4 Ways To Spread Joy On Your Unit This Holiday

For lots of nurses, these next few days can feel like a bummer as the disappointment sets in that you're missing events, time with family, or that you're spending your time having to work instead of enjoying your favorite Christmas movie on the couch. For lots of seasoned nurses, working holidays is the norm and spending the holiday week with their work fam doesn't phase them. 

No matter where you're at going into the holiday weekend, there's one thing we know for sure: creating community on the unit, especially during the holidays, will make working a little bit sweeter and make the shift go by a little bit faster ✨

Here are a few ideas to steal to spread a little joy throughout your unit so everyone can make these next few work days or nights a bit more enjoyable.

Holiday Happy Hour:

This is something the day shift used to do on our founder Eva's old unit on Fridays. Everyone would pitch in a little something and at 5PM everyone would get a broadcast to their Vocera letting them know it was time for a "staff meeting" aka happy hour 💃🏼

Everyone would all gather in the nurses station or break room to enjoy some sparkling cider, cheese + crackers, and have a cheers celebrating Friday and the shift being almost over. 

You could spice this idea up and make it really festive for the holidays, too. Think holiday happy hour with hot chocolate, Christmas cookies, or rosemary + cranberries in your sparkling beverage for a holiday feel. Oh, and disposable champagne glasses for the vibes, too!

Getting Elf'ed: 

Grab an elf and get creative. How fun would it be to have a "unit elf" that gets moved around the unit by day shift and night shift getting into shenanigans on the floor. Think the classic "elf on the shelf" with a nursing twist! The elf could be put in a "hottub" that was really a urine hat, be caught riding a purewick, get into supplies or the med room, you name it!

We also love that this idea is a way for day and night shift to connect, make each other laugh, and encourage each other. 

ANOTHER IDEA: A fun way to get the entire hospital involved is tubing the elf to other units/departments with a little note spreading some holiday cheer or saying something you know would give them a laugh.

Holiday Lights Hospital Edition: 

Our founder Eva made this video last year around the holiday and over a million people have seen it. Grabbing some cheap festive lights and hanging them with vials from commonly used meds on the floor is a fun way to spread some cheer and have a few laughs with your coworkers while setting the mood in the nurses station.

Holiday Coffee Bar:

We love the idea of incorporating every nurse's favorite thing into holiday shifts - coffee! If you brew coffee on the unit or have K-cups, you could have everyone bring a little something:  a holiday brew, festive creamers (there's a grinch sugar cookie one from Delight that the nurses I used to work with loved!), holiday to-go cups, cookies for dunking and even whipped cream and holiday sprinkles to top off your beverage. 

Coming together in even the smallest of ways can truly be all you need to create a positive mood on the floor and make working the holidays a little more enjoyable. 

As much as we want you to feel empowered and in control of having the best holiday possible, we know that it might still be a  big disappointment to be scheduled when it feels like the rest of the world isn't. If you're working over the next few days just know that we are thinking of you, we appreciate you, and you've got this!