Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas for your Nursing Staff
Finding a way to show appreciation to your staff during the Holidays is an unsung challenge for nurse leaders. It’s the end of the year, they likely have finance breathing down their neck about going over budget with overtime usage due to staffing shortages, and creating/purchasing gifts takes time.
Something nurse leaders rarely have.
It’s easy to find ourselves in a last minute crunch for a gift for our healthcare staff! Below, I’ve outlined some Budget Friendly gift ideas AND ways to show appreciation when you have no budget at all.
Last Minute Group Holiday Gifts: Break Room Glow Up
Massage Chair @Wayfair, $380.34
A Quiet Space or Bougie Break Room: A well received idea that all nursing staff will love for their holiday gift is any addition to the break room that will help them rest and unwind. This massage chair is a great example of how you can impact the working day for your staff. Better yet? Does your unit have a very small room or space that is being poorly utilized? Perhaps you can create a quiet space for your staff where they can step away after a difficult patient care experience during their break. Call it your Zen Room, put in a massage chair and perhaps on next year’s budget you can buy a beautiful rug and a small fountain.
Countertop Convection Oven
Countertop Oven: This is another break room gift that will continue to give for years. Bundle some frozen cookie dough with it and your nursing staff will be so happy! I love that this isn’t just a cookie oven, but that staff could also use it to reheat their meal. I can’t tell you how many times I’d grab lunch from the cafeteria only to end up running to a code cesarean section, returning a few hours later to limp fries and a frigid chicken sandwich.
Individual Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas for Nurses
A Mug & More: With less than one week to the holiday, this one is going to take some nurse-leader power & time. Hop into your car and hit up your local Target or Walmart and buy out an entire style of mug, including all the colors. Then drive to your next closest store and do the same. Make sure you have room in the back of your car for 70+ mugs. You’ll also want to be on the look out of great mug stuffers while you are shopping.
My favorites include: Swiss Miss packets, Starbucks VIA Instant Coffee Packets, chocolate (you can never get too much chocolate), a small ornament (from the $1 store), or a nice pen! I also suggest picking up a pretty tissue paper so the gift is presented well.
Once you have the mugs, ask your family and friends to help you pack them full of goodies! Put on a holiday movie and fill them up. Your staff will feel seen and well appreciated!
Quick Last Minute Gift Idea: Candle
Candle & A Candy Cane: This is a very sweet last minute gift idea that all staff will enjoy. Pair it with a kind note of appreciation like: You light up a room and are a guiding light to patients as they heal. Thank you for all you do. Happy Holidays!
This is another last minute gift idea that certainly takes time. Put on your favorite tunes and hit up every local store to try to snag candles in the same size. It’s okay to have an assortment of scents, but you definitely want the size to be the same.
Last Minute Free Gift Ideas for Nursing Staff
An Extra 30 Min Break
The Ultimate Free Gift- An Extra 30 minute break: Let’s be honest, our staff are really burned out. Like really burned out. To get through the pandemic and all the variants, and now to be looking at one of the worst RSV and Flu Seasons + managing COVID Care? It’s exhausting. They are bone tired. And they’ve been hearing about the budget concerns for years. This isn’t new to them that they won’t be getting a holiday gift.
It’s still important to show them that you care and that you know how hard they work. Write an individual thank you to each staff member with the gift of an additional 30 minute break that you will work into their schedule in the first quarter of 2023. This will take coordinating with your Charge Nurses and staffing. It takes significant effort to give staff an additional break that their contract doesn’t support; but it’s worth it. And yes, it may cost you on the back end if come the end of Quarter One, you still haven’t fit in that break. In that case, it’s time to staff up for a few shifts so everyone can put up their feet for 30 minutes.
We did this for our staff and it was greatly appreciated and worth all the hassle!
Show Up with a Heartfelt Note: Show up during the holiday shifts and thank them individually for all they do. Hand them a sweet note of appreciation that calls out their strengths. Let them know how you see them and know them. It’s easy for a nurse to feel like a shifting chess piece on the schedule or a number in the system. This effort of an individual note and simply showing your face during the holiday shifts will not be forgotten.
There you go! With five to six more days until the holiday shifts begin, you’ve got your work cut out. All of the above ideas will be great ways to show your nurses and nursing support staff how much you appreciate them! You’ve got this!
