How does your clinic celebrate final treatment?

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Hi,

I work at an outpatient oncology clinic and I am new to this specialty. I had been an outpatient cardiac nurse for 3 year prior to accepting this job. I have to say, working in outpatient oncology is very unique and rewarding. There are only 5 of us nurses in my clinic. The clinic has been short staffed (I know, its the same story everywhere) for awhile before I came in (we are still short one nurse which will be joining us in September). Anyway, getting to my question.

Since there are only a few of us and we are very busy, there is only about 3 of us to help our chemo patients celebrate their final cycle. This is what we do.

We have a certificate signed by all the nurses, staff in the clinic. When the patient is close to being disconnected from their IV, the nurses/available staff try to get together for a "party". The patient is called a "bell ringer" because we have an actual bell mounted on our wall for patients to ring as long and as loud as they want. It is a brass bell donated by one of the clinic's previous patients that passed away. After the patient is presented with the certificate in the chemo room, one of the nurses announces "BELL RINGER" and we march to the hall which patients waiting in our lobby is able to see and hear the nurse sing and dance a little jig. Then, our bell ringer rings the bell. We clap and cheer, give hugs and then our patient is on his/her way. This is all of 5 minutes.

I feel like it should be a little more special. I don't know, what do you think? Do you do anything to celebrate the last treatment? What special thing do you do? I would like some ideas. I feel like we have been a significant part of their lives and we have come to know our patients and vice versa. We even know some of their family members pretty well.

Is it better to keep it short and sweet just like it is? I'd love to know what your clinic does. Thanks in advance for your help.

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