1. A heated shiatsu foot massager. I didn't even know they existed until yesterday when I was doing a little 'retail therapy' and saw the thing on display at Costco. I tried it out and promptly fell asleep in the chair...imagine how this little machine would feel on your feet after the ubiquitous shift-from-Hell and your significant other would rather eat a live chicken than rub them for you.
2. A year's supply of Depends for the middle-aged nurse on the 'go'. (Sorry, couldn't resist being punny.)
3. Gift card/certificate to a good shoe store...the more expensive, the better. As in Dansko, Z-Coil, Birkenstock et. al. Nothing is more precious---or harder to find---that the right pair of work shoes. Besides, if we had great footwear, we probably wouldn't need item #1.
4. An iPod Shuffle. It's so small that we can clip it inside a scrub pocket and listen to music virtually undetected. This is very useful in drowning out the cacophony that results when a patient, her physician, and eleven family members are screaming at us all at once...
5. Here's an idea for the cost-conscious: Bubble wrap! Especially the larger sizes that pop easily and make a satisfying sound when they do. There is absolutely nothing (short of getting completely trashed on Long Island Iced Teas, that is) that is more effective at relieving the stress associated with nursing. I'm only half-kidding...when I was the director of nursing in an assisted living facility, my staff always knew to step lightly whenever they heard what sounded like overamped popcorn coming from the general direction of my office.
6. A year's subscription to almost any periodical that doesn't have anything to do with our profession. The last thing we want to thumb through on that rare day off is a publication containing the words "health care".......which eliminates Time and Newsweek, as well as all women's' magazines and the local newspaper. (I'm thinking Playgirl here, but that's just me.)
7. A case of chemical de-icer for those frosty nights when we leave the workplace dead tired, only to be confronted with an inch-thick coating of ice on the windshield and the prospect of half an hour of chipping away at it with a credit card. I don't give a hang what the tree-hugger types have to say about it: if they don't want us to use the stuff, they can come and chip the ice off our cars while we wait inside a warm place with a cup of cocoa.
8. Oh, and "Santa", if there's any room left in your goodie bag, there isn't a nurse on the planet who couldn't use an all-expenses-paid vacation in a tropical paradise where there are no call lights, ringing phones, micromanaging managers, impatient patients, bullying doctors, nasty smells, or double shifts.
9. In fact, scratch the rest of the list...I'll take #8!!!!!

Haha!

Can I add a month long leave?

And uninterrupted "me" moments every shift?

We all definitely could use some.

:)

me too... i'll take #8...

As long as I can take or borrow some cats, I'm asking Santa for 8, too. A purring cat is a great stress reliever.

That's for sure!^..^

and for me -- i'll take a group of brand new nurses who don't all insist upon having christmas off this year and every year. oh, and new year's, thanksgiving, easter, mother's day and the fourth of july!

:yeah:BRILLIANT!

and for me -- i'll take a group of brand new nurses who don't all insist upon having christmas off this year and every year. oh, and new year's, thanksgiving, easter, mother's day and the fourth of july!

just when i got to the point where i had some say-so in my holidays, i switched to a new facility. like, it's a year old. so we are all new here and i'm just glad i got my holidays off last year 'cause it will be a while before i do again.

Yep, I did the same thing........but I'm off Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve this year, so I can't complain too much.

I don't mind working New Year's Eve and New Year's Day since I don't drink and party till the wee hours. That's why I got Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve off.

A remote car starter, so you get into a car all toasty warm, and even inch thick ice has started to melt from the inside. Highly recommended.

A sanity suit. Its a suit that exists in my imaginary world where I put it on and I suddenly act sane in concert with everyone around me. In my fantasies this seems so cool and doable. Why hasn't someone invented it yet???? I'm running out of places to hide every day!

hey- i really like #6

A remote car starter, so you get into a car all toasty warm, and even inch thick ice has started to melt from the inside. Highly recommended.

Nice! Mmmmmmmmm........