Has your unit ever "adopted" a family during the Holidays?

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi guys!

My boss approached me about coordinating an "Adopt a Family" for Christmas. We have decided that one of the tech's would be the ideal family. She is in nursing school, her husband is out of work; they have 3 small children. She is amazing. She works so hard and always has a smile on her face. She and her family are definitely considered "the working poor."

We are planning to have both the ICU and PCU units do this.

Do you have any ideas on how to organize this project? Do I ask the staff members which family member they would like to gift? I'd like to have one of the ICU men to dress up and go over there on Christmas Eve, if one is able.

Have you had success in this? How did it turn out? I am so excited to be able to do this.

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Specializes in Government.

I would just ask you...beg you..to NOT lean on people to participate. I can feel your enthusiasm through the words you use. Just know that some people give elsewhere or have other obligations.

Signed,

A weary survivor of other people's charities...including a boss who wanted us to pay for her kid's Irish Dancing lessons... :icon_roll

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Specializes in Tele, and now ICU !!.

How wonderful. I usually am in charge of our philanthropic efforts on our floor and we adopt families from a local center that helps in need families, while also promoting health and wellness. Its the best feeling in the world!! Always a success. Good luck and good for you for being part of such an awesome thing!! :yeah::up::up::up::up:

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Before you jump in with adopting a colleague and her family, stop and ask yourself how she would take being singled out for this. It might be very embarrassing for her to receive charity from co-workers.

Most Adopt-A-Family programs I've seen are through the city, county or churches, not for fellow employees.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

just make sure the family is receptive to your generosity....i have seen families be really "put out" when confronted with charity.

you never know :uhoh3:

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Specializes in ICU/ER.

I have many thoughts on this but I will try to narrow it down---

1) totally agree DO NOT pressure staff to give~~Yes I know I am more fortunate than others, but I too strugle over the holidays and I am trying to make sure my own kids have a good chrsitmas!!**Dont slam me for being greedy, I am taking care of my own 1st**If I can give, I will. If I cant dont make me feel guilty over it.

2) Dont send someone over to thier house, I personally would be mortified if someone I work with came over and gave me charity....

3) Gift cards 2 weeks before would be IDEAL. There is nothing better than picking out your own gifts for your own kids--that is half the fun.

4) Best case scenerio dont let everyone on the unit even know who the recipent is--just place an envelope to collect cash for a family in need. Once again, I would be mortified knowing others were providing me charity. **You could even put on the envelope it is for a "Saint Marys Hospital family" so maybe people will give more.

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Specializes in School Nursing.
i have many thoughts on this but i will try to narrow it down---

1) totally agree do not pressure staff to give~~yes i know i am more fortunate than others, but i too strugle over the holidays and i am trying to make sure my own kids have a good chrsitmas!!**dont slam me for being greedy, i am taking care of my own 1st**if i can give, i will. if i cant dont make me feel guilty over it.

2) dont send someone over to thier house, i personally would be mortified if someone i work with came over and gave me charity....

3) gift cards 2 weeks before would be ideal. there is nothing better than picking out your own gifts for your own kids--that is half the fun.

4) best case scenerio dont let everyone on the unit even know who the recipent is--just place an envelope to collect cash for a family in need. once again, i would be mortified knowing others were providing me charity. **you could even put on the envelope it is for a "saint marys hospital family" so maybe people will give more.

great advice !

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

The medical unit I work on has had a adopt family for past 8 or 9 years. (Not the same family) It has gone very ,very well but we have always gotten our family from the Home Health case manager or the hospital chaplain. They have the information of who is in the family. Home Health generally has one of the family for a patient, "grandma" or "Dad" but are aware of other family members living there. We always ask for a family with small children.(Fun for us to shop for). They give us the information such as boy 3year old, size 4 clothing ,likes spiderman,ect. We post that in the break room and staff pick which member that they want to buy for. There is no pressure put on anyone to participate. We pick a day ,generally about Dec 20 to have all the gifts at the hospital and load them up. Some families have said it is alright to bring them to them, others asked for just the Home Health nurse to take them to their house.

We have always had a huge turnout, staff always bring way more than what they sign up for. One year they gave us a family with just grandma and 2 children ,we called to get another family to help.

I am not sure about picking a staff members family,you would have to be sure they wanted you to and other staff may complain that they need help as much as the person picked so that would be a fine line .

There have been times when we knew a CT or CNA was in trouble at holiday time and quietly we collected money and gave them a nice Wal-Mart give card.

It is a great feeling to adopt a family, we have had thank you notes from the kids,and some families have sent pictures of the children enjoying their Christmas.

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Thanks for all of the replies, you guys gave some valid points. I know that if all of our co-workers agreed, my NM was going to talk to the possible recieptient privately about this once we have a 'majority rules'.

I was truly thinking about it from the kids' point of view-- I remember being one of those kids in my childhood. Strangers made a few of our Christmas' very special. I'm glad you gave another viewpoint about the possible feelings of my co-worker; I honestly didn't think about it like that.

I'll keep you guys updated on what transpires.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

I have a couple of comments.

A few years ago our unit adopted a family for Christmas. It was a special case.They had arrived here from Afghanistan via a refugee camp in Pakistan after a military physician had seen the smallest daughter in a clinic and recognized that she has a serious heart defect. He made arrangements for the family to come here so the little girl could have surgery; she was in estremis when they arrived at their hotel and she nearly died several times in the month before Christmas. This family had arrived here with basically only what they could carry. We put together a food hamper and bought gift cards for each of the kids. The goodwill the exercise generated was incredible.

Now, on the other hand... When I was a kid, we were very poor but my parents worked really hard to make sure we had what we needed. We kids didn't know we were "poor" then but looking back I can see that every day was a struggle. One year the parish provided us with a Christmas hamper and my mother, who is now in her 70s, to this day feels the deepest shame over having been obliged to accept it so that we kids could have a nice Christmas dinner. I had no idea that this had even happened, since I was just a little kid and don't have any memory of it; she only told me about it a few months ago and it's obvious that it still eats at her that everyone in our community knew we were needy. Please tread very carefully with your coworker and her feelings.

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Specializes in Neuro/Med-Surg/Oncology.

We usually pick a family (or the docs do) from each of our two Oncology groups and people donate what they can and we send gift cards to them. Sometimes it's a family left behind when the pt died. Sometimes it's a pt we know is a step away from the street. Last year one of our CNA's died over the summer of a MI after work one night. She left behind 3 teenage sons and a Piece of . . . . . Sh, er um, . . . . Work husband that was more interested in smoking crack with his girlfriend than taking care of them. We collected for her kids/grandkids that year.

I agree with what other posters said about being careful not to wound someones pride when that may be all that they have left.

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

we always adopted a family at the hospital i used to work at and it is a program that i wish we did at the place i work now. it is a great thing to do for the holidays.

one year we adopted a nurse on our unit and her family... she had two small kids and a hubby with brain CA. we all gave as much money as we could and then we went out and got publix gift cards, walmart cards, clothes, toys, etc. and gave it to her on christmas eve. we had it set up under a big christmas tree in the break room. it still makes me tear up the look on her face when she saw that the tree and the gifts were for her!!

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