Gold Star Stickers For Nurses??

Nurses General Nursing

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My SNF/LTC recently started this "reward" program that involves employees earning gold star stickers :rolleyes: to put on our ID badges. For example, if a patient's family members says something complimentary about me, the HR person will put a gold star on my badge. When the employee earns 5 stars, they get a small reward--a free nursing home dinner :uhoh3:, or the laundry will wash one item of your clothing--that type of thing.

I find this whole gold star thing very childish; if I were in kindergarten, I would think it was cute, but I am an adult RN, and I just don't want gold stars on my ID badge. So, I peel them off and throw them away. Or I just say "thank you, but I don't really want to put a sticker on my badge."

Does anyone else think this is juvenile, or is it just me? :confused: What's next? Free juice boxes??

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Oddly enough I went to bed thinking about this thread last night, but was too sleepy to get up and write any more on the subject.

Basically I was thinking about all the times I sat on little committees for work or school brainstorming ideas.

Sometimes really silly, insulting, downright dumb ideas get thrown on the table. If there isn't someone to shoot them down or clarify the bad points they can often get a "sure why not" "we will see how it goes" from the others on the committee. Often the other people on the committee are overwhelmed by life to really focus on "how can I really make this better."

Management/administration etc in the end are a bunch of stressed out people with cranky spouses and hungry children at home too. Maybe they just got a little "sure let's try it" on this one.

Maybe the person with the idea is really demanding and didn't want to hear any argument on the idea they were coveting "I know this will make them happy! We are going to do it!" and everyone else was like "whatever".

In the end management isn't out to make you a fool. They aren't sitting at their desks thinking "how stupid can I make them look today" or "look I give them stickers and they drool like kindergarteners".

Anyway that is all lol.

Tait

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.
Please. Improve the workplace with tangible benefits, not shiny stickers.

I added a bit more about overwhelmed committee dynamics. ;)

My point being feedback is invaluable. If it isn't working, often someone needs to pony up and say something.

Tait

A note in your permanent file would be awesome. After you collect 5 getting a little gift card to your fave store is also very sweet and appropriate. If the best you can come up with is gold stars for grown nursing professionals you need to be off the committee. Sure they might have been trying to raise morale but the maturity level of the committee and how they view grown nursing professionals is skewed. The latter really concerns me because instead of viewing them as adult professionals they are being seen in this case as kindergarteners. I hope they do speak up in a professional and mature way. They can point out that they are happy someone wants to commend them and really appreciate where they are coming from, but gold stars for adults isn't appropriate and explain why that would be insulting in a respectful and kind way.

Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

Kudos to them for trying but gold stars isn't really a professional way to reward hard work, nor is it really that helpful to nurses.

Where I work if a nurse has been shown to provide a supportive and caring environment to new grads and students etc we get a certificate. This goes in your professional portfolio which I think is a good idea.

The facility I work for has "STAR Cards" that clients, families, or co-workers can fill out to recognize you for having gone "above and beyond" in a particular situation. It's a popular system because, once you save up enough cards, you can trade them in for gift card from either Wal-Mart or Target (your choice) -- 15 cards gets you a $15 gift card, 30 cards gets you a $40 card, etc. (the more cards you save up, the greater dollar value of each card). So, in our case, those cards are just like money.

I'm usually not a fan of this kind of recognition program, for all the reasons the other posters have mentioned, but I sure don't mind getting extra MONEY (in the form of the gift cards) to recognize that I've done a better-than-necessary job.

It's like a tip-jar for nurses!! :p :D ;) hehe j/k

Seriously, though, I would have LOVED this at my last job... Right before I left, I remember they started giving out little cards as incentive to float and such, but can't remember what the rest of the reward entailed (but I'm almost positive it wasn't money)

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