The holiday season is the perfect time to treat yourself and your coworkers. With things looking a little different in hospitals this holiday season, we wanted to put together some tips on how to bring treats into the break room and a few recipes to boost holiday spirit for yourself and for your fellow nurses.
Etiquette for Bringing Treats into the Break Room
- See if your hospital has any rules or regulations regarding bringing in shared food. This is applicable to any place of work, beyond travel nurses. If your boss says to not pass out treats, abide by those rules.
- Respect everyone’s religions and traditions. Try to not focus your treats on one particular holiday, like Christmas, for example. It’s fine to bring in cookies but refrain from baking them in the shape of a Christmas tree.
- Perhaps the most important question you can ask your coworkers before bringing in treats is if anyone has any allergies. A nut allergy is one of the most common, so a good rule of thumb is to generally avoid recipes that use nuts while bringing food into a common area. Use your best judgment, and if you have the ability to ask coworkers about any allergies, do so before bringing in any food to share. Label what you are bringing in, so coworkers know what they’re biting into.
- Don’t bring anything smelly. Although tuna finger sandwiches may sound like a good idea, particularly potent smelling fish is more likely to cause aromatic issues than anything.
- Consider how messy your treat is. Individually wrapped bags of chocolate may be a better idea than bringing in a cake that everyone has to slice. The easier to grab and consume, the better.
- Clean up afterward (and yes, you can accept help from your coworkers!). Nobody likes a messy breakroom. Make sure to clean up after your shift, and if applicable, store the treats in a safe area if people would like to eat them later on.
Easy Treat Example
Pretzels and rolos are a great, low-budget treat option that can be made in large batches. If you’d like to personalize them, throw them in a small treat bag with a tag with the person’s name on it. Or, a small bag with a tag that boasts a motivational phrase to cheer up your fellow travel nurses would work just as well.
- Purchase your choice of pretzels, like Snyder’s snap pretzels, and a bag of rolos.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place a row of pretzels. You don’t need much space in between them.
- Then, place one rolo in the center of each pretzel. Bake for roughly 2-3 minutes, or until you see the rolo start to slightly melt on top of the pretzel.
- Voila! Package as you please.
Extra Recipes
Basic Sugar Cookies (recipe from TheNew York Times)
Homemade Rice Krispy Treats (recipe from Shugary Sweets)
Gluten-Free Snowball Cookies (recipe from Allergylicious)
Vegan Peppermint Black Bean Brownies (recipe from Minimalist Baker)
2 Ingredient Dark Chocolate Truffles (recipe from Minimalist Baker)
Coconut Macaroons (recipe from the Huffington Post)
Holiday Popcorn Tins (from the Popcorn Factory)
Ready to get in on the holiday hospital treats? Find your next travel nursing placement at Stability Healthcare!
