Nurses' Week - Upended.

I have worked for a large hospital system for about nine years now. My initial Catholic hospital was acquired by a larger hospital system in the same area more or less because of a failure to thrive. My "old hospital", even when in it's imminent demise, still provided a Nurses' Week gift to all of its employees. The gift was equivalent to a burlap sack, but it still represented the respect that upper management had for its nurses at the time.

Fast forward to 2018 - this year the Nurses Week committee voted to not hand out individual gifts to nurses but instead offer them "plenty of events" to participate in throughout the week. These being the same events that we've had every week for the last 5-6 years since rebranding/acquisition. These events include chair massages that run primarily on day shift, ice cream socials that simply will not work for those of us trying to improve our health, and CE credits that are generally unavailable to staff who work the off shift. The individual gift was the one part of the week that united all of us as nurses. It made us feel good. It was the one giant "thank you," that we received from those who do not work the front-lines everyday. That thanks is now gone, due to what seems like whatever budgeting crisis the system is currently experiencing.

2017-2018 has been another average year. Another year with poor RN staffing, little show in improving employee satisfaction (IMO), and what seems like little thanks for again earning Magnet designation, proving HRO accountability, and meeting/exceeding other metric performance measures.

Forgive my selfish-sounding rant, but I find it difficult to believe that unit clerks are entitled to a gift, and the nurses are not. A $5 coffee mug or tumbler for each nurse surely cannot surpass a CEO/CIO's bonus each year.

Shame on my system. Shame.

Thank you for listening.