetheless, "everybody just flocked to us. … It was like little kids who wanted to have fun with the dress up box." By the end of the video, "whether it was the housekeeper or the CEO, when they put on those pink gloves, they turned into video stars."
Much like Western Baptist, Lexington Medical Center (LMC) was "overwhelmed" with people hoping to participate in the video. According to Mark Kelly, LMC's director of marketing and advertising, the hospital's Pink Glove dance video, also choreographed to Perry's "Firework," rallied the entire staff, featured C-suite executives, and made the janitor "a local celebrity."
Securing community support
All three hospitals say the project received overwhelming community support, each earning at least 10,000 Facebook votes in the competition. "We think we've really gotten the message out that early detection saves lives," Rains said.
That positive community response has translated into greater attendance at hospital Breast Cancer Awareness Month events. For example, LMC's annual Women's Night Out event, which featured a breast cancer survivor speaker, drew more than 600 attendees this year, significantly more than in previous years. "Whether we win this thing or don't, we've already won," Kelly says, adding that a screening of the Pink Glove dance video at the event received a standing ovation.
The winning organizations will be announced Oct. 28 and will receive $10,000 to donate to a breast cancer charity of their choice. But some of the hospitals already are thinking about the next video. "I don't think we cannot do it" again next year, Rains said. "I don't think our people will let us."
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