nurses week

last year I surveyed several nurses and chose a few from each dept. to give me a SHORT bio. I was looking for things their co-workers might not know about, like the cute blonde in ER who is a former Marine or the nurse who is Daddy to 7 kids. Then I took pictures of them, typed the bios and created a poster. We set it up in the lobby and everyone had fun reading about them. This year I think I will do baby pictures and try to guess who they are now. No---the ANA theme is heroes - maybe I will just work on that theme. Check the ANA site for hints.

We're frantically trying to figure out what to do for our staff too. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

We don't know what our budget is this year or even if we have one.

In years past, they've done free food. Omelet bar in the morning for night shift, barbecue at lunch and dinner times for the others.

We're trying to come up with gifts as well. Something besides pens and bags and that are appropriate for male and female. And since we incorporate techs into the nursing staff, it can' be nursing specific.

I was trying to come up with something different this year for my med/surg dept. So for the last few weeks I've been taking random snapshots of the nurses caring for patients (with the patient's written consent, of course); clowning around; in serious action situations etc. They think I'm doing a photo collage, and I might. But what I'm doing is a video photo montage with music. My college daughter is doing it for me. I haven't decided on the music yet, but I'm thinking of inspirational songs like "You Raise Me Up" or something similiar. The we'll have a breakfast and they'll get their copy. I have no budget so I try to keep it cheap. One of our physicians is helping me out.

We have an interesting tradition at our hospital. Whatever department has the recognition week, they put on a potluck for everybody else. By far the best has been the OR crew during OR week. They had a decorated table with better food than I've had at most weddings. Usually the dept.directors do something for their staff too.

Hi all,
I just found this and thought I would share. www.ProFlowers.com is doing a Nurses Week promotion.
Discount code "nurses08" gets you 20% off. Enjoy!

to late for this year but all the managers at our hospital make gift baskets and then draw names to see who gets them, they also do breakfast and lunch for us on friday.