What Exciting Thing is Your Management Doing For 'Nurses Week'???

pfitz1079 · May 8, 2005

From the Dept. of Nursing we got a trip to an (first-place) Orioles game, complete with a bullpen party (free beer!). We also got shirts and bags. The hospital also put up a new exhibit of nicely done portraits of a sampling of our nurses with notes about them and things they do outside of work. It sits in a hallway named for some long-dead nursing professor and dedicated to the nurses of the hospital.

My department (Emergency Nursing) is having a lunch/happy hour off site later this week. My boss almost certainly will have lunch brought in at least once. Plus, we seem to get stuff from other associated departments and vendors. It's really a nice week.

Quit with the whining. I get a decent paycheck, respect from my coworkers (yes, including the smart docs) and some nice gifts. If you don't, I'm sorry. Go to work somewhere else, there's plenty of jobs.

Happy Nurses Week,

Pete Fitzpatrick

RN, CCRN, CFRN, EMT-P

crjnursewarrior · May 8, 2005

Happy Nurse's Week to all Posters!

I have to agree with a lot of you...the token gifts we get do sometimes seem a little...what's the word...CHEAP? Last year our corporate office sent us keychains...the year before a scrub top with the company logo on it...a little more $ than the keychain probably! Oh then the one year we got a candy sucker...wowwww!

However, there is an upside to this... :) ...we do have a great medical administrator (like DON...I work in correctional facility)...she got us all lotion from Bath & Body Works last year. That was a nice gift I thought. Then this year we are planning a little open house thing in our medical dept. We are all going to bring in a baby picture of ourselves and a nursing school graduation picture. We are going to post them on a bulletin board and have a contest to see who can guess who is who...we were even gonna let the officers guess..and heve some snacks and a prize for the person who guesses the most right.

I think this sounds kinda fun. Sometime's it's the little fun things that relieve some of the stress we overworked nurses are under. :rotfl:

HAPPY NURSE'S WEEK!!

Audreyfay · May 8, 2005

Happy Nurses Week everybody! Let's all treat ourselves to SOMETHING we want and can afford! Quite personally, I see it as an occasion in which the card companies get more business.

For me, it's not what administration says to me or what they give me, but it is rather the thank you the patients give me. It's that relief a patient expresses or the occasional hug I get from a patient or family member. I need nothing else. It is employment at will, for both parties involved. If I am not happy with my job, what good is it?

UM Review RN, ASN, RN · May 8, 2005

We are accepting these "gifts" from management exactly for what they are.....lame attempts at plying us w/ "goodies" not because they care about us and what we do but only because it's obligatory. Now, it seems to me that this is a great forum for us to dump/vent. People can choose to read this thread or not. But better we dump/vent here rather than at work. And one more thing. We are NOT whining. We are merely stating that we are tired of being treated in a less-than-professional manner by our employers. Most of us "malcontents" have stated that we would much rather be treated better throughout the year and that we do see these "celebrations" for what they really are. A simple thanks every once in a while throughout the year is the absolute best way to celebrate nurses! IMO, if management would do that more, the nursing shortage would not be quite so bad. And one last thing. Please don't tell me that I am not a professional, I resent that. I am professional all the way. I take excellent care of my patients. I carry myself in the most professional manner at all times when I am working.

Bravo! Excellent post. I only disagree with the "thank you" thing, because I don't think it's too much to be paid really really well in place of my "thanks." Then I can afford a nice Spa Day or a cool vacation of my choosing before I'm fried from working too many understaffed shifts.

butterflynurse · May 8, 2005

Sadly, our management did not even mention nurses week. All of us nurses are baffled. We usually get some token of appreciation. This year it was nothing. I don't understand what happened.

