After reading some of these replies, I must say I have it pretty good where I work. I work for a large institution in NY. Nurses week in my institution is a big deal. We have an actual ceremony on the 8-4 tour which continues over into the 4-12 tour. The event is held in a Chinese buffet all you can resturant with a banguet room. The managers, supervisors and DONs, decorate the room with ballons and flowers. Pictures of nurses are displayed and we are recognised and given certificates for attendance, punctuality. achievements and so on. Those that were promoted are acknowleged and the Director of nursing gives us a speech. Everyone is given an opprtunity to attend and the staff is allowed to go in turns. For those of us on the 4-12 tour we are allowed to attend before we start our shift or during our lunch hour. The resturant is not very far from the workplace. As gifts we are given clocks, tote bags, mugs, pens, sticker pads and several other gifts. all with names of different drug companies. The whole event is sponsered by our phamacology department so we get some good stuff from the drug companies. They actually pay for our nurses week. I work in NY