Nurses Week Gifts Suck - The Nurse Blake Podcast (Ep 9) 

When I first started, we had a massage therapist come in and give chair massages to everyone. We also got free lunch every day that week. I thought that's how it was going to be every year, and then we got a new manager. It turned out my old manager was paying for the massages and food out of her own pocket.

We don't want gifts, we want adequate staff and pay commensurate with our skills/worth. Was in emergency as a patient on nurses day and my amazing nurse Kirri, at 1230 pm, had still not had morning tea break. She said she just wants more staff.

My employer forgot about nurses week. I did have a patient remember about nurses week and gave thank you cards and Starbucks gift cards to all the nurses. Super sweet.

We got a custom made ICU sweater and a UV Cell phone/Accessory Sanitizer. I think they did a great job

I love how he's so specific that he plucks his gray hairs out...on Tuesdays.

I’m sorry that these “gifts” make it seem like your profession is a joke. Growing up, I have to admit that I never realized how important nurses are. I guess I just always thought it was all the doctors who did the important work. When my mom was hospitalized for the first time (for a life threatening situation), my opinion changed real quick! It was the nurses who took such good, gentle care of my mom. It was them who would let me stay a while past visitation time because I was an emotional wreck & just wanted to lay next to my mom & talk to her while she was in a coma. It was the nurses who listened to my concerns and reassured me when I felt like the doctor was being kind of “cold.” I’ve had this experience 3 times in total with my mom & I fully believe that it was because of the nurses great care (And the doctors, techs, etc) that my mom is still alive today when her chances were so low. My love and thanks to you all ❤️ 🙏

I’m not a nurse, but as a teacher, I 1000% feel y’all’s pain about the gifts.

After being short staffed both nurses and CNAs I fully expected better than a bag of chips.

Nurses' week "gifts" reminds me of a toxic relationship where you know you're not valued for your contributions to the relationship and yet you stay for the devalued treatment because you don't know anything else (other than being a nurse).

As I was watching, I gradually went from laughing so hard to being very infuriated

I liked the handwritten notes from my manager, or I was really appreciative of the free meal in the cafeteria, the meal was your choice and you could use it anytime. I got a great gift from my manager; a thermal mug with a starbucks gift card, a really nice canvas bag with leather straps, and a card with a handwritten note. She bought those gifts out of her own pocket.

Stage IV lung cancer patient,kept alive for over 6 years by immunotherapy. My life would be crap without my tx team. My nurses are rock stars, last year I bought each member of the team a large, beautiful mug, each mug had quotes about life, hope, gratitude. I also gave good pieces of chocolate. The reaction was amazing ♥️♥️♥️ oh and I included everyone, MD, social worker, my nurses, my chemo nurse, the CNA who does my weight & vitals, my port access nurse.

I got pinned as a grad nurse on National Nurse Day. May 6, 2021!! So excited to join the noble profession at the young age of 47!!!

i work at an assisted living and our nurse is NOT the greatest. but i wanted her to feel appreciated along with the team. i crocheted her a blanket with her fav colors, a few bottles of wine, monster (her fav) and all her fav snacks and gift cards

I keep saying this every year, that I’m going to take off nurses week so i don’t have to deal with these condescending gifts and peoples attitudes

I work as a school nurse so my employer doesn't celebrate "nurse's week"... but for teachers' week (which I pretend is nurse's week and runs the same timeframe), we get a different food thing each day - breakfast burritos, catered lunches, a soup day, a deserts day - it is so awesome. But this is put on by the PTO, not the school. It is really nice and not cheezy or cheap.

How about travel nurses that are told by hospitals that “ oh we don’t give gifts to travelers “ .... that’s my world

The tic-tac gift is insulting to anyone who actually needs antidepressants and antianxiety medication. We're supposed to lift up people with mental health concerns, not make a joke of them. I thought we were supposed to be mental health advocates. ::eyeroll::

Yep, nurses are treated like children. As for the underwear one, it's soooo inappropriate omg. As for the rest of "gifts", I'm still trying to figure out which one is worse.

His husband's support and enthusiasm is so cute.

Get you a man that looks at you the way Brett looks at Blake. 🥰

My hospital handed out candy and popcorn… meanwhile I have 6 patients and can’t stop to eat it 🙄

I am a federally employed nurse and all we got this year were tootsie rolls. And they were the minis.

I love how Blake and Brett casually have a conversation between themselves about their toothbrushes and flossing like none of us are around ❤️

Yes! If there is a hospital administrator week, regift the demoralizing nurses week gifts back to them!

Fun fact about nurses week I just learned. The last day is in Florence Nightingales BDAY🥳. That’s why it always starts on a weird day.

I got all my gray hair in nursing school. Happy Nurse's Week!

In 33 years of nursing the most disrespectful nurse week gift we received at a hospital in San Jose California was a frame for your license plate with the hospital name on it. Talk about using nurses for free advertisement 😔

I’m all for the re-gift mission😂😂...my oh my how the tables have turned 🤨😭

Oh Blake is grown! 30 is big time. Electric toothbrush is official adulting 😂

The last hospital I worked at was amazing and they gave fantastic nurses week and ER nurse week gifts, and random gifts as well. They always made us feel appreciated. I’m an NP now and Blake, you’d love it as an NP

Every single nurse in the world needs to get together & regift these exact gifts to all their mngrs on whatever day is devoted to them!!