SmilingBluEyes · May 9, 2005

Taken from:
http://ca.geocities.com/ipromiseposter/ipromise.html
"In the spring of 2003, the SARS virus quietly arrived, unannounced, in Toronto from Hong Kong. The virus took advantage of our multiculturalism. Toronto had never heard of SARS when it arrived. The virus took advantage of that too. First, a mother who had recently returned from Hong Kong died and then 5 days later, her son died. Toronto newspapers began to report about voluntary quarantines. Newspapers worldwide began to talk about Toronto. The reports began to displace the events in Iraq from the headlines. With each update the news sounded more serious. When the World Health Organization announced a travel ban for all but essential travel, it seemed that Toronto's fate was sealed. It became one of the least desirable places in the world to travel to. The newspapers began to report daily counts of total probable SARS cases, the new infections and the numbers in quarantine.
...Nurses who worked at administrative positions said the situation was serious. Nurses who worked in the regulatory bodies said the situation was very serious. Nurses who worked in the community and in the city hospitals said it was extremely serious. They were wearing multiple masks, multiple gowns and multiple gloves. They said that the masks were not good enough. They said that some nurses were infected by the virus. Exhausted nurses taking care of sick nurses. Nurses on life support. When was it going to stop? I imagined a nurse cradling a sick nurse who was cradling a very sick nurse who was cradling ....and on and on.
The news reported updates to the death toll and thousands were now quarantined with a new outbreak in Toronto. The streets of Chinatown were quiet. I went there to lend support and saw just a few kids walking along Dundas. One was wearing a New York Fire Department sweatshirt. I remembered the firefighters in New York. There were firefighters saving firefighters. So why are they different than our nurses?
- Exhausted New York firefighters were profiled with their sooty faces. Their faces showed their character. Exhausted nurses wearing multiple masks don't have visible faces.
- Photographers surrounded the exhausted firefighters. Photographers could not go into SARS units. Hospitals had closed their doors to all visitors including photographers.
- Citizens of New York offered free lunches to the overworked firefighters. Overworked nurses could not leave their SARS units for a lunch break without risking the spread of infection to the citizens of Toronto.
- Firefighters paused to take a drink of water. Nurses working in SARS units could not pause for a sip of water without removing their masks and possibly becoming infected.
- Firefighters took soot home with them and their families helped them wash all traces of it away. Nurses took the virus home and could not hug them for fear of infecting them. Some did infect their loved ones and their loved ones died.
- Firefighter's families were celebrated by their community. Nurse's families were quarantined and shunned.
- Firefighters were heroes. Nurses were nurses. "
Image of a Nurse during the crisis:
http://ca.geocities.com/ipromiseposter/ipromise.jpg

wow, just wow :angryfire

RowdyGal61 · May 9, 2005

Just wanted to check in with my peers to see what management has in store for you for nurses week.:balloons: I'm sure they're going all out, right? They'd never come up with anything stupid, that insults your intelligence and good taste, correct??? I'm sure, whatever they do will be well worth all the hard work you all put in throughout the year!!!:biggringi

my facility has told the nursing staff that nurses week dates are the same as hospital week, therefore, it will all be celebrated together, in other words, they are doing nothing just for the nurses. (same as the last 6 years i have been working there) However, they do have a special activity everyday during hospital week, and all that activities just happened to be scheduled for 2pm to 4pm, so days and evenings can join in the fun. Absolutely NOTHING is being done for the night shift :angryfire ( I am the house super for nights) Do you feel the love?

crjnursewarrior · May 9, 2005

my facility has told the nursing staff that nurses week dates are the same as hospital week, therefore, it will all be celebrated together, in other words, they are doing nothing just for the nurses. (same as the last 6 years i have been working there) However, they do have a special activity everyday during hospital week, and all that activities just happened to be scheduled for 2pm to 4pm, so days and evenings can join in the fun. Absolutely NOTHING is being done for the night shift :angryfire ( I am the house super for nights) Do you feel the love?

Hey...RowdyGal...

Amen! Isn't it wonderful how they always include night shift? By the time we get there all the food has been eaten...all the hoopla is over...and usually a mess left for us to clean up!!?? :angryfire :uhoh3: :angryfire

flashpoint · May 9, 2005

Our DON's father died two weeks ago so all Nurses' Week festivities were cancelled. Supposedly, no one can step in for her and no one feels like celebrating.

HannasMom · May 9, 2005

We are suppose get something for Nurses Week???? LOL. Won't happen where I work.

schroeders_piano, RN · May 9, 2005

Our administration gave each nurse a cookie from the cafeteria for nurses' week. Personally passed out to each and every nurse by the CEO. Praise be, all of our morale and staffing issues are solved. We got cookies. When I received my cookie, I just wanted to drop to my knees:bow: and thank the CEO for the wonderful show of support of the nursing staff during nurses' week.:chuckle :chuckle

mandrews · May 9, 2005

My hospital is doing something every day of the week. One day they are giving out ice cream on the day and night shift, pancake breakfast one morning. Two days we are having barbq then catfish catered in ( 11am-2pm ONLY), hamburger and hotdogs. We night folks will probably be home sleeping while the fish and barbq is being enjoyed by day shift and management!!!