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Nurses Week: Six strategies to say 'thank you'

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, May 2, 2006

Using Nurses Week (May 6-12) to thank nurses for their contributions to the nursing profession is one option that organizations choose to recognize staff for their year-long efforts. Here's a look at just a few of the many ways that nursing achievements have been celebrated over the past few years at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, a ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® hospital since May 2005. The hospital

• invites the Macon mayor to sign the ANA proclamation and invites all the other area hospitals to the reading and reception.
• distributes a Nurses Week memento (e.g., calculators) to all nurses.
• changes the phone message for incoming callers to feature a couple of nurses who talk about the significance of Nurses Week.
• holds a contest for the 40 schools in the local school system in which elementary students draw pictures of nurses, and middle and high school students submit essays as a way to raise awareness of who nurses are and what they do. Hospital staff pick winners and award mall gift certificates to the winners and the teacher whose students submit the most entries.
• collects "nurse stories" written by nurses on topics such as "why I became a nurse" and "making a difference." This year's theme is "what being a nurse means to me." The winner will be randomly selected from a drawing and receive a weekend for two to an area resort.
• invites area and state legislators and leaders to "walk in a nurse's shoes"-during which they spend a few hours with a nurse in a clinical area.

Source: The best practice above is printed with permission from Meryl Montgomery, RN, MSN, director of the Learning Center at the Medical Center of Central Georgia.

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