Well, my gift this year is surprising and awesome. We got some sweet treats, a pen, a packet of cookies and $50 in cash.

I graduated in 1997. - For years administrators were trying to cancel Nurses Week and Group all “Healthcare workers” together. RNs got mad ! CNA s kept saying what about us? I know of an HR Director who started as a recruiter who hated Nurses. She got ahead with that

Dude EVERY DAMM thing I've gotten from my hospital has been branded. (An umbrella, lunch box, jacket, blanket) We are a well known psych facility...I believe we do important work and I truly love my patients...but seriously using branded items could make us a target in the community!

If anyone ever tried to give me any of these gifts I literally would just hand it back to them like no thanks. I literally can't with these terrible gifts.

My MIL buys her team at her hospital a nice cake and gifts every year, she loves to appreciates her team! It’s so sweet

I like how we are hero’s until it comes to nurses week and the thank you

I'd be happier with 2 free days of PTO.

The gifts are truly disrespectful, it’s not even funny. I’m glad this is being talked about.

I felt my gifts were really nice this year. We got a nursing t-shirt that we can wear to work or outside of work, a bottled Starbucks latte, a huge chocolate chip muffin, candy at the nurse's station, grilled food (of course that was more for days/evenings depending on what time you work) and I was lucky and won a $5 Starbucks gift card 😊

I worry that the reason the average age of nurses is 51 is because so many younger nurses are going straight through to their Masters, and we're going to run out of bedside nurses 😢

Thanks Blake for acknowledging CNA’s. I’ve been a CNA for 45 years.

I'm an x-ray tech and have a small collection of jackets, blankets, etc from past rad tech weeks with "radiology" stamped somewhere on them. We've received crap with lame puns before too

A patient gave us a whole bin of chips, candy, popcorn, Starbucks Frappuccino’s and other stuff. Management gave us a container of lifesavers…

Love how you bust out laughing regarding nursing job satisfaction question 😅 then it goes to commercial. Epic

My hospital sent a memo stating they brought a food truck to the campus for us only for us to get to said truck and have to pay for the food 😂 Thanks for the option I guess? Lmao

Also a good majority of nurses in the US are Filipino or Filipino-American 🇵🇭

When the ads came out like the ones from J&J honoring nurses in the moments at the bedside... holding the hands of patients... literally having life changing moments... that’s nursing. That’s honoring what we do... I don’t think a donut or a pen is what it’s about 🙁 that’s a swing and a miss!

I work in the UK and we got a bottle of dettol hand sanitizer for nurses week and handful of left over Easter eggs to share with the whole team 🙈

I work for Hallmark Corp. We had a ton of fabulous cards for Nurses Day and we have great gifts. I was a Pediatric Nurse for 28 years and never got anything for Nurses week. I never even knew there was a nurses week until I worked for Hallmark. Thanks for shedding light on how the hospitals treat you all, so awful.

hey blake, I was wondering if you could time stamp your videos! Then we can skip to what we want to listen. That would be amazing

Maybe the universe was telling the person sending the quote about themselves. Also Hey acknowledge LPN’s sometimes. We rock too❤️❤️❤️

We have also been sent to our home handwritten cards from our manager outlining why we make a difference to the team. Very thoughtful and heartfelt.

Some of those pun ones remind me if the Valentine's I get for my kids

I love that you always shout out to CNAs. You are such an inspiration Blake! I'm starting out in nursing school and love your stories.

Thank you for bringing up cnas we are under appreciated as well. I can’t wait to come see your show! Me and my friend whose a nurse are going!

Just retired from 31 years of being an RN on a busy neuro PCU and the worst nurses week gift we received was many many years ago when there were still 8 hour shifts. The manager of the unit "gifted" the unit with 3 plain balloons (1 for each shift) and 1 bag of M&Ms for the 3 shifts to share, I kid you not!!! When one of the nurses complained her actual response was "What's the problem, it's the extra large size bag .... isn't that enough?". Mind you, this took place right after all the nurse managers returned from their 2 hour lunch extravaganza furnished by the hospital administration to celebrate them as nurses.....yeah, we were not happy!!! Still makes me mad even after all of these years!!!!

So I do like the suckers!!! But all funniness aside, resources (safe staffing levels) is the most important way to help nurses and patient care.

I will say, I worked in the hospital and the gifts sucked. I moved to hospice care and the company is much smaller , so I got very good gifts for the first time. So its definitely that the bigger organizations aren't wanting to spend the money. But also, happy early birthday Blake !

Love your channel, always guaranteed to laugh!! I graduate in May 2023, getting my BSN. 🎉🎉

We got a jar of bubbles telling us to blow bubbles when we’re stressed. And by “we” I mean dayshift, because I’m nightshift and we got nothing. 🙄

Y'all I just LOVE how you vibe together. 🥰🥰 I am so here for this loving relationship.

