😷27 Gifts for Exhausted Healthcare Workers
A 2024 Gift List for the Hard-working Healthcare Workers You Love
As the end of the year nears, so do all those religious and secular traditions that include gift-giving. If you’re looking to show some love to the nurses, medical assistants, social workers, doctors, and child life experts in your life, here are a few ideas to try on.
Hard to believe this is my third annual gift list for healthcare workers!
Donation Ideas
Donations: I personally don’t want more stuff in my life. Our family has moved to making donations to charities and organizations as gifts. For my extended family, I donate to charities in their communities that help with food, housing, and family care. The Feeding America site can help you find local food banks to direct your donation.
If there are healthcare workers you love who might appreciate this style of gifting, consider the following organizations:
If you’re not in healthcare, you may feel unsure how to support the HCWs in your life. Don’t Clock Out is a mental health non-profit founded and led by healthcare workers dedicated to supporting our community through the impacts of moral distress. The group hosts community-building debriefs.
The holidays can be an especially difficult time for many of us. I certainly noticed when I was on call over Thanksgiving how much extra anxiety folks are facing, and how injuries and illnesses land differently while the days are dark and we navigate mixed messages around the holidays. Crisis Text Line is a non-profit offering free confidential 24/7 support to anyone. They rely on volunteer crisis counselors. If you’re interested in volunteering, they offer a free two-week training.
My other favorites include the Guttmacher Institute, the National Network of Abortion Funds, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and Physicians for Human Rights. Locally, I also support Project Night Night, an organization supporting the emotional and educational needs of unhoused children in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Stay Out of the Hospital
Please do whatever you can to stay healthy and out of the hospital. Serious illness around the holidays can be devastating for patients and families. Our healthcare workers are absorbing that while we try to provide great care. Protecting yourself protects us, too.
Vaccinations: If you haven’t updated your COVID and flu vaccines, please consider it. RSV vaccines are available for pregnant people, infants, and all adults ages 75 and older and adults ages 60–74 at increased risk of severe RSV (think grandparents of infants and toddlers). Pneumococcal vaccination is recommended based on age and risk factors for serious illness. People are seriously harmed by these preventable diseases. (If you’re not eligible for these vaccines due to other health conditions, please ask your primary care person what you can do to protect yourself without vaccination.)
Wash Your Hands: Travel hand sanitizer and cute soaps make great little gifts! My girlfriend gave me Magnolia Soap + Bath Cactus Bloom bar soap, and it smells divine! I haven’t tried Noshinku’s hand sanitizer, but I like spray sanitizer and the flat container looks perfect for traveling.
Masking: In crowded and/or enclosed places? Masks help reduce your exposure and the risk of your cough or cold getting someone else sick. These are also helpful if you suffer from allergies.
Wet Wipes: At work, we use a lot of baby wipes. To protect kids skin from chemical exposure, we use water wipes. It’s nice to having something handy to clean up spills and disinfect surfaces, especially when traveling.
Operating Room & Procedure Workers
Scrub Caps: The folks at Capy sent me a variety of their caps to check out. The material is soft, smooth, and breathable. Caps have buttons on the sides to hook mask elastic bands (saving the backs of your ears!). The inside includes an inner band of terry cloth to absorb sweat. They have bun caps with room for long hair and classic caps - better for folks with short hair. After looking them over, I gave these Capy caps along to some of our incredible anesthesiology residents!
Headband with Your Name on It: It’s a long-standing joke that surgeons can’t remember anesthesiologists or nurses’ names. Many folks now put their name on their head, so there are no excuses. Some folks will have their name embroidered on their scrub cap, and others use a name band that can be put over any cap. Here’s a custom embroidered name band available on Etsy.
Ring Holder Necklace: Perfect gift for anyone who can’t wear their rings on their fingers at work. This necklace is a clever way to hold a ring and keep it flat against your chest.
Relax/Destress/Bodywork
Lots of healthcare workers are walking around stressed out with back and neck pain and migraines.
Neck massage tools: I’ve had my set of smooth Chirp wheels for a few years and they are going strong. Last year, I got the Chirp Wheel XR 4" Neck & Headache - so good. I also like the Gideon Neck and Shoulder Therapeutic Self-Massage Tool Dual Trigger Point Deep Tissue Massage - this one allows me to adjust how much pressure and where I apply it easily. These wooden massage tools are easier on the planet.
