This week on StressedOutNurses.com, we’re focusing on a culture change. Monday, today, and Friday, we’re presenting three unique stories that can help you improve the environment around you. Whether you’re an aspiring staff nurse or a nurse manager, bring these ideas with you wherever you go and watch your peers’ eyes light up. Here’s the second installment:

Each year, nurses at Palmetto Health Baptist in Columbia, SC, anxiously waited to see what gifts they would receive in celebration of Nurses Week. Would it be a mug? Or maybe a lunch bag, a T-shirt, or an umbrella? Although they were always appreciated, these tokens had become somewhat expected.

To celebrate Nurses Week last year, the nursing staff at Palmetto Baptist were determined to change the focus of the week. Rather than focusing on themselves, nursing employees embraced the concept of “Giving Back to the Community,” the theme for the celebration.

With great enthusiasm, the nursing staff adopted the idea of a “Shoebox Campaign,” a project geared toward helping the less fortunate. Eight community agencies within the Columbia area were chosen to benefit from the Shoebox Campaign. With the agencies’ wish lists in hand, employees filled boxes and gift bags with items ranging from toothbrushes and bath soap to backpacks, school supplies, and cleaning products.

Filled shoeboxes or gift bags were wrapped in colorful gift paper in preparation for a presentation to the eight charities at the celebration’s conclusion. Employees were given one last opportunity to gather in the hospital’s auditorium for a gift-wrapping party on the Monday prior to Nurses Week. There, they sorted, organized, and completed the wrapping of the items.

Sandwiches, drinks, and cookies were provided–along with upbeat background music–as employees made final preparations for the celebration.

In addition to the Shoebox Campaign, employees decided to create their own Nurses Week cookbook. The proceeds from the book, which was on sale throughout the week, were donated to each of the eight charities.

Staff had the opportunity to submit their favorite recipes for publication in the cookbook. In total, more than 200 recipes were collected.

With assistance from the hospital’s printing department, 1,000 books were printed. Staff volunteered to sell cookbooks at selected times and at heavily trafficked areas (e.g., outside of the cafeteria and at crosswalks). A description of each charity–along with the theme for Nurses Week–was colorfully displayed on posters at each cookbook table. By the end of Nurses Week, a total of 600 cookbooks had been sold for $10 each.

Following a brief reception on the last day of Nurses Week, checks ranging in value from $600 to $800 were donated to representatives from the eight charities that had been adopted.

In addition to media coverage from the three major television stations in the Columbia area, Palmetto Health’s public relations department and nursing staff from various units were present to enjoy the end of the innovative event. A survey of the nursing staff showed, overwhelmingly, that rather than focusing on them, the concept of “Giving Back to the Community” is one that would be long remembered.

“Not focusing on ourselves, but focusing on others, was by far a much more rewarding and gratifying experience than receiving token gifts during this special week,” says Shirley Knight, RN. “I won’t forget it!”

Editor’s note: To read Monday’s article about culture change, click
here.