Present for nurses

moneypanicker

As a nurse i will second what people have already said something like a fruitbasket would be lovely. Generally when people give gifts they always give chocs or biscuits - yes they are generally eaten in seconds but sometimes it is nice to have something different and healthy!!

If giving something that need refrigerating bare in mind that not all wards have a fridge and generally if they do they are packed to capacity with lunch boxes / junk etc. A card just saying thank you is always appreciated!

moneypanicker

I forgot to mention one thing we love at work is Haribo!! Quick sugar fix

walks

My mum past away last month and she spent her last wks in st giles hospice. we gave the nurses £50 worth of lottery tickets as they recived biscuits chocs cakes and flowers all the time, They whrere overe the moon just hope they prove to have a big win on them.

Pip
x

before_hollywood

my friend is a nurse, i would ask her for suggestions but she is in spain on hols lol

her and her mate work on hdu

Kaz2904

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I am absolutely OUTRAGED that nursing staff have to buy their own beverages; that's an absolute disgrace. Every work-place I've ever been in has had free hot drinks of some kind and sometimes cold ones too. I know now exactly what I'd be making a parcel from if I ever needed to. When my mum was in hospital for a long time my sister and I took edibles into the ward for the staff every single day. I just wish I knew about the tea and coffee then

It's all very well being outraged but I'd rather you were outraged that we had to buy our own tea and coffee than you be outraged that you pay my wages and I'm not getting you/your family member your operation instantly (despite the fact that you don't personally pay my wages and I don't have any control whatsoever on theater lists or anything else)!

To be honest, as a nurse, the best gift I can ever get is when I see when of my patients walking down the road and they say "Hello Kaz2904 how are you?" I had a chap stop me when I was walking my DD to preschool once and DD asked who he was. He looked at both my littlies and said "Your Mummy is a very special person and looked after me when I was very sick.".

That gave me a little wobble!

On a slighty (well actually much much!) better note, I had a clear out of clothes today and got rid of all DH's manky old pants. When we went to Asda to get him some more DD (7) asked if it bothered me looking at Mens' pants when it had so many mens' bits around.
I was a bit shocked and said "DD, I see men's bits each and every day, I have to look at them, clean them and even touch them", by which stage, she wandered off shaking her head at me as if I was making it all up!

beccam

As another nurse here I'd echo what everyone has said, we do appreciate EVERYTHING that a patient or relative brings for us but yes it is usually a tin of Quality street and sometimes its nice to have a change.

One of the best things we ever got was at Christmas when a relative of a long term patient wrapped up little individual presents like a nice pen (not expensive but just nicer than a bic biro!;)), little lipglosses or lipbalms (lips get very dry in work), mini hand creams and nail files (nails are wrecked from handwashing), even body sprays or small perfumes. They were all put under the tree and we just picked one out at random so maybe you could do similar in a big basket and fill it out with nice teabags and coffee a jar of Options or similar hot chocolate, some nice biscuits and just a few chocolates or haribo type sweets (my fav!!)

The nicest personal present I recieved was from one of my long standing patients who bought me a nurses watch and had it engraved on the back with "to a very special person":o (I did actually cry at that!)

Also as previously said a nice card to the ward and maybe an individual little note or card to anyone who has been special to you, this not only is so very touching to us but also can be very useful in our 'personal development files' so has a benefit all of its own! I have kept cards and letters from patients and relatives and sometimes when I've had a bad day/week/month at work and feel like giving it all up, I have a read of them and it makes me remember why I wanted to be a nurse.

I have to say just the fact that you have asked this question and are so keen to get the nurses something nice gives me a bit of a warm glow!!:o

schoolrunmum

Friend of mine who is a nurse said they sometimes get a bit fed up of chocs, also if you're dieting you miss out. So, I bought a magazine subscription to a glossy mag to be delivered monthly to the ward,so there was always a mag to flick through at tea break time...

beccam

Thought of another thing last night, not exactly a 'present' as such but meant so much to us on the ward.

A patient who had been admitted very ill and was with us for a long time, wrote a letter sending copies to our ward sister, our directorate nurse and also the hospital chief exec. He detailed how much he had been helped by the nurses, praising the care he had received, talked about how he had been frightened and scared of what would happen but felt comforted by us and how we explained the things the doctor said in terms he could understand.
He wrote of how he had been embarrassed needing assistance with his personal needs but how the nurses had treated him with respect and dignity whilst also putting him at ease.

It was the most wonderful thing anyone could have done as we often become demoralised and usually only get 'told off' by our bosses for not meeting their newest 'target' or initiative. The chief exec actually forwarded on the letter to the ward staff with a personal message of praise for us.

I know it sounds so selfish to want to be praised in that way but it is such a boost to morale and yes it made us feel 'proud' of ourselves and I just hope that doesn't come across as a bad thing to anyone reading this.:o

kirstle99

When I was a student nurse one of our child patients andtheir family made a big box full of handmade badges as a token of thanks :-)

clairec79

Yes individual cards are nice and great for CPD (although last card I got was from a woman who had a 3rd degree tear and I felt so guilty partly because of the nasty tear and partly because I felt I hadn't done enough to deserve the lovely words in the card (saying I'd saved her life by teaching her to self inject etc) - the chocolates with the card were lovely but I've eaten them and still got the card