National Nurses Week is celebrated annually by nurses, nursing organizations, and healthcare facilities form May 6 to 12. This event, which coincides with Florence Nightingale’s birthday, is a great occasion to give gifts for nurses.
Nurses mostly receive small presents from their employers such as free workplace meals, badge holders, pens, t-shirts, hand sanitizers, and tote bags. At larger facilities, outside businesses may also donate small tokens to give to the nurses. However, these commercial items can be a source of irritation for many nurses.
The Problem
While everyone loves free trinkets, many nurses feel that these gifts fail to make the mark. Comments such as “I wished they would have given us the supplies we need to do our job, or hire the extra staff we need to take care of the patients” are often made by nurses during this week. That’s even as they place their new badge holder on their scrubs. However, most nurses quietly accept these free trinkets and continue through the workday.
Most of these opinions are usually voiced as a response to the stress and burnout that nurses are facing in today’s healthcare industry. It’s due to working in an environment that’s constantly cutting costs through the reduction of equipment, supplies, and staffing. Additionally, nurses may feel like these small meaningless material gifts fail to serve a true purpose and devalue the commitment put forth by nurses.
The Solution
While the gift choices and business strategies of healthcare organizations cannot be controlled, we can choose to give our fellow nurses and ourselves meaningful and restorative gifts for Nurses Week. With the prevalence of burnout and stress in the nursing profession, gifts that focus on these issues would surely triumph over the branded token gifts that are usually presented by workplaces.
Gifts that focus on stress reduction and burnout prevention usually fall into the categories of:
- Healthy Lifestyle
A gift that focuses on healthy lifestyle is Annette Tersigni RN’s YogaNurse™ program designed for nurses by a nurse. Her program is described as a healthcare movement using yoga as “a holistic nursing adjunct therapy for you and your nursing practice”. It also offers accredited continuing education for nurses while presenting an opportunity to start your own business. Click here to find out more about the YogaNurse™ program.
- Vacation
One great gift idea would be a vacation for your favorite nurse. This would be especially appropriate for nurses that have had a stressful time in their personal life over the course of year and are showing signs of burnout. This gift would be presented as a coupon or voucher because vacation time at work must be scheduled.
Worried that this idea is cost-prohibitive? The best way to reduce the cost of a large gift would be for family and friends to collect money to purchase it. Or co-workers could raffle off a vacation after selling tickets to enter the draw or by obtaining business sponsors to foot the bill.
- Stress & Burnout Prevention Classes
The gift to attend the Art of Nursing event would be excellent for stress and burnout prevention. Hosted by Elizabeth Scala RN, BSN, MBA, it is a four-day, online series that provides busy nurses with practical tips for stress reduction, improved mindfulness and attention to the present moment, better time management, and more!
It’s an exclusive gathering of nurse pioneers, educators, and consultants with specific knowledge and expertise to help you get back to the healing, patient-focused practice envisioned by Florence Nightingale. Find out more about the Art of Nursing event—click here.
- Passion or Hobbies
Give gifts that encourage nurses to pursue their personal passions that are unrelated to nursing. For example, do they create crafts, read books, play sports, or make scrapbooks? Giving gifts that allow them to unwind and take the focus off of work is a great burnout prevention tactic. Gift cards to hobby stores or other stores that are specific to their passions might be just what a stressed out nurse needs!
- Encouragement & Support
Try giving the nurses in your life a listening ear. So often do nurses overlook their own needs to care for others. Listen with a nonjudgmental attitude, then offer solutions and suggestions if the nurse seems open to them.
If you know a nurse that is suffering from burnout, give them the gift of a nurse coach’s services that specializes in nurse burnout or career transition. Sometimes a job change or starting their own business can rejuvenate their nursing career.