On Sep 25, 6:28 am, Crobina wrote:
Hello,
I currently have twins (a boy and a girl) that are in the NICU. They
have been there for a month and will most likely be there for another
month or so. My wife and I wanted to do something for the nurses in
the NICU as they are wonderful. Not only do they help take care of
the kids, but they help support us as well. My questions a

1) Is a gift appropriate? It would not be individual in nature, but
to
the group as a whole, split into two - one for the day shift and one
for the night shift, since so many different nurses have taken care
of
them. - Plus I know that even the ones that did not watch our kids
would do the same job.
2) What types of things (if you were a NICU nurse) would you
like to get? We were thinking food (like gourmet popcorn), fruit
(harry & davids), gourmet snacks, cookies, and the like. Is this a
good idea?

If you have any other thoughts or suggestions, please let me know.
Thank you for your help.


Ok, so I have experience on both ends--had a baby who was in the NICU
and I'm an RN!

Gifts are appropriate as long as they are not individual OR if they
are, that they are less than $10-15 each. Many hospitals have policies
on teh accepting of individual gifts for their staff. Food is always
good. We nurses will eat just about anything brought in and will eat
it fairly quickly. While chocolate is always appreciated, the best
stuff that we've had brought in was either homemade or fruit basket/
fruit & veggie platters with muffins/bagels, etc. I think you have
some great ideas up above.

For myself as a parent, we send a little card saying thank you each
year on his birthday that includes a particular photo of Alexander (we
had one photo we used as a thank you when we left--pretty distinctive
B&W shot of him in the bilibed with sunglasses my dad bought him) as
an infant, and an update photo from now. The photo reminds them of
who he was, and we have visited a few times with preemie clothing to
donate to the hospital--even the new nurses know who he is based on
that one photo. :-) When we left, we made a big card for the nurses
and doctors with that photo on it and a footprint of Xander's as a
"signature" with a big plate of Costco muffins and several large bags
of chocolates (it was near Halloween). One set of food for day shift
and one for night shift (they do 12 hours there), plus another card
and 3 sets of food for the pediatric floor where we spent 8 days (they
did 8 hour shifts there).

HTH!

Sharalyn
mom to Alexander James