Hello all,
I’m trying to stay away from forums because I’m thinking my stress levels are not helpful when considering matters but I need some advice.
There are two palliative care nurses that I will want to get gifts for soon. They have cared for my friend with exceptional empathy, understanding and I would say some form of love.
Some of the nurses treat him like a body, he can’t move anything but his head and he has little control of that. He can’t speak but uses a tablet that tracks his eyes to type.
Some of the nurses will keep his tablet out of his eyeline but get angry with him when he’s indicating he needs something but can’t tell him. If he asks for a position change they tell him he’s fine. They’ve even cancelled his call bell because they have told him his didn’t need to be shifted up in bed, and he keeps calling to get a nurse who will do it anyway. (Most will, but cancelling his call bell means they won’t be given the chance).
There are a couple of horrible nurses, some average, pleasant nurses, some nurses who are fine but he can give them a hard time because he gets frustrated too.
But there are two nurses who take time to communicate with him (which saves time and aggravation later) and treat him like the 41 year old man he is, instead of like 100 year old with dementia. His mind is fine, his body is just breaking down and ending his life.
I promise I googled this before coming here. Several times. I only find gift ideas for nurses that seem to be far too personal, as if it’s a family member or friend, not a caregiver.
One of the nurses I want to buy for is a young woman, early twenties, she likes movies but I’m not sure if she goes to the theatre to watch them. She’s sweet and funny and kind.
The other nurse is a 56 year old woman, she’s no nonsense, quite quiet, but capable and empathetic and a strong, kind woman.
I’ll get these gifts for when he’s gone, which was meant to be a while ago. No one expected him to live this long and he feels as though they are fed up with him. I want to make sure these two nurses know how awesome they are. We have both told them, but beside writing a message saying so on a card, do you have any ideas?
Besides gift cards. Although I suspect that will be the thing. Or any ideas on questions I could try to casually ask them to find out what may be good? It would seem weird to ask, “so do you like going out for dinner?” So I could get a dinner gift card. Maybe I could ask favourite restaurants.
Anyway, if any of you have any ideas, please let me know.
Thank you!