A good friend is one of those unique people (aka batshit crazy). He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure a couple of years ago, and of course thought he could out stubborn it. This hasn’t been working very well, and today he was admitted to the hospital for heart issues.
He gave permission for the medical staff to talk to me, and it seems he will be there for at least a few days.
Today I bought 2 dozen pastries and dropped them and a thank you note* at the front desk for my friend’s nursing staff.
I intend to continue doing this until he’s released because I know he’s going to be challenging and the nursing staff deserves something extra. Tomorrow I was planning on bagels and cream cheese.
That’s it for my ideas, so I was hoping that you folks might have other ideas of single-serving snacky things they might appreciate.
(Dear mods, I wasn’t sure if this should go in Cafe Society or in IMHO. If I put it in the wrong place, please fix it for me.)
*“Thank you for taking care of my friend, Tony Smith, rm. 1234. He’s a grumpy old man, but his cats (and ours) love him.” Next note will say “Thank you for taking care of my friend, Tony…He’s a grumpy old man, but even though he’s dirt poor, he always manages to scrape together enough money to buy a Toy for a Tot, or a Christmas Angle.” Hopefully constant reminders that he’s a good person inside will make up for some of the difficulties he will cause.
I’m only guessing, but I suspect that things that can be easily taken away for later/shared with others would be great. Maybe get several boxes of individually wrapped granola bars of different kinds, and throw them all together in a bowl for people to choose what they want?
One of my music students brought us all individually wrapped, single-serving trail mix from Costco. That was great - I threw a pack in my purse, forgot about it, and then when I was out unexpectedly late without food one day I had a delightfully sustaining snack.
If this goes on for a while - and I hope for everyone involved that it does not - you could branch out into non-food items like assorted funny post-it notes or something.
You’re very sweet to do this. I bet the health care workers appreciate it.
Nurse here. Virtually anything that can be nibbled on over the course of a few hours or a shift will be a hit. So long as it doesn’t go bad/melt too fast, or require a lot of tending it’d be harder to come up with a bad idea.
Coffee is a great way to go, too, and we don’t just drink it in the morning.
Thanks for thinking of the nurses, hope you friend feels better.
This is great timing. I had been trying to come up with some little gifty thing for the staff in the nursing home my father is in and have been coming up blank because I wanted to avoid the standard cookies, cheese, chocolate, junk food stuff. If some of the stuff does make it to the patients I know many of them have difficulty with tooth problems, diabetes, etc.
This thread sparked me. I’m right now scrolling through Amazon searching for “individual serving snacks” – finding several items of the ‘all natural’ types, not because I’m a health food nut, but because they are not just pure junk food. Some of them have a reasonable cost per ounce in the larger packages. Gotta find out how many people are on the staff.
I went to HEB got a nice basket filled it with fruit, lines lemons, apples oranges, bananas and other stuff. Had it shrink wrapped and floral department got some boxed bread sticks and incorporated into the bow with streamers.
I could barely carry it. It was real heavy. The ICU staff thanked me profusely, they said no one remembers them. One nurse told me usually gifts are candy pies etc…
Then another time my late husband asked them what they wanted … Banana Cream pie. I bought 2, paperplates, napkins… They were very happy too.
When my father was in the rehab center last year, we brought in a couple of cheesecakes for the staff; those variety packs where it has slices from different kinds of cheesecake.
I think it might be best to ask them what they want, or if they don’t ant anything, what charity they want you to donate to.
Some people I know who work on the care frontline have had so many food-related gifts lately that there’s no way they can actually use all of them, and they can’t donate them to food banks or anyone else because they’ve been in a hospital or care home. They try to stop people bringing stuff in and take it elsewhere instead.
They also always didn’t really like food that had to be refrigerated or eaten right away. They appreciate the thought but most often can’t actually use them, because they’re working, and don’t have much fridge space. But they’ll be really grateful to the person who brings them in because they know they mean well and very much like the gesture.
Depends where you live, of course, which is why it’s best to ask.
Notes are always welcome, however corny, is the impression I get.
I got a few dozen coffee shop card [each had $10 US on it] and asked the office manager to dole them out to the infusion staffers and the rest of the nurses that take care of me in my oncology office =)
Something similar. Instead of sending it to the nurses area (which like was said, sometimes they get too much), why not send it to the family waiting room area. This is the area where the families wait while their kids are in surgery and such. In Kansas City at Childrens Mercy Hospital bakeries, restaurants, and other places all the time drop things off.
While this sounds like a very good cause, it isn’t a suggestion I will use. I don’t really care about random people in the family waiting room (if such things are even still a thing) at this time. Call me selfish, but I have my own person in the hospital and he is my priority.
Today, I was dropping snacks and flowers off, and one of the nurses happened to be downstairs getting coffee. She saw the flowers and knew that I would be coming in, so came over to say hello.
She seemed very nice and expressed appreciation for my gifts. She did tell me that, as I suspected, nurses aren’t really that much more diet conscious than anyone else and that snacks are always appreciated.
I do like the idea of trail mix and granola bars, that will probably happen tomorrow. Gift cards to the local coffee house are a good idea, I am on first name basis with the lead nurse, so I am sure she would be happy to hand them out for me.
outlierrn I totally agree that coffee isn’t just for breakfast anymore, but how would I get the actual thing there. I mean, I know I can get boxes of hot brewed coffee from Starbucks, but that would mean everyone would have to get some as soon as I got there lest it get cold. I’m sure I’m missing something here, I probably need more coffee!
There are some very good ideas here, thank you everyone!
(Late to the party)
Protein bars. Less sugar than granola bars, will help give them a boost during their shifts, can be tossed in a pocket/purse for later.
Not that they WANT to but I bet nurses are the sort of people who are very used to drinking cold and old coffee. They might appreciate cold and old premium coffee.
That being said - if Starbucks will box up hot coffee, won’t they box up iced coffee? It’s hot out anyway!
