Nurses spend their shifts caring for patients, communicating with doctors, and much more, so a great way to show your fellow healthcare professionals how much you care is with a gift bag.
So, how do you make gift bags for fellow nurses? What should you include in your bags? Here’s how to make gift bags your co-workers will love.
Buy Them or Take the DIY Route?
One of the first decisions is whether to make or buy gift bags. If you’re not crafty, buying gift bags is relatively inexpensive. You might even get a deal if you buy many bags for large nursing teams.
If you or someone you know is artistic and wants to make gift bags, that’s perfectly fine. But, for everyone else, buying gift bags costs a little more but saves lots of time.
Choosing a Theme
While it’s not something you must do, some people like their gifts to have a theme. Do you need help coming up with theme ideas? We have you covered. Here’s a quick list of nursing gift bag themes:
- A nurse theme: Since your gift recipients are nurses, why not use nursing-themed gift bags, wrapping paper, and cards?
- Holidays: Many workplaces celebrate various holidays, including Halloween, the 4th of July, and even Valentine’s Day.
- Nursing-related holidays: Nursing holidays happen all year round. National Nurses Week is one of the most popular times to celebrate nurses from May 6th to 12th.
- Your nurse’s interests or hobbies: As many work teams do, nursing staff have shared hobbies or interests. For instance, movie theater gift cards can be great for nurses who go to the movies together. You could also order food from their go-to restaurant.
- Empowerment: Another excellent theme idea doesn’t require it being a specific time of year. You can include gift bags and cards featuring positive words of encouragement.
Essential Items to Include in Nurse Gift Bags
Whether you choose a theme or not, your bags now need gifts. Here are perfect gift ideas for nurses they’ll all love.
1. Snacks
Eating food gives the body fuel. And nurses need lots of fuel to care for patients. Because of that, snacks are great things to include in a gift bag. Everyone loves a snack.
Snacks are great gift ideas because you have many options. Companies make healthy snacks for the health-conscious crowd, but sweets are ideal for nurses with a sweet tooth.
2. Foot Care
Nursing is challenging on the feet. That’s why a few toe socks are excellent gift bag additions. Fortunately, there are many benefits of toe socks, especially for nurses. Toe socks let toes move independently and can help reduce foot pain.
A bag of scented Epsom salts is great for soothing sore feet. Foot creams and balms will also be well-received additions to any gift bag.
3. Spa Packages
We all know it to be true: Being a nurse is an active job that can leave anyone aching after a 12-hour shift. Help your fellow nurses get the relief they seek with vouchers for a local spa.
Let them spend their time off enjoying a spa’s saunas, massages, wraps, mud baths, and more. After these treatments, you’ll likely notice a refreshed nursing team ready for anything.
4. Pens
We spend lots of time writing. Whether for charting, updating patient reports, or something similar, nurses use a lot of pens. Pens are always big hits with nurses, especially if you need something small to put in a gift bag.
Premium pens with comfortable grips work well for preventing annoying hand cramps nurses know all too well.
5. Makeup
Recent United States Census Bureau data found that 75% of all nurses are female. With that in mind, you’ll likely know a handful of people who love cruelty-free and vegan makeup.
To be all-inclusive, offer gender-neutral skin or hair care products.
Including a Handwritten Note or Card
The last step is also the most important: include a handwritten note. You don’t have to overthink this step. A small handwritten message detailing how much you appreciate your fellow nurses is perfect. But feel free to write longer messages, too.
From one nurse to another, we know the value our fellow healthcare professionals provide for communities everywhere. No matter the occasion, we hope our tips help you create stunning gift bags for the nurses in your life.
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