Calm Strips: I got some Calm Strips this year as gifts for my work friends. I start every bioethics committee meeting with optional box breathing exercise, so the box breathing set feels right. I put one on my laptop so I can trace my breathing during the endless parade of hospital Zoom meetings.
Hydrated & Caffeinated
Ethically Sourced Coffee: Check out Grounds for Peace, Counter Culture, Equal Exchange Coop, or Conscious Coffee.
Herbal Tea: I love coffee, but I’m committed not to drinking any after noon unless I have an all-night case ahead of me. So I keep a stash of caffeine-free teas on hand. I have a lot of tea in bulk (chamomile, rose, lavender, and mint) and got these little metal tea strainers for single cups.
Burnout Coffee Mug: I pour my super hot coffee in a Burnout Coffee Mug, and the heat-sink design gets it to a drinkable temperature almost immediately and then keeps it at that temperature for hours.
Skin Hydration
Lotion Bars: I first found these Love and Leche lotion bars at my local knitting shop. They are soft, smell herbally devine, and are TSA travel-friendly. I keep a tin in my work backpack because they also don’t spill.
Sweetgrass and Sage Lotion: I’m allergic to lots of scented things, so I love finding herbal smells and quality ingredients. These lotions are made by women on the Blackfeet Indian reservation from plants harvested in and around Glacier National Park. The ingredients are very simple, so if the lotion separates, just give it a good shake.
Chapstick: I’m one of those people who always has a chapstick on hand. I’ve got chapstick in my car, backpack, junk drawer, and purse. I keep a tin of Smith's Rose and Mandarin Lip Balm right by my keyboard. Poppy & Pout’s lip bundles make great gifts. Their delicious flavors are super mellow.
Try or Stay Sober
Being a healthcare worker is stressful, and there’s a lot of trauma. Lots of us, unfortunately, rely on alcohol and other substances for coping. Thankfully, more folks are trying out being sober and sober-ish.
If you or someone you love is thinking of a sober holiday, check out:
Alcohol-Free Spirits: Ritual and Seedlip both make tasty alcohol-free ingredients, and there are tons of other options.
Mocktail Recipe Book: Dry: Delicious Handcrafted Cocktails and Other Clever Concoctions―Seasonal, Refreshing, Alcohol-Free
Stay Safe
Delete Me: Healthcare workers are at risk for stalking and violence. Help keep their home address secure despite data brokers selling all our info.
Ear Plugs: As an anesthesiologist, I gotta protect my hearing so I can hear all the beeps and boops in the OR. There’s a lot of noise pollution in the OR, so I recently got a set of Loop Switch 2 earplugs to dull some sounds in the OR without impeding my ability to hear important things - like mumbling surgeons. For post-call mornings, I sleep way better with dense earplugs to block my hypervigilance. I have tiny ears, so I use Mack’s Slim Fit Earplugs.
Stay warm
Heated Vest: I love my heated vest in the winter. (*MRI tech friends - the vest has a battery, so don’t wear into the MRI scanner)
Rechargeable Pocket Warmers: I get cold easily, so I keep rechargeable hand warmers in my backpack to bring to the OR. I plop these into my scrub pockets to give me a little extra warmth. These palm-sized avocado-shaped hand warmers come in a pack of two that click together.
Cozy socks: Especially mild to moderate compression socks for those of us on our feet most of the time
Cabin Clogs: These indoor warm and cozy clogs by Manitobah (Indigenous-owned and operated) are perfect for keeping my toes warm in the house. These are well made to last.
Creativity
Low-Cost Writing Workshops for Healthcare Workers: For $25 you can spend a little over an hour with Laurel at Writing Medicine, who has been teaching writing workshops for healthcare workers for years and years. (I guest teach these sometimes, too. ❤️)
Scrivener App: I’ve used Scrivener for years to organize my more complex writing. Folks use it to write novels to academic papers. It’s very flexible.
Wendy Mac’s Draw Together Grown-Ups Table: Get a subscription to the Grown-Ups Table and reclaim your permission to be creative. Every prompt it fun and freeing and folks in the community share their work.
Some of these are new, and some are repeats from previous years - I like what I like!
Thanks for reading! What gifts do you recommend for healthcare workers? I can’t wait to hear.
Beeps and boops!
Canned soups / chilis & gift card to fave takeout place (or even Kroger) are all good for the "too tired to cook" moments.