My husband was CEO … I forbid him from these types of gifts… I said give them a meal or money. That’s it. And a heartfelt note. He always made his team hand write their signatures on any cards/notes

Love the A & O x 1 hoodie!

One hospital I worked in dropped Nurses Week and replaced it with Hospital Week, "so that no one gets left out". Wimpy! I always said that the best gifts would have been a roll of duct tape and a set of screwdrivers.

Brett is just so awesome. I want him to be my friend

🤣😂😅😟😓😖😣😫 My range of emotions during this podcast.

We got a dollar bag of chips from the check out line, haha

We didn’t get a gift this year, but they did combine it with employee appreciation week. 🙄

Brett’s face at 29:45 it’s just 👌🏻👏🏻🙌🏻

Today we had Bring Your Own Dessert Day at work for nurses week. And I was also rewarded with an unsafe assignment d/t staffing shortages. 🙄 but the hard ginger snap cookies that my coworker brought in really showed me that my hospital appreciates us.

My hospital gave us thin white line keychains and little notebooks with a pen attached. They also provided bagged snacks like chips and candy and donuts and coffee to all shifts on the weekend.

In the United States, if you make enough money you get to keep your teeth 😀

EMT week next week, Woot woot! Happy birthday Blake! You are thirty and flirty and thriving.

your stories on the gifts had me DYING all week!! thank god i happened to plan a vacation during nurses week - way better than being at work and getting useless gifts lmao

We have to paid for our own nurses week shirts, that always gets me. My coworkers ask me why I don’t order shirts, I tell them I don’t believe I should have to pay for a shirt. The kicker is we can’t wear the same shirt at work on nurses week and why would I wear a nurses week at home.

I was cracking up 😂. Gotta find humor in these terrible gifts

Those Bigelow tea bags is what our hospital regularly stocks in the refreshment room! 😂 I was actually surprised this year we got a nice picnic type blanket. It’s great in the car.

I got a brownie And a 6 pack of off brand 5hour energy drink type things that tasted like poison. Everyone on my unit received the same thing from management 🤦🏽‍♀️🤣

Thanks so much for talking about real nursing issues

Just listened to this for the first time! I have been a nurse for 40 years and could add a few thing to the Nurse’s Week “gift list!” My colleagues and I would always laugh about the gifts we got and shrugged it off. Thank you for addressing this (obviously) important issue!

30 is young!

You two are so in tune 😍 I love it

My dad works for Mercedes Benz, and they’ve given their employees some really nice gifts such as iPods, iPads, Coach bags. For their holiday parties, it’s free for the employee plus their guest. In addition, they get a free night’s stay at the hotel after the party is over! For nurses week, we got a t-shirt and an email from the CNO thanking us for our hard work, and also encouraging nurses to download the keener app (a self care app made for nurses). Thanks.

Didn’t watch the podcast yet, but remembered today is your Birthday! Happy Birthday to Youuuuu 🎶🧁🎈

So True!! I Love This Video ❤ I do not want any of the free junk or forced sentiments that distract me from patient care during nurses week. However, getting a couple visits from a therapy dog on the unit during nurses week would warm my heart tremendously.

Here in Utah ‘Nurses Week’ has morphed into HOSPITAL WEEK!!

Our turn over at SNF is ssssooo bad!

A good CNA is worth his or her weight in gold..so many times i had a near impossible assignment ot terrible shift but knowing that a particular CNA was with me for that shift is what enabled me to deliver the care my patients needed. Love to them all (PS i worked as an aide while in college)

Lol during nurses week we don’t get anything from the hospital they wait until the week after and call the whole thing “hospital week” bc well we can’t leave people out. Uhhhh then pick another time iv year this is our week

I thankfully got a nice nurse gift this year but their have been past years that I have gotten crappy items. I have been laughing hysterically at your IG stories this week with all the gifts but also sad for my fellow nurses that are not appreciated!

Back when we did charting by hand, the entire nursing staff received ink pens for Nurse’s Week. The problem, we were only allowed to document in black ink and the pens wrote in blue. Come to find out, blue ink is cheaper than black. They bought us pens we couldn’t even use at work! So insulting!

Also. I need to say that once I left the corporate hospital setting, the recognition I received all year long was more than enough!! That’s sad, but very very true!

I just adore Nurse Blake and hubby!

Happy belated Nurses' Week! Gifts are appreciated. 🎁 However, having nursing representation at the decision-making table and feeling supported go a long way during Nurses' Week...and every week! 🩺

Based off of the Nurses Week “gifts” that I saw on Nurse Blake’s Instagram, I would surmise that some of those hospitals don’t like or respect their nurses very much 😕

We got nothing at my hospital. Well we got more things to do during our shift as charge nurses.... So new we do 5 jobs for only $1 more a shift! Which is the same when we did 4 jobs a shift....

Happy birthday Blake!

Several years ago, on Nurse's Day, one of our administrators circulated through each unit and handed out 1 Lindor truffle per person. Seriously.