Shout out! Hey Poconos!!!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
It is actually against nursing home regulations for a staff member to receive any kind of gratuity from a patient or a patient's family. A nursing home can be fined heavily if such activity is discovered. Most nursing homes terminate employees for accepting gifts of any kind from the patients or their families.
Mom called me from the hospital today and asked that I go buy something very nice for the activities directer and mom's favorite nurse. Once again I explained to Mom that this was against the rules. "I don't care about the rules. I want them to have a gift from me to show how much I care!" I explained to her that they will lose their jobs if they accept gifts from us.
It is such a difficult position in which to be. Part of my job at the nursing home was to navigate the financial waters for the residents and their families. Of course they were appreciative. They were often hurt when I had to refuse their gifts.
What can you do? You can do something that the entire staff can enjoy. Send pizzas. Bake cookies. Give each nurse's station one of those giant boxes of chocolates. My husband's grocery store sells those huge tins of flavored popcorn for under $10 a can. Those are always a hit.
Just don't put an individual in the awkward position of choosing their jobs over your feelings.
I suggested to my mother today that she write her gratitude in a card. We'll see what she does.
1 comments:
I've gone to the Dollar Store, bought a pretty gift bag (someone will always want that too) and filled it up with a load of goodies. That way I can get in the sweets, nuts, raisins, granola, cookies and everything else I can find that is edible and suits different tastes. Everything is in a separate bag so folks can nab one to eat when they have time. One formidable head nurse even stopped me as I was leaving for the day to thank me. Seems there had been so many emergencies no one had time to eat and that was the day I had dropped off my bag at the nurse's station in the morning. She said they had munched on the stuff all day as they ran the halls and the timing was wonderful. I was so glad to hear this, and from her it was practically a Medal of Honor.
Post a